Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promises unprecedented economic measures and a blockade of Iranian ports as $4 gas and $80 oil collide with the midterms, and Erick Erickson says the hard part out loud: we are losing a war against a country we could beat because there was never a plan. Then the case Republicans do not want to hear, that Ken Paxton is lazy, corrupt, and putting Texas in play for James Talarico, with Mark Halperin agreeing on tape. Plus Max Miller in Ohio, Cory Mills and Ron DeSantis in Florida, Mike Collins in Georgia, and Abdul El-Sayed's Detroit animal shelter record in Michigan.

• Scott Bessent's Iranian port blockade and sanctions, the Strait of Hormuz, and the highest pre-election August gas prices on record
• Why the Pentagon never sent the demand signal for missile production, Admiral Cooper's stop and start problem, and the drones and F-5s Iran actually got through
• Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas, the donor class walking away, and Mark Halperin's warning that Paxton loses if nothing changes
• Herschel Walker, Mike Collins, Max Miller, and Cory Mills: how the GOP keeps nominating its weakest links while Democrats force theirs out
• Abdul El-Sayed, Sharia and dogs, and the 74 percent kill rate at Detroit's animal shelter, plus Luigi Mangione's admission in the Brian Thompson murder