Still the Same Act: Update — September 30

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. Tuesday’s inbox was empty. Wednesday’s Cabinet finally got a folder.

Where things stood
As of my September 29 update, Araghchi had left New York still waiting on a formal U.S. answer, Trump had yelled “NOTHING” at Axios on Truth Social, Ghalibaf was threatening infrastructure, and Qatar was still carrying notes. Trail back to “Still the Same Act” and the April opener “The Act is Getting Old.”

What’s new today

1. The formal U.S. response finally landed
Wednesday in Tehran, government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani told state media that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the American side’s proposal — the official U.S. response — to President Masoud Pezeshkian at the Cabinet meeting. What’s inside the envelope? They won’t say. Rejection? Counter? Softener? Silence. Pezeshkian’s public line: keep working toward a “win-win.” After a week of Saturday stage-no’s and Tuesday empty deadlines, at least the paperwork showed up.
Sources: Fortune / AP, Sep 30, 2026 · 9:40 AM ET; Boston Globe / AP, Sep 30, 2026; CBS live updates, Sep 30, 2026

2. Sequencing — not the menu — is the fight
A briefed official told Reuters that Araghchi got the U.S. feedback from Qatari mediators in Doha on Tuesday night, heading home from New York. The document in circulation describes a seven-day trust-building ladder meant to get both sides back to an enhanced version of the June memorandum — including concrete nuclear steps. The disagreement, this official said, is over the order of those steps, not the pieces themselves. Iran wants American relief first; Washington wants nuclear moves first. Same act. Different stage directions.
Sources: Al Arabiya / Reuters, Sep 30, 2026; CBS citing Reuters, Sep 30, 2026

3. Trump Wednesday: “We blow them up or make a deal”
Asked how he plans to deal with Iranian officials he’s called “crazy,” President Trump told reporters Wednesday: “Maybe you blow them up.” Then the binary: “We have to make that decision: We blow them up or make a deal. But the time is coming. It’s going to end very soon, one way or another.” Diplomats pass folders in Doha. The Commander-in-Chief is still auditioning both finales.
Sources: CBS News, Sep 30, 2026 · 5:57 PM ET

4. Economic squeeze while the folder circulates
While Qatar shuttles texts, Treasury on Tuesday hit ten individuals and entities under “Operation Economic Outcast” for allegedly feeding Iran’s military supply chain. Iran’s rial punched a new record low Tuesday — more than 2.5 million to the dollar, after 2.2 million on September 2. Trump’s Tuesday Oval Office read: Iran is “failing very badly, very badly,” war “over with very, very soon” — even as he’s also said it may run past the November midterms. Pressure track and talk track. Same week.
Sources: Fortune / AP, Sep 30, 2026; Boston Globe / AP, Sep 30, 2026

MOAM’s take
Same act, Wednesday night — with a new prop. For days Tehran said it was waiting on an “official” answer while Trump rejected the plan on camera. Now the official answer exists… and nobody will read it out loud. Reuters’ briefed source says the fight isn’t what’s on the menu — it’s who eats first. Down here on the North Shore we know a dinner reservation that never seats isn’t a reservation. Strength still wins. A folder without a sequence isn’t a deal — it’s another scene change.

What to watch
Whether Tehran answers the answer with a real counter-schedule through Doha; whether “sequencing” becomes a ladder both sides can climb or the same June deadlock with better stationery; whether Trump’s “blow them up or make a deal” line stays rhetoric or becomes an order; and whether Brent / Hormuz traffic keep scoring a different game than the press conferences.

MOAM Out.

TDS Watch: Maddow says Trump cleared A.I. robots to kill us

Not for nuthin'…. But….. you know the syndrome has left the clinic when a national cable host tells America the sitting president “moved explicitly to make sure no human can interfere with robots’ ability to kill us.”

What was said

On Late Night with Seth Meyers (taped Sep 28; aired into the Sep 29–30 window; transcribed and covered by NewsBusters on Wednesday, Sep 30, 2026), MS NOW host Rachel Maddow sat for the usual anti-Trump gripe session — then escalated past “authoritarian” into killer-robot apocalypse.

First the typecasting, exact words:

“Well—I can't speak to that. But I can say one thing, which is he's a type. Right? He is—and I don't just mean, like, ‘New York real estate scam artist.’ I mean, like, he's a type. He's an authoritarian guy. He's Blond Berlusconi. You know what I mean?”

Then Meyers asked whether Trump is “the wrong guy to solve A.I.” Maddow answered by citing a Washington Post report on U.N. autonomous-weapons talks — and turned diplomacy into Skynet:

“I will say two things. First of all, The Washington Post just reported this week that Trump administration lawyers made sure to scuttle the international discussions that would have said that A.I. programs aren't allowed to kill people with military weapon systems without humans checking first on what they're trying to kill. So, Trump moved explicitly to make sure no human can interfere with robots' ability to kill us.”

“So, it's, like, been hard, I think, to imagine, ‘How is it that the A.I. Apocalypse would happen?’ ‘How is it that A.I. might kill us?’ Well, the really easy thing to imagine is them using military weapons to kill us, and Trump is intervening to make sure they can.”

Sources: NewsBusters, Sep 30, 2026 (full transcript + clip) · Washington Post, Sep 26, 2026 (underlying U.N. talks story)

Context (not spin)

Argue lethal-autonomous-weapons policy all day. The Washington Post did report that U.S. and Russian diplomats stripped some human-review language from a non-binding U.N. draft on AI weapons earlier this month. That is a real diplomatic fight over treaty text — the kind sober people debate with footnotes.

What Maddow did on late night is not footnotes. She jumped from “lawyers edited a Geneva draft” to “Trump moved explicitly to make sure no human can interfere with robots' ability to kill us and “Trump is intervening to make sure they can” deliver the “A.I. Apocalypse.” Blond Berlusconi was already the night’s mood music. Killer robots clearing human interference is the diagnosis stamp.

You can dislike the administration’s Geneva posture. You can want stricter human-in-the-loop rules. Show the draft language. Cite DoD Directive 3000.09. What you don’t get not if you want anybody outside the green room to take the “A.I. safety” lecture seriously — is to tell a comedy audience the president is ensuring robots can kill us. That’s not arms-control analysis. That’s the ward with a teleprompter.

MOAM’s diagnosis

Severity: TERMINAL.

When “authoritarian guy / Blond Berlusconi” is just the warm-up for robots' ability to kill us” and “A.I. Apocalypse… Trump is intervening to make sure they can, we are past spicy cable punditry and into clinical territory. Treaty drafts can be too soft. Presidents can be wrong on AI. Neither requires a national host to sell Skynet as the White House briefing. Down here in Marblehead we still know the difference between a Geneva markup and a late-night end-of-days monologue. Save the arms-control debate for the diplomats. Save the robot apocalypse for the movies.

MOAM Out.

Woodworking Tip of the Day: Spiling Planks

A curved hull doesn't care what your tape measure thinks….. Today's tip: spiling planks — take the shape off the boat with a batten and a compass, then put that shape onto flat stock you can actually cut.

Why it matters: On a Chamberlain Marblehead gunning dory (or any traditional planked boat), the next plank isn't a rectangle. It widens amidships and tucks toward the ends. WoodenBoat and Greg Rössel teach the classic fix: nail a thin spiling batten into the opening, swing fixed-compass arcs from the station points onto that batten, then reverse the process on your cedar (or whatever stock) and connect the dots with a fairing batten. Lost Art Press (Walker & Tolpin) spells out the geometry — same divider setting, arcs back from the recorded marks, intersections recreate the original points. Guessing from a tape is how you burn a good board.

Materials

• Spiling batten — same length as the plank-to-be, thinner and narrower than the opening (thin lauan / plywood strips stapled with a scab or butt strap work well)
• Planking stock laid flat on the bench
• Scrap board or a clear spot on the boat / bench for the "sacred circle"
• Optional: hot glue or small tacks / staples to hold the batten without twisting it

Tools

• Compass or dividers (fixed setting for the whole plank)
• Pencil
• Fairing / marking batten (straight-grained, bends evenly)
• Bandsaw (or handsaw) and plane for final fit

Steps

1. Make the batten. Cut (or staple together) a thin strip the full length of the plank gap but narrower than the opening. WoodenBoat builders often use lauan strips joined with a scab or butt strap.
2. Tack it in place — no twist, no edge-set. Start amidships and work toward each end, as if spreading fabric. Forcing the batten edgewise or twisting it into the gap writes a lie into every mark that follows.
3. Lock one compass setting. Choose a span that reaches every station along the plank. Draw a "sacred circle" on the boat, the bench, or scrap — not on the spiling batten — so you can restore the setting if the dividers bump (WoodenBoat).
4. Swing arcs at the stations. From each reference point (usually frame centerlines on the upper and lower edges of the gap), put one compass leg on the point and draw an arc onto the batten. Keep that same setting for every mark.
5. Transfer to stock. Pull the batten, clamp it flat on your planking stock, check the sacred circle, and reverse the process. Walker & Tolpin: from each recorded arc, swing two small arcs with the same radius — their intersection is the original station point. Connect those points with a fairing batten.
6. Cut and fit. Bandsaw outside the line, then plane to a sweet fit. The batten also helps you place the shape efficiently on the board so you don't waste stock (Rössel).

MOAM's shop note: Biggest miss is changing the compass setting halfway through — or "helping" the batten with a little edge-set so it sits prettier. Both turn a fair plank into a puzzle piece that almost fits. Second miss: drawing the sacred circle on the batten itself, then confusing it with a spiling mark. Keep that circle off the pattern. Joggle sticks and spiling blocks work too, but the compass method is the one the books call more accurate — and it's the one that matches how we think about lofted lines on a Marblehead dory.

MOAM Out.

Boston Sports Morning Report — Wednesday, Sept. 30

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. Elimination night in the Bronx, and the B's already got a shutout in the books.

Short version: Sox stare down a must-win Wild Card Game 2 at Yankee Stadium at 8; Bruins opened with a 3–0 blanking of the Rangers; Pats rest until Buffalo; Celtics still on the preseason clock.

New England Patriots

• Yesterday: No game
• Today: No game
• Next: Sun, Oct. 4 — 1:00 PM ET @ Buffalo Bills (CBS)
• Standings: 1-2 3rd in AFC East (Jets also 1-2 sit 2nd on tiebreak); Buffalo 3-0 leads by two

Still quiet after Jacksonville. Next stop is Orchard Park on Sunday at 1 on CBS — undefeated Bills waiting.

Boston Red Sox

• Yesterday: L 9–0 @ New York Yankees, AL Wild Card Game 1
• Today: Wed, Sept. 30 — 8:00 PM ET — @ New York Yankees, AL Wild Card Game 2 (NBC / Peacock)
• Next: Thu, Oct. 1 Wild Card Game 3 at Yankee Stadium if necessary (NBC)
• Standings: 87-75 · 3rd in AL East · AL Wild Card series 0–1

Backs against the wall. Sonny Gray gets the ball opposite Max Fried. One win keeps October alive — stay loud.

Boston Celtics

• Yesterday / Today: No games
• Next (preseason): Thu, Oct. 8 7:00 PM ET @ Cleveland Cavaliers
• Regular-season opener: Tue, Oct. 20 3:00 PM ET — @ Detroit Pistons
• Status: Preseason / 2026-27 not started. Last season: 56-26, 2nd in the East.

Still quiet on the parquet. Preseason tip is just over a week out.

Boston Bruins

• Yesterday: W 3–0 vs New York Rangers (season opener) — Minten, Peterka, Kastelic; Swayman shutout
• Today: No game
• Next: Fri, Oct. 2 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Winnipeg Jets (ESPN+)
• Standings: 1-0-0 · 1st in Atlantic (tied) · 2 points

Opening Night delivered. Three goals in 75 seconds late and Swayman blanked the Rangers. Road trip to Winnipeg Friday.

That's the Wednesday board, folks. Sox need one in the Bronx tonight. Stay loud.

MOAM Out.

Still the Same Act: Update — September 29

Not for nuthin'. But….. Tuesday was supposed to be the day Qatar whispered Washington’s answer. The suitcase left New York. The answer didnt.

Where things stood
Monday’s shuttle finally rolled — U.S. and Iranian officials spoke separately with mediators, an amended seven-day text stayed on the table, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Qatar had “ideas” for how Iran’s conditions get met. He packed for Tehran and hoped for Tuesday’s official U.S. response. AP heard slight progress.” That was the score in my September 28 update on “Still the Same Act” — trail back to “The Act is Getting Old.”

What’s new today

1. Trump: “I offered them NOTHING”
Late Monday night — after our last update — President Trump hit Truth Social over an Axios report that he’d offered Iran sanctions relief and frozen funds for nuclear concessions. Quote: “This is untrue. I offered them NOTHING!” He called the story a “HOAX and demanded Axios withdraw it. Same public posture as Saturdays rejection. Different envelope. Same stamp.
Sources: Iran International, Sep 29, 2026; Al Jazeera, Sep 29, 2026

2. Tuesday’s deadline — plane gone, answer still pending
Araghchi left New York on Tuesday after telling state broadcaster IRIB he expected Washington’s official response through the mediators by the end of the day. As of Tuesday’s reporting, that formal answer still hadn’t landed. On flexibility? He shut the door: I categorically state that there has been no change in Iran’s positions. Only the Strait is under discussion; Hormuz reopen still hinges on Iran’s conditions first. Boarding pass used. Deadline unused.
Sources: Press TV / IRIB, Sep 29, 2026; Al Jazeera, Sep 29, 2026

3. Ghalibaf: if our security isn’t guaranteed, no infrastructure stays safe
While the diplomats waited, parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf raised the temperature on state TV. Quote: “In a region where we cannot sell oil, no one else will sell oil either; or if our security is not guaranteed, no infrastructure will remain safe.” Thats not a softener for Qatar’s “ideas.” That’s Tehran reminding the neighborhood what the leverage looks like when the answer doesn’t arrive on schedule.
Sources: CNA (AFP), Sep 29, 2026; Iran International, Sep 29, 2026

4. Qatar keeps shuttling — IRGC says Hormuz still isn’t “open
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari confirmed Tuesday that Doha is still relaying messages between Washington and Tehran and that efforts are “focused on building common ground.” He also told Iran to take a clear non-aggression line toward Gulf neighbors. Separately, IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi dismissed U.S. claims the strait is open: sneaking “a few hundred barrels… under the cover of darkness” with transponders off isn’t an open waterway — a real one, he said, needs at least 125 vessels a day and 20 million barrels. Two scoreboards. Same strait.
Sources: Anadolu Agency, Sep 29, 2026; CNA (AFP), Sep 29, 2026

MOAM’s take
Same act, Tuesday night. Araghchi wanted an official answer by sundown. He got a boarding pass and another day of “messages.” Trump said NOTHING on Truth Social loud enough that nobody can pretend Saturday’s rejection was just a negotiating costume. Ghalibaf answered the empty inbox with an infrastructure threat. Qatar is still carrying notes. Down here on the North Shore we know when the curtain call keeps getting postponed. Strength still wins. Deadlines without answers aren’t diplomacy — they’re the same show with a later showtimes.

What to watch
Whether Qatar ever delivers a real, on-the-record U.S. response Araghchi will admit to; whether “building common ground” changes Iran-first sequencing or just the adjectives; whether Ghalibaf’s infrastructure line stays rhetoric or becomes a target list; and whether oil / Hormuz flows keep writing a different scoreboard than the press conferences.

MOAM Out.

TDS Watch: Scott Galloway calls Trump a “stain,” admits TDS cost him 40% of his stocks

You know the syndrome has hopped the rails when a tenured NYU marketing professor calls the sitting president “a f---ing idiot and a stain on the American experience” — then, in the same breath, admits the last time he let Trump feelings run his brokerage account it cost him roughly 40% of his liquid stock net worth.

What was said

On the Monday Office Hours edition of The Prof G Pod (aired for the Sep 28–29 cycle; covered by Fox News on Tuesday, Sep 29, 2026), NYU Stern marketing professor and media regular Scott Galloway took a listener question about whether the American economy feels like a “ticking time bomb.” Fair game to talk valuations, diversification, don’t-time-the-market. Galloway went somewhere else — and then confessed the receipt.

Exact words, as reported by Fox News Digital from the podcast:

“I think the president is a f---ing idiot and a stain on the American experience and that the grand sum of all of these head up your a-- economic and foreign policy decisions will eventually crash this economy or result in long-term structural damage that will take decades if not generations to repair.”

Then the self-diagnosis, same monologue:

“So when he was elected in 2016, I sold all my stocks. That was stupid. The market ripped for the next year. There was so much insecurity about him actually winning that the fear had been priced in. Stocks ripped up.”

“So you could argue, at least notionally, that decision cost me 40% of my liquid net worth in stocks.”

And the label he put on it himself:

“Probably my biggest investment mistake was the emotional reaction I had to the 2016 election of Donald Trump.”

Sources: Fox News Digital, Sep 29, 2026 · Prof G Pod / Office Hours transcript

Context (not spin)

Galloway is not a random reply guy. He’s a tenured professor, a bestselling business author, and a podcast host who tells other people how to think about money. On that same show he correctly notes that trying to guess market tops is dangerous and that most of the economy “just grinds on” regardless of who is tweeting. Good advice. Then he immediately models the opposite: vulgar personal abuse of the sitting president, a forecast of generational economic ruin, and a reminder that the last time he acted on the same feelings he paid a 40% tuition bill in foregone stock wealth plus New York capital-gains taxes.

You can dislike Trump’s economic policy. You can dislike his foreign policy. You can short the market if you want. Argue the data. Show the chart. What you don’t get — not if you want anybody outside the blue-check faculty lounge to take the “don’t let emotions drive the portfolio” lecture seriously — is to call the president a “stain on the American experience” while waving the receipt for the last time the syndrome emptied your account. That’s not analysis. That’s the ward with a Bloomberg terminal.

MOAM’s diagnosis

Severity: ACUTE.

When the same breath that says “don’t time politics with your brokerage” also says “f---ing idiot,” “stain on the American experience,” and “decades if not generations to repair” — and the speaker already admitted the 2016 version of that feeling cost him 40% — we are past spicy punditry and into clinical territory. Markets can be frothy. Presidents can be wrong. Neither requires a tenured brand to torch his own “stay invested” sermon with a bathroom-wall insult and a prophecy of national decline. Down here in Marblehead we still know the difference between a risk warning and a temper tantrum with a ticker symbol. Save the portfolio lecture for the portfolio. Save the name-calling for the group chat.

MOAM Out.

Woodworking Tip of the Day: Cambered Clamping Cauls

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. a flat caul looks honest until you clamp both ends — then the middle bows up and your dado, scarf, or panel joint starves….. Today’s tip: make a cambered clamping caul so end clamps drive pressure where clamps can’t reach.

Why it matters: Fine Woodworking (Gary Rogowski) spells it out — ordinary flat stock bows when you load the ends; a slight crown (camber) flattens under those same clamps and pushes into the middle. Asa Christiana’s case work uses the same trick across shelf dadoes in case sides. On a Chamberlain Marblehead gunning dory, that same caul keeps scarf joints and laminated stems / keel stock flat while epoxy cures. One stick of fir, two clamps, even glue-line pressure.

Materials

• Ordinary fir construction lumber (less likely to mar hardwood than dense hardwood cauls)
• A 2×4, ripped roughly in half for caul stock
• Useful lengths about 16″ and 24″ for most cabinet / case work; cut longer for wide panels
• Optional: wax or packing tape on the caul face so glue doesn’t stick

Tools

• Tablesaw or bandsaw (rip the 2×4; cut to length)
• Handplane (blend the camber; knock off sharp corners)
• Bar or pipe clamps — one at each end of the caul
• Straightedge or dry-fit scrap to check pressure before glue

Steps

1. Rip and cut stock. Rip a fir 2×4 roughly in half. Cut cauls about 16″ or 24″ long for typical case work; go longer when the panel or joint spans wider (Rogowski).
2. Lay out the camber. Mark the midpoint as the high spot. From that center, taper each end down about ⅛″ to ¼″ — that drop at the ends is the camber (Rogowski).
3. Plane the blend. Handplane a smooth crown from the high middle down to both ends. Knock off sharp corners that could dig into the work.
4. Orient the face. Put the convex (high) face toward the workpiece. Flat or concave face down is the common miss — you’ll recreate the flat-caul bow problem.
5. Clamp the ends only. Set clamps at both ends of the caul. As they close, the camber flattens and drives pressure into the middle — across a mid-case dado, a scarf glue-up, or a panel that needs to stay flat.
6. Dry-fit, then glue. Test pressure on a dry joint first. Too much curve → plane the middle flatter. Not enough mid-span squeeze → increase the end taper a hair and try again (Rogowski). Then glue for real.

MOAM’s shop note: Biggest mistake is putting the flat face down — then you’re back to a bowing bar that lifts in the middle. Second mistake is over-cambering: a monster crown can dent soft stock or refuse to flatten before you over-clamp. Start in the ⅛″–¼″ end-drop range, dry-fit, and sneak up on it. Wax or tape the caul face so tomorrow’s cleanup isn’t chiseling fir off your case side.

MOAM Out.

Boston Sports Morning Report — Tuesday, Sept. 29

 

Not for nuthin'…. But….. October just showed up on Causeway and in the Bronx on the same night.

Short version: Sox open the Wild Card in Yankee Stadium at 8; Bruins drop the puck on Opening Night at the Garden at 8; Pats lick wounds and look at Buffalo; Celtics still on the preseason clock.

New England Patriots

• Yesterday: No game
• Today: No game
• Next: Sun, Oct. 4 — 1:00 PM ET — @ Buffalo Bills (CBS)
• Standings: 1-2 · 3rd in AFC East (Jets also 1-2 sit 2nd on tiebreak); Buffalo 3-0 leads by two

Quiet after that Jacksonville beatdown. The next test is Orchard Park next Sunday at 1 on CBS — 3-0 Bills waiting.

Boston Red Sox

• Yesterday: No game — regular season finished 87-75
• Today: Tue, Sept. 29 — 8:00 PM ET — @ New York Yankees, AL Wild Card Game 1 (NBC / Peacock)
• Next: Wed, Sept. 30 — 8:00 PM ET — WC Game 2 at Yankee Stadium (NBC / Peacock); Game 3 Thu Oct. 1 if necessary
• Standings: 87-75 · 3rd in AL East · AL Wild Card #5

Playoff baseball is back, and it’s the Yankees again — best-of-three, all in the Bronx. Payton Tolle gets the ball in Game 1. Stay loud.

Boston Celtics

• Yesterday / Today: No games
• Next (preseason): Thu, Oct. 8 — 7:00 PM ET — @ Cleveland Cavaliers
• Regular-season opener: Tue, Oct. 20 — 3:00 PM ET — @ Detroit Pistons
• Status: Preseason / 2026-27 not started. Last season: 56-26, 2nd in the East.

Still quiet on the parquet. Preseason tip is a little over a week out.

Boston Bruins

• Yesterday: No game
• Today (regular-season opener): Tue, Sept. 29 — 8:00 PM ET — vs New York Rangers (ESPN)
• Next: Fri, Oct. 2 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Winnipeg Jets
• Status: Opening Night. Last season: 45-27-10.

Real hockey is here. Rangers at TD Garden, 8 on ESPN. Don’t miss Opening Night.

That’s the Tuesday board, folks. Sox and B’s both under the lights at 8. Stay loud.

MOAM Out.

Canada Import Ban: Real Leverage or Midterm Theater?

This is catching the MOAM's attention today…..

At 12:01 a.m. this morning, the United States slammed the door on nearly $1 billion of Canadian imports. Beer, wine, whisky, cider and the rest of the liquor cabinet. Whey and other dairy byproducts. Molasses. And motorcycles, including those Can-Am three-wheelers you see on summer roads.

How did we get here? Over the summer, the White House dusted off a Great Depression-era law to slap 50% tariffs on about $20 billion of Canadian goods. Ottawa answered dollar for dollar. Today's ban is the punishment for answering back.

Let's be fair to the President's side of the ledger. Canada's dairy walls are real. Ottawa has fenced out American milk with quotas and sky-high over-quota tariffs for decades. And when most provinces yanked American bourbon and wine off their liquor store shelves, that wasn't a tariff. That was a boycott. You don't have to love this fight to admit Canada threw punches too.

The numbers, though, tell you what kind of fight this is. The American Action Forum pegs the ban at about $967 million, based on 2025 imports. Roughly 87% of that is alcohol. Against $880 billion in yearly two-way trade, the AP calls it "barely a ripple." One Holland & Knight trade lawyer says the 50% tariffs were already acting as a "de facto ban" on most of this stuff.

So who feels it? Not Ottawa. Canada's trade office shrugged this morning and said it's focused on "diversifying our partnerships abroad." Prime Minister Carney is courting the European Union, India and even China. And BRP says most of this season's Can-Am Spyders and Canyons already shipped, so the real pinch lands next year, on American dealers.

Meanwhile, the President told reporters Monday the Canadians are "gonna come in and they're gonna say, 'Sir, we are sorry.'" Maybe. That same trade lawyer expects the standoff to run months, not weeks. And renewing USMCA, the deal Trump himself once called the most balanced in history, just slid further onto thin ice.

Here's where it gets local. Canada is New England's largest trading partner. Massachusetts brings in roughly $10.6 billion of Canadian goods a year, about a quarter of all our imports. Vermont's governor says the summer tariffs "immediately shut down" the stream of Canadian visitors. Our package stores, cafés and small shops don't get a vote in Washington or Ottawa. They just get a thinner shelf and a higher invoice.

And timing matters. Massachusetts heating oil just hit $6.15 a gallon, up 74% from a year ago. The head of the state's fuel dealers' group says truckers are "up in arms" over diesel at $8-plus. Banning Canadian beer and protein-powder whey doesn't take a dime off those bills. Energy, by the way, was left off the tariff list. That tells you Washington knows exactly where the real pain would be.

So the MOAM's question: leverage, or midterm theater? Leverage means the other side has a reason to fold. Five weeks before Election Day, a ban the numbers call a ripple, aimed at a neighbor busy lining up new customers, looks more like a show for the cameras than a win you'll feel at the register.

Stand up to Canada on dairy? Sure. But bring home a deal. North Shore voters will judge this at the checkout line, not the podium.

MOAM Out.

Sources

• AP via Boston Globe: "From motorcycles to booze, US ban on $1 billion worth of Canadian imports goes into effect" (Sept. 29, 2026)
• American Action Forum: "U.S.-Canada Trade Interdependence"
• CBC News: U.S. bans on Canadian motorcycle, dairy, alcohol products take effect (Sept. 29, 2026)
• Proclamation 11061 (alcohol import ban), American Presidency Project
• Globe and Mail: "BRP to feel hit from U.S. ban on Canadian motorcycles"
• Boston Globe: "Canada tariffs: Massachusetts will feel effect" (Aug. 24, 2026)
• Boston Globe: Massachusetts imports $10.6B in Canadian goods annually (Nov. 24, 2025)
• Boston Globe: Vermont Gov. Phil Scott on Canadian visitors (Aug. 10, 2026)
• GBH News: "Expect high heating prices and volatility this winter" (Sept. 23, 2026)

New England This Morning — September 29, 2026

Not for nuthin'…. But….. that nor’easter finally shuffled offshore, and Tuesday’s webcams are still wearing the leftovers.

Marblehead Harbor is flat-calm under a solid gray lid — boats lined up on the moorings, kayaks and paddleboards racked on the BYC dock, the far shore soft in the mist. Mount Washington’s North View is a full white-out, raindrops plastered across the lens and the summit nowhere to be found. Down in Waitsfield the Great Eddy covered bridge is putting on a show — Mad River like glass, fall orange and gold finally lighting up the banks, that little American flag still hanging in there.

Coastal Massachusetts woke up cloudy and quiet after the storm. Vermont’s already showing the foliage payoff. Pack a light jacket if you’re headed out — highs only mid-60s.

Webcam views courtesy of the Boston Yacht Club, the Mount Washington Observatory, and Mad River Valley Television.

MOAM Out.

Still the Same Act: Update — September 28

 

Monday the shuttle finally rolled — and Tehran packed for the airport. Same act. New boarding pass.

Where things stood
Sunday night I flagged Trump’s Axios line: the seven-day Hormuz pitch is still a public no, but he expects more talks this week because Tehran “overplayed their hand.” Qatar’s mediators were supposed to meet Araghchi and Witkoff as early as Monday. Araghchi was still waiting for an “official” rejection through the mediator channel.

That was the score in my September 27 update on “Still the Same Act” — trail back to “The Act is Getting Old.”

What’s new today

1. Monday’s shuttle actually happened — amended text on the table
Reuters reports U.S. and Iranian officials spoke separately with mediators on Monday in a fresh push to end seven months of war. Further talks are expected to focus on an amended version of Iran’s seven-day proposal from UNGA week. President Trump told reporters at the White House that U.S. officials spoke with mediators Monday, without giving details. The calendar moved. The sequencing fight didn’t vanish.
Source: Al-Monitor (Reuters), Sep 28, 2026

2. Araghchi: Qatar has “ideas” — then he’s on a plane
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state media a Qatari mediator met Iran’s delegation again Monday to discuss ideas on how Iran’s conditions could be met. Quote: “They had some ideas, and we held discussions that they will also raise with the US side.” Qatar would then convey Washington’s final response — which he hoped by Tuesday. He said he would fly back to Tehran within hours rather than wait in New York: “The Qataris know how to reach us whenever they have the response.” Meeting held. Suitcase packed. Answer still pending.
Sources: Iran International, Sep 28, 2026; Anadolu Agency, Sep 28–29, 2026

3. AP: no official U.S. rejection yet — “slight progress”
Three regional officials and a senior U.S. official told the Associated Press mediators are still working the file even after Trump’s Saturday rejection. Despite the public comments, they said the U.S. has not officially rejected the current proposal — which some read as a negotiating tactic. One official reported positive signals; another “slight progress” over the weekend; a third said mediators are still trying “to soften” both sides.

Draft talk includes reopening the strait and lifting the blockade, then removing sanctions, plus an Oman-side shipping management track with no tolls. Conflict enters its eighth month; AP notes Brent above $108.
Source: PBS / AP, Sep 28, 2026 · 1:23 PM EDT

4. Same wishlist, softer packaging
Araghchi’s Monday line still frames the ask as Iran’s conditions first: “If the Americans claim they are seeking an agreement or a peaceful solution, we have presented that solution.” The seven-day plan still runs through ending hostilities (including Lebanon), unfreezing assets, ending oil sanctions, and lifting the U.S. blockade — then Hormuz and nuclear talks. Qatar is floating “ideas” on how those conditions get met. That’s not Washington writing the terms. That’s Tehran asking for a prettier envelope.
Sources: Al-Monitor (Reuters), Sep 28, 2026; Iran International, Sep 28, 2026

MOAM’s take
Same act, Monday night flight. The shuttle finally rolled — separate meetings, amended text, “ideas” for how Iran gets what Iran already demanded. Trump said the public no on Saturday and still sent negotiators to the mediators on Monday. Araghchi won’t treat the rejection as real until a Qatari whispers it, then boards a plane and hopes for Tuesday’s answer. AP hears “slight progress.” Down here on the North Shore we call that rearranging the chairs on the same stage. Strength still wins. Ideas that start with Iran’s wishlist and end with Washington paying up aren’t a deal — they’re a boarding announcement for the same flight.

What to watch
Whether Qatar delivers a real U.S. response by Tuesday or more theater; whether the “amended” seven-day text changes sequencing or just the adjectives; whether Araghchi’s return to Tehran hardens the hardliners or buys time; and whether oil / Hormuz flows follow the diplomacy or keep writing their own scoreboard.

MOAM Out.

TDS Watch: Chuck Lorre turns charity night into Trump bathroom comedy

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. when a sitcom legend accepts a charity founders award and spends the microphone wishing the president a heart attack on the toilet, we have left the gala and checked into the ward.

What was said

On Saturday, Sep 26, 2026, producer Chuck Lorre — the “King of Sitcoms” behind The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men — accepted a rare founders award at Project Angel Food’s Angel Awards in Los Angeles. The Hollywood Reporter covered the speech. Fair game to thank donors, plug meals, even needle both parties. Lorre went somewhere else.

Exact words, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter:

“Sure, I’d love to stand here and talk about my deep yearning for a more compassionate government, one that prioritizes the health and welfare of its citizens. But the burden of my profession demands that I take this opportunity to say a few words about that bloated orange piece of s--t in the White House.”

Then the morning ritual:

“I’d love to express my gratitude to all the people who’ve devoted their lives to making Project Angel Food an oasis for those in need. That would be my preference. But because I’m a comedy writer, I have no choice but to explain how I wake up every morning to turn on CNN to see if the president of the United States had a heart attack while straining to take a dump.”

He also unloaded a crude personal attack on First Lady Melania Trump (comparing her unfavorably to Michelle Obama in terms too nasty to reprint here), jabbed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and closed with a rewritten “serenity prayer” calling Trump a “Russian asset who traded teenagers with Jeffrey Epstein” — asserted as a joke, with no evidence offered on stage.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter · The Daily Beast, Sep 28, 2026

Context (not spin)

Project Angel Food does real work — medically tailored meals for people facing critical illness. The night raised over a million dollars. Lorre’s philanthropy on that campus is substantial. None of that requires a charity microphone to become a bathroom-comedy open mic about hoping the sitting president dies on the toilet.

You can dislike Trump. You can dislike Melania. You can dislike RFK Jr.’s vaccine views. Argue the policy. Write the op-ed. Vote in November. What you don’t get — not if you still want anybody outside the parking-lot stage to take the “compassion” pitch seriously — is to dress up a daily death-wish as the burden of comedy writing. That’s not holding power to account. That’s the syndrome with a laugh track.

MOAM’s diagnosis

Severity: TERMINAL.

When the punchline is “I check CNN every morning to see if he had a heart attack on the can,” we are past sharp satire and into the ward cafeteria. Comedy can punch up. Charity nights can raise money. Neither needs a scatological assassination fantasy as the gratitude speech. Down here in Marblehead we still know the difference between a roast and a diagnosis. Save the toilet jokes for the writers’ room. Save the gala for the people who need the meals.

MOAM Out.

 

Woodworking Tip of the Day: Cutting a Tight Half-Lap Without a Dado Stack

Not for nuthin'…. But….. a dado stack is nice — until you need one tight lap for a cleat or frame and the stack’s still in the drawer….. Today’s tip: cut a tight half-lap with a marking gauge, backsaw, and chisel — no dado required.

Why it matters: Fine Woodworking (Chris Gochnour) and Popular Woodworking both treat the half-lap as joinery school — layout first, then saw and pare to the lines. On a Chamberlain Marblehead gunning dory or in the GC shop, that same half-thickness cheek shows up on frames, cleats, and coaming / thwart crossings. Flush faces, long-grain glue, no waiting for a stack setup.

Materials

• Two parts of matching thickness (plane them together first — Schwarz’s point: sizing after cutting loosens the fit)
• Glue for the cheeks (and a light smear on the shoulders to seal gaps)
• Optional fasteners for corner laps under load

Tools

• Marking gauge (or calipers + gauge)
• Try / combination square + marking knife
• Backsaw or panel saw
• Wide bench chisel + mallet
• Optional: router plane or shoulder plane for a dead-flat floor; ruler to check for humps
• Table-saw alternative: regular blade + stop block (kerf spacer if you want perfect T/cross width)

Steps

1. Match thickness, mark show faces. Plane both parts to the same thickness. Label show faces — one cheek comes off the show face, the other off the back, so the assembled faces land flush (Katz-Moses).
2. Knife the shoulders. Shoulder location = width of the mating part. Square + knife for a clean, deep cut (~1⁄16″ — Gochnour). Wrap the knife line halfway down each edge. For a T or cross lap, mark both shoulders from the mating piece itself (Schwarz / Gochnour).
3. Gauge the cheek at half thickness. Set the marking gauge to half the stock thickness (T/2). Scribe from the show face of each part so faces stay flush even if the setting isn’t dead-center. Wrap onto end grain for corner laps; between shoulders for T/cross laps. Shade the waste.
4. Cut the shoulder on the waste side. Chisel a shallow angled notch ~1⁄16″ from the knife line to guide the saw (Gochnour). Saw so the teeth kiss the knifewall; stop at the cheek gauge line. Prefer leaving about 1 mm of waste to pare later (Estlea) rather than overshooting.
5. Clear the cheek. Corner lap: rip in stages (end-grain kerf → diagonal down one edge → flip → finish). T/cross lap: cut both shoulders, then add relief kerfs every 3⁄8″–1⁄2 in the waste and chisel out toward the middle, working up from both edges (Gochnour). Pare the floor to the gauge line — edges toward middle — or skim with a router plane.
6. Table-saw path (no dado). Set blade height to the cheek line (just shy if you’ll plane the floor). Shoulder cut against a stop; clear waste with multiple passes. For perfect T/cross width, use a kerf spacer matching your blade (~3⁄32″ thin / ~⅛ full) so the mating board sets the second shoulder (Katz-Moses).
7. Dry-fit, then glue. Ruler across the cheek — both edges should touch (no middle hump). Pare high spots. Glue cheeks (and shoulders lightly), clamp, check square. Flush plane after cure if anything stands proud.

MOAM’s shop note: Don’t gauge one board from the face and the other from the back — you’ll stack the error and the faces won’t flush. Same gauge setting, show face both times. And don’t celebrate a “tight” joint that only seats with a mallet blow — that usually means a hump in the middle of the cheek. Pare until hand pressure closes it, then clamp.

MOAM Out.

Fake News Watch: That “54% of NC CDLs” Claim

This is catching the MOAM’s attention today….. a midterm-season number that sounds like half the truck drivers in North Carolina got illegal commercial licenses. Spoiler: that isn’t what the books say.

The claim

On September 2, 2026, the Republican National Committee Research account posted that “54% of North Carolina commercial driver’s licenses were issued illegally to foreign nationals,” tying the figure to former Gov. Roy Cooper as he runs for U.S. Senate. The post has kept circulating into late September as the NC race heats up.

What actually happened

PolitiFact (Sep 24) rated the claim False. The 54% figure comes from a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration sample of 50 noncitizen CDL records — 27 of those 50 failed federal compliance checks — not from a count of all North Carolina commercial licenses.

When the North Carolina DMV reviewed the full file, it reported 325,114 active CDLs. About 8,540 (roughly 2.6%) belonged to noncitizens. Of those, 1,149 — about 0.35% of all active CDLs — had administrative errors (mostly expiration dates that didn’t match work-authorization dates). The DMV told PolitiFact none of those drivers were in the country illegally. The state downgraded problem licenses, and by July 21 the FMCSA had approved North Carolina’s corrective plan.

Real compliance problems showed up in that federal sample. Stretching a 27-of-50 audit into “54% of North Carolina commercial driver’s licenses” is a different claim — and a false one.

More: PolitiFact · FMCSA Jan 8, 2026 letter (PDF) · Herald-Sun / NC DMV review

MOAM take

Truck licensing rules matter — nobody wants shortcuts on the highway. What doesn’t help is turning a small audit sample into “half the CDLs in the state.” If the argument needs a bigger number than the full DMV file will give you, the argument’s the problem.

Verdict: FALSE — 54% was a sample of 50 noncitizen records, not half of all NC CDLs; full review found about 0.35% with errors, none issued to people in the country illegally.

MOAM Out.

Rates Back Over 7%, Marblehead Still Tight: North Shore Real Estate Weekly

Not for nuthin'…. But….. the 30-year mortgage rate just poked its head back over 7%. The last time Freddie Mac's weekly number read seven-anything was January 2025. So the MOAM is starting something new: a short weekly video with the real numbers for Marblehead and the North Shore, plus one practical tip from a guy who sells houses and builds things. No hype, no made-up stats. If I can't source a number, you won't see it.

Here's this week's episode (about 2:37).

This week's numbers

Mortgage rates (Freddie Mac PMMS®, U.S. weekly averages as of Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026)

• 30-year fixed: 7.03%, up from 6.95% the week before. A year ago it was 6.30%.
• 15-year fixed: 6.42%, up from 6.26%. A year ago it was 5.49%.

Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey

A quick reality check: on a $600,000 30-year loan, principal and interest runs about $3,714 a month at 6.30% and about $4,004 at 7.03%. That's roughly $290 more a month than a year ago, before taxes and insurance. (That's my own arithmetic at the Freddie Mac average rates. Your actual rate depends on your lender and your loan.) If you're buying, get pre-approved with a lender you trust and ask about rate locks before you start falling in love with houses.

Marblehead, single-family, August 2026 (Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®)

• Median sale price: $998,000, up 0.6% from August 2025
• Homes for sale: 20 (down from 28 a year ago)
• Months of supply: 1.5. Anything under about six months favors sellers, and we're nowhere near it.

Source: MAR Local Market Update, Marblehead, August 2026 (MLS PIN data, provided by MAR)

North Shore REALTORS® area, single-family, August 2026 (MAR)

• New listings: 410, up 25.8% from August 2025
• Median sale price: $750,000, down 1.6% year over year

Source: MAR Market Data, August 2026 Boards report

So what does it mean? Marblehead is still a tight little town with more buyers than houses. Across the wider North Shore, though, sellers are finally listing, and that gives buyers a few more choices heading into the fall.

The broker-who-builds tip: three spots to check in an old New England house

I spend a lot of time in old houses, and here's what I tell every buyer. Before you fall for the fireplace and the wide pine floors, look down, then look up.

1. The basement sill. That's the big timber sitting right on top of the foundation, and it holds up the whole house. Press a screwdriver into it in a few spots, especially near the outside doors, downspouts and any low corners. If it sinks in soft, that's rot, and sill work is not a weekend project.
2. The attic. Look for daylight coming through the roof boards, water stains on the rafters and sheathing, and old knob-and-tube wiring. Any one of those is a conversation to have before you sign, not after.
3. The chimney. Have the flashing and the liner checked. A lot of the old chimneys around here were never lined, or the liner gave up years ago.

None of that replaces a licensed home inspector. But if you walk through with someone who knows how these houses go together, you'll know which questions to ask. That's the whole reason I do both jobs.

Buying, selling, or fixing up?

• Search North Shore homes
• Thinking of selling? Get a free estimate
• Renovations and pre-sale fix-ups
• The 29 North Shore towns we serve
• About John · Contact

Or call or text me at 781-727-6516. I'm available seven days a week.

New episode every week. Tell me what you want me to dig into next.

John Nestor, Nanepashemet Real Estate Services, MA Broker Lic. #136995-RE-B · 328 West Shore Drive, Marblehead, MA 01945 · 781-727-6516 · nanepashemet.com. Renovations: John Nestor, MA Construction Supervisor License CS-047636. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Photos in the video: Waters House, Marblehead (1934), Arthur C. Haskell, Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress. Public domain.

MOAM Out.

Boston Sports Morning Report — Monday, Sept. 28

 

Sunday left a few bruises and one October rematch on the board. Here’s the Monday look.

Short version: Pats got rolled in Jacksonville; Sox locked WC #5 and head to the Bronx Tuesday; Bruins open the real season tomorrow night; Celtics still warming up the preseason clock.

New England Patriots

• Yesterday: L 6–35 at Jacksonville Jaguars
• Today: No game
• Next: Sun, Oct. 4 — 1:00 PM ET — @ Buffalo Bills (CBS)
• Standings: 1-2 · 3rd in AFC East (Jets 1-2 sit 2nd on tiebreak), Buffalo 3-0 leads

Tough one in Jax — Maye and company couldn’t get out of their own way. Bye week isn’t until Week 11, so the reset is a road trip to Buffalo next Sunday at 1 on CBS.

Boston Red Sox

• Yesterday: L 26 vs Chicago Cubs (regular-season finale at Tropicana Field)
• Today: No game — regular season finished 87-75
• Next: Tue, Sept. 29 — 8:00 PM ET — @ New York Yankees, AL Wild Card Game 1 (NBC / Peacock)
• After that: Wed, Sept. 30 — 8:00 PM ET — WC Game 2 at Yankee Stadium (NBC / Peacock); Game 3 Thu Oct. 1 if necessary
• Standings: 87-75 · 3rd in AL East · AL Wild Card #5

Season’s over; October’s on. Same Yankees rematch as last year, best-of-three in the Bronx. Stay loud.

Boston Celtics

• Yesterday / Today: No games
• Next (preseason): Thu, Oct. 8 — 7:00 PM ET — @ Cleveland Cavaliers
• Regular-season opener: Tue, Oct. 20 — 3:00 PM ET — @ Detroit Pistons (NBC / Peacock)
• Status: Preseason / 2026-27 not started. Last season: 56-26, 2nd in the East.

Quiet on Causeway. Preseason tip is still a couple weeks out.

Boston Bruins

• Yesterday / Today: No games (preseason finished)
• Next (regular-season opener): Tue, Sept. 29 — 8:00 PM ET — vs New York Rangers (ESPN)
• After that: Fri, Oct. 2 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Winnipeg Jets
• Status: Preseason 2-1-1. Season opens tomorrow vs the Rangers at TD Garden.

Exhibition book’s closed. Real hockey starts tomorrow night — Rangers at the Garden on ESPN. Don’t miss it.

That’s the Monday board, folks. Pats licking wounds, Sox packing for the Bronx, B’s on Opening Night eve. Stay loud.

MOAM Out.

Who Was Here Before the Deed?

For a long time I've been working on something I haven't talked about much. It started with a question about this town: who was here before the deed, and what happened to them?

In 1684 the men of Marblehead paid sixteen pounds for this land to the heirs of a sachem named Nanepashemet. I wanted to know about the people on the other side of that paper.

I wrote a novel about them. More soon.

Diesel Export Ban: Relief for the North Shore, or Just Moving the Bill Around?

Not for nuthin'…. But….. if

you heat with oil on the North Shore, you already know what's coming. The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources put home heating oil at $6.15 a gallon the week of Sept. 21. That's a record, and it's up nearly 75% from $3.52 a year ago. Diesel at Massachusetts pumps averaged about $6.39 this morning, per AAA. Nationally it's $6.45, just off the all-time high of $6.53 set on Sept. 22.

So when President Trump says the White House is "thinking about it very seriously" (a ban, or tight limits, on U.S. diesel exports), I get the appeal. Keep our diesel here. Sounds like common sense. Sounds like strength.

What's Actually on the Table

Nobody knows yet, including, it seems, Washington. Politico reported a 90-day ban was being prepared. The White House denied that. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says he's looking at restrictions, not a ban, and has reportedly asked refiners about "voluntary" restraint. Nothing has been announced.

Even the President hedged on Sunday: "That can oftentimes lead to a little bit of an increase on gasoline for cars, so we're looking at it very seriously. We may do it."

The Catch: Refineries Don't Just Make Diesel

One barrel of crude gives you diesel, gasoline and jet fuel all at once. If refiners can't ship diesel overseas, their tanks fill up and they cut back on everything. Wood Mackenzie figures Gulf Coast diesel storage would max out in just over a month, forcing crude run cuts of more than 2 million barrels a day. Their estimate for the East Coast is gasoline up about 26 cents a gallon.

Wright said it himself: "The blunt tool of banning diesel exports definitely doesn't work." More than 30 business and energy groups, API and AFPM among them, have warned it means "less fuel production, tighter supplies, and rising costs."

Sure, Big Oil has a dog in this fight. But when the President's own Energy Secretary, the industry and independent analysts all say the same thing, it's worth listening.

Why New England Is Different

We don't refine fuel around here. According to Wood Mackenzie, the Northeast is the region that leans hardest on imported diesel; the East Coast brought in about 120,000 barrels a day last year. A U.S. export ban pushes world prices up, and Wood Mackenzie says that "would put upward pressure on the cost of diesel in the North-East." Translation: the Gulf Coast could get the cheap diesel while we get the bill.

The Essex County Trucker and the Oil-Heat Homeowner

Diesel in Massachusetts is up about $2.54 a gallon from a year ago ($3.84 to $6.39). For a trucker, that works out to roughly $254 more on every 100 gallons. For a homeowner, a 200-gallon oil delivery at $6.15 comes to about $1,230, compared with about $704 last year.

A short ban might knock diesel down for a few weeks, right around the Nov. 3 midterms. After that, gasoline could climb and heating oil, which is basically the same distillate, isn't clearly any cheaper here. That doesn't cut the bill. It just moves it around.

Strength or Theater?

To be fair, the pain is real and the pressure to do something is real. Looking at every option isn't crazy. But a 90-day clamp timed to an election, one that risks pricier gas by the holidays, looks more like theater than strength. Real strength is more supply getting to the Northeast, plus real help for folks who can't afford the fill.

In the meantime, call your oil dealer about budget or pre-buy plans, check whether you qualify for fuel assistance, and ask every candidate on your ballot what they'd actually do about the price of a gallon.

MOAM Out.

Sources

• CNBC: Trump 'very seriously' considering diesel export ban (Sept. 28, 2026)
• AAA: National average fuel prices (as of 9/28/26)
• AAA: Massachusetts average fuel prices (as of 9/28/26)
• Mass. DOER: Home heating fuels prices (week of 9/21/26)
• Boston.com: Record heating oil prices in Mass. (Sept. 25, 2026)
• Wood Mackenzie: US considers diesel export restrictions (Sept. 25, 2026)
• Wood Mackenzie: Press release on diesel export ban impacts (Sept. 24, 2026)
• AFPM: 30+ groups urge President Trump to reject fuel export restrictions (Sept. 23, 2026)
• FreightWaves: Export ban talk sinks diesel, boosts gasoline (Sept. 24, 2026)
• Reuters (via SRN News): Talk of US diesel export ban deepens crude discount (Sept. 25, 2026)

New England This Morning — September 28, 2026

Fog settled in overnight, and Monday’s webcams are telling the story before most of us have finished the first cup.

Marblehead Harbor is soft and gray under a low ceiling — boats quiet on the moorings, a light ripple on the water, kayaks and paddleboards still racked on the BYC dock while the far shore fades into mist. Up on Mount Washington the North View is a white-out: raindrops and condensation plastered on the lens, summit gone for the morning. Over in Waitsfield the Great Eddy covered bridge looks steadier — Mad River almost glass, early fall gold and orange on the trees, that little American flag still hanging on the bridge like it owns the place.

Coastal Massachusetts is waking up foggy and a bit breezy. Inland Vermont looks calmer so far. If you’re headed for the docks or the hills, give the visibility a second look before you commit.

Webcam views courtesy of the Boston Yacht Club, the Mount Washington Observatory, and Mad River Valley Television.

MOAM Out.

Fog settled in overnight, and Monday’s webcams are telling the story before most of us have finished the first cup.

Marblehead Harbor is soft and gray under a low ceiling — boats quiet on the moorings, a light ripple on the water, kayaks and paddleboards still racked on the BYC dock while the far shore fades into mist. Up on Mount Washington the North View is a white-out: raindrops and condensation plastered on the lens, summit gone for the morning. Over in Waitsfield the Great Eddy covered bridge looks steadier — Mad River almost glass, early fall gold and orange on the trees, that little American flag still hanging on the bridge like it owns the place.

Coastal Massachusetts is waking up foggy and a bit breezy. Inland Vermont looks calmer so far. If you’re headed for the docks or the hills, give the visibility a second look before you commit.

Webcam views courtesy of the Boston Yacht Club, the Mount Washington Observatory, and Mad River Valley Television.

MOAM Out.

Still the Same Act: Update — September 27

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. Saturday night I flagged Trump’s public rejection of Iran’s seven-day Hormuz pitch. Twenty-four hours later he tells Axios he still expects more talks this week. Rejected — and still on the calendar. Same act. New lighting.

Where things stood
On Saturday the president said out loud what the Wall Street Journal had already whispered: Iran’s seven-day reopen-Hormuz plan is a no. Tehran wanted the blockade lifted, oil sanctions waived, frozen funds released, and a regional ceasefire before the strait opens and nukes get discussed. A senior Iranian official had already locked the vault — no nuclear concessions even if Washington said yes. That was the score in my September 26 update on “Still the Same Act” — and the April trail goes back to “The Act is Getting Old.”

What’s new today

1. Trump: more talks this week — “they overplayed their hand”
Sunday, in a phone interview with Axios, President Trump said he expects U.S. negotiators to engage Iran again this week even after Saturday’s rejection. Quote: “They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make. It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago. They overplayed their hand.” So the public no stands. The door stays cracked.
Sources: Axios, Sep 27, 2026; Al-Monitor (Reuters), Sep 27, 2026

2. Qatar’s shuttle aims for Monday
Axios, citing a U.S. official and two regional sources, says Qatari mediators kept working the text over the weekend and are expected to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff separately as early as Monday, Sep 28. Another round of indirect talks is on the board. Bridging the gap is another story.
Source: Axios, Sep 27, 2026

3. Tehran still waits for the “official” no
Araghchi posted Sunday that Iran’s conditions are clear, Hormuz reopening depends on them being met, and “only a negotiated solution” ends the deadlock. He acknowledged Trump’s public rejection but says mediators have not yet delivered a definitive U.S. answer — so Tehran will “make a decision based on them.” On CNN’s State of the Union, U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz put the rejection in plain English: Iran wanted sanctions lifted and frozen assets released up front “with a promise that they would then talk.” President Pezeshkian, on CBS’s Face the Nation, said Tehran is ready for nuclear talks but won’t accept “bullying or coercion.”
Sources: Al-Monitor (Reuters), Sep 27, 2026; BBC, Sep 27, 2026; Axios / NBC (Araghchi Sunday)

4. Wright’s Hormuz numbers — and Tehran’s premium jab
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Fox News Sunday that oil flows through the strait are averaging nearly 13 million barrels a day, with one day last week above 20 million — more than pre-conflict on that single day. He pointed more at refining capacity than raw Hormuz volume for price pressure. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf fired back on X, citing a market premium of about $35 over pre-invasion (and ~$50 on dated/actual) to challenge the U.S. claim that Iran doesn’t control the waterway. Same strait. Two scoreboards.
Sources: Iran International, Sep 27, 2026; Iran International, Sep 27, 2026

MOAM’s take
Same act, Sunday matinee. Trump rejects the pitch on Saturday, then tells Axios on Sunday the talks are still coming — because Tehran “overplayed their hand.” Araghchi pretends the public no doesn’t count until a mediator whispers it. Waltz says they wanted the whole candy store first and a promise to talk later. Wright says tankers are moving; Ghalibaf says look at the premium. Down here on the North Shore we know when somebody asks for everything up front and calls it a deal. Strength still wins. Clocks, shuttles, and Telegram posts don’t change the sequencing.

What to watch
Whether Monday’s Qatar meetings produce a revised text or just more theater; whether Araghchi ever admits the rejection without the mediator script; whether Wright’s flow numbers hold and prices follow; and whether the Houthi/Red Sea track keeps pulling Saudi Arabia deeper while the diplomats argue about day six vs. day seven.

MOAM Out.

TDS Watch: Inquirer columnist calls Trump a “mad king” and “Caligula”

<

p>Not for nuthin'…. But….. when a big-city columnist needs a whole piece just to “find the words” for the president — and the words he finds are Caligula, mad king, and a wink at 1938 Germany — we are no longer in the opinion section. We are in the ward.

What was said

On Sunday, Sep 27, 2026, Pulitzer-winning Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch published “We need to find the words for Trump’s madness before things blow up.” The column reacts to President Trump’s recent U.N. speech, taxpayer-funded messaging ads, and the broader midterms fight.

Exact words from the column:

“A demagogue who hijacked American democracy, just as the nation’s founders feared would happen, is devolving into a mad king before our eyes.”

He also frames Trump as:

“21st-century Caligula”

And compares how the New York Times covered the U.N. speech to:

“1938 sanewashing of a certain German dictator’s foreign policy.”

Bunch quotes indie journalist Dan Froomkin approvingly:

“It’s not so much correction that he lacks. It’s a functional brain.”

Then he runs through three “explanations” the media supposedly won’t discuss — dementia, unrepentant narcissism, or “crazy…like a fox” — and adds that Trump “could have grounds for an insanity defense.”

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sep 27, 2026

Context (not spin)

Disagree with the U.N. speech? Argue it. Hate the taxpayer-funded ads? Take that to Congress and the GAO — CNBC, CBS, AP, and the Washington Post are already covering the legal fight over “publicity or propaganda” rules. That’s journalism.

What that is not: a Roman-emperor costume party with a side of Weimar. Calling a sitting president “Caligula,” a “mad king,” and nodding at 1938 Germany while floating an insanity defense isn’t holding power to account — it’s the rhetorical equivalent of calling every nor’easter the Fall of Rome. When every policy fight has to be dementia-or-dictator, people stop hearing the real arguments. The syndrome isn’t “criticism.” It’s the inability to criticize without checking the patient into ancient history and a psych ward in the same lede.

MOAM’s diagnosis

Severity: TERMINAL.

You can hammer the ads. You can hammer the U.N. tone. You can vote the other way in November. What you don’t get to do — not if you want anybody outside Center City to keep listening — is stack Caligula, mad king, and 1938 Germany in one column and call it the missing vocabulary of democracy. That’s not finding the right words. That’s raiding the costume shop. Down here in Marblehead we still know the difference between a tough president and a toga party. Save Caligula for Caligula. Save the rest for the actual case file.

MOAM Out.

Woodworking Tip of the Day: Winding Sticks — Finding Twist Before You Plane It Worse

Before you chase a board flat with another shaving, stop — twist hides until the winding sticks show it….. A board that rocks on three corners, a sole that won’t sit, a glue-up that walks — that’s wind. Today’s tip: a pair of winding sticks, and how to read them before you plane a good board worse.

Why it matters: Popular Woodworking and Fine Woodworking both treat winding sticks as essential layout tools — not museum pieces. Two matched straightedges at opposite ends of the stock amplify twist so your eye can see what a square never will. On a Marblehead gunning dory sole blank or a wide thwart blank, that magnification keeps you from removing wood from the wrong corner.

Materials

• Pair of winding sticks — shop-made from quartersawn hardwood, 18″–24″ long (Popular Woodworking), or two lengths of aluminum L-bar (Fine Woodworking tip)
• Contrast on one stick’s top edge — dark inlay, tape, or permanent marker so the far edge reads clearly
• Center marks on both sticks (pencil, marker, or brass pin)
• Chalk or pencil to mark high corners on the board

Tools

• Jack / scrub / jointer plane (or jointer) for removing the high spots
• Straightedge check — one winding stick doubles as a straightedge for cup and bow
• Optional: calipers or a fingertip feel-check to confirm the two sticks match before you trust them

Steps

1. Make (or grab) a matched pair. Quartersawn hardwood stays truer than flatsawn. Aim for 18″–24″ — longer sticks magnify more and still fit a toolbox. Plane both edges straight and parallel. Narrower top edge (trapezoid profile) is easier to sight. Or skip the millwork: two aluminum L-bars, centers marked, one top edge contrasted (Fine Woodworking #316).
2. Check the sticks against each other first. Hold the top edges together and look for light; set both on a known-flat surface and feel the tops. Australian Wood Review’s point: if the sticks disagree with each other, every board you “fix” is a lie.
3. Place at opposite ends. Center each stick on the face (use the mid marks). Sticks should sit at right angles to the board’s length. For a long sole or panel, also check mid-span by moving the far stick while leaving the near one put.
4. Sight across the tops. Crouch so your eye is level with the near stick’s top edge. Look toward the far stick’s contrasting edge. Parallel = no wind. A wedge means twist — the high corners are the diagonal pair where the far stick rides up.
5. Mark high corners, plane those first. Chalk the high spots. Take shavings off those corners (scrub or jack). Drop the sticks back, re-sight, and watch the wedge close. Don’t full-length plane until the sticks line up — otherwise you’re chasing twist around the board.
6. Convert measured gap to actual twist if you need a number. Lee Valley’s formula: Ta = Tm × (W / L) — actual twist equals the gap you see at the stick ends, times board width over stick length. Example: 1/4″ measured on 18″ sticks across an 8″ board → about 7/64″ of real corner-to-corner wind. Amplification is roughly L / W (300 mm sticks on a 150 mm board ≈ 2×).
7. Finish flat after the wind is gone. Once the sticks are parallel, switch to full-length passes until the face is clean. Same sighting trick works across gunwales or sheer clamps when you’re checking a hull for twist on the strongback — longer sticks, same parallel read.

MOAM’s shop note: Don’t trust a single glance with the sticks swapped. End-for-end / side-for-side like you’d check a level — if the wedge follows the board, the board is twisted; if it follows the sticks, your sticks are. And don’t celebrate parallel sticks as “done.” Parallel only means the twist is out — you may still have cup or hollow to plane off before that sole lands flat in the boat.

MOAM Out.

Fake News Watch: Newsom Didn’t “Force” Your Gas Prices

Not for nuthin'…. But….. before you blame Gavin Newsom for every painful fill-up from Marblehead to Montana, check the receipt on that “four forced California refinery closures” post.

The claim

Through mid-to-late September 2026, Facebook and X posts have been insisting U.S. gas prices aren’t high because of the Iran war — they’re high because California Gov. Gavin Newsom “forced” the shutdown of four oil refineries. One Sep 17 Facebook post from a Connecticut Republican candidate put it bluntly: the blame “lies with Newsom.” Snopes readers wrote in asking the same question.

What actually happened

Snopes (Sep 25) rated the rumor Mostly False. Count first: only two California refineries stopped processing crude in the past year — Phillips 66’s Los Angeles Refinery (October 2025) and Valero’s Benicia plant (April 2026). The other two names often tossed into the pile (Marathon Martinez, Phillips 66 Rodeo) quit crude years earlier for renewable-fuel conversions, not a 2026 Newsom edict.

“Forced” doesn’t hold either. Phillips 66 executives cited high production costs and “very low” earnings; a company spokesperson said a Newsom regulatory bill signing wasn’t a factor. Valero’s CEO did call California’s regulatory climate the toughest in North America — and noted Benicia costs more to maintain — but GasBuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan told Snopes those were business decisions, not a policy change that forced the plants dark.

On the nationwide spike: U.S. Energy Information Administration weekly price data show retail gas jumping hard in the weeks after the Iran war began in late February / early March 2026 — the same pattern as after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Phillips 66 and Valero earnings calls this spring pointed to Strait of Hormuz closures and Middle East geopolitics. Closer to home, WBUR (Sep 22) and AAA Northeast tied Massachusetts’ seasonal-high average (~$4.41/gal) to the ongoing Middle East conflict and supply volatility — not a Sacramento shutdown order.

More: Snopes · EIA retail gasoline prices · WBUR / AAA Northeast · California Energy Commission FAQ

MOAM take

Pain at the pump is real up here — nobody filling a truck in Essex County needs a lecture. What we don’t need is a four-refinery fairy tale that skips the war and the shipping lanes. Argue California regs all day if you want. Don’t rewrite the price chart.

Verdict: FALSE — two closures by company choice, not four forced by Newsom; the nationwide spike tracks the Iran war.

MOAM Out.