At the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last night, Trump promised a $5,000 “Trump Dividend” to every adult U.S. citizen — but only if Republicans keep both the House and Senate in November. He said the money would have to be spent in America.

“And here is my promise: if the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them … I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.”

The cost: roughly $1.2 trillion. That’s nearly one-quarter of the federal government’s entire annual revenue.

Trump claimed tariffs could pay for it, but the supposed tariff windfall is disappearing: most of the $166 billion collected under the tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court is expected to be refunded.

We’ve tried massive cash injections before. Pandemic stimulus under both Trump and Biden helped Americans through the crisis, but economists found the added demand also contributed to the inflation that followed.

Now Trump proposes another $1.2 trillion spending blast while Americans are already getting hammered by higher prices for gas, groceries and other necessities. Whatever $5,000 buys today could buy less after another inflationary jolt.

But the strangest part may be the deal itself:

“If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000.”

Call it bribery in reverse.

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CNN Fact Check: Trump makes numerous false claims in Republican convention speech.

SOME CAMPAIGN SIGNS ARE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN OTHERS by John Darkow

[John Darkow has been a professional cartoonist for over 20 years, spending the last 10 as the staff cartoonist at the Columbia Daily Tribune. He is syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons.]

Attribution: LABOR DAY BEFORE AND AFTER by Graeme MacKay

[Graeme MacKay born in Ontario, Canada, his worked as staff editorial cartoonist for The Hamilton Spectator since 1997, earning multiple national awards and nominations, including citations from the United Nations and the Association of Canadian Cartoonists.]

Attribution: by Bill Day

Bill Day is a two-time winner of the RFK Journalism Award in Cartooning, and his cartoons are syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons. He is currently the editorial cartoonist for FloridaPolitics.com

Quartet in A major, op2 by Richard Strauss

Composed by Strauss, early in his career, when he was 18. Amazing especially when I think of what I was doing at 18

From some research

While Strauss did not, in later life, devote much time to chamber music, in his earlier years he tried his hands at several different types of chamber works composing a string quartet, two piano trios, a piano quartet and several instrumental sonatas.

During his early years, Strauss took Schumann and Mendelssohn as his models. The String Quartet, which dates from 1882, is typical of his style at this time. Later, of course, he came under the influence of the new tonalities of Liszt, Berlioz and Wagner. Although the Quartet is the work of an 18 year old, knowledgeable critics have never considered it a juvenile work. Wilhelm Altmann, the Dean of Chamber Music Critics, writes, “There are so many pleasing features and it is so delightful to play, and so full of sound musicianship, that it will always be sure of a welcome among players and listeners.” Link

Enjoy, Jack

“Slop the hogs” is a rural, agricultural idiom that literally refers to feeding leftover food waste — called slop — to pigs.