Even If the Umpire Is on Your Side, They Do Not like It When You Call Them a C%$#-Sucker

Which is why the the Supreme Court shot down Missouri's 3rd attempt to institute their Gerrymander before the ink was dry. 

As my Great-Grandfather used to say, "I told you once, I told you twice, now גיי געזונטערהייט." (Literally, "Go in good health," metaphorically, "Go f%$# yourself.")

For the third time in less than a month, the Supreme Court on Friday declined to allow Missouri to use a new congressional map, intended to benefit Republicans, in the November 2026 elections. In a five-page, unsigned order, the justices paused a ruling by a federal appeals court in St. Louis that had directed the state to implement the new map.

In Friday’s opinion, which was released to reporters shortly before 6 p.m. EDT, the court emphasized that the federal district and appeals courts “should not enjoin or otherwise prohibit the use of the” map enacted in 2022, which is currently in use in voting already underway, “in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri.” Moreover, the court added, those courts “should not order or otherwise require Missouri to use the” new map “in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri.”

There were no public dissents from the Supreme Court’s opinion.

As much as the seditious six are trying to put their thumb on the scale for Donald Trump, having to hear this 3 times in less than a month has clearly pissed them off.

Why the US Navy Is in Decline

The Seawolf Class Boat USS Connecticut ran into an uncharted underwater mountain in 2021.

It limped back to port, and was supposed to repaired last year, about 4 years, which is a complete mind f%$#.  The initial construction of the boat took 5 years. 

Now it will not return to service until at least 2027.

By way of context, Connecticut is slated for retirement in 2031, so it will have been repair for 6 of its last 10 years of service.

The U.S. Navy’s schedule for getting USS Connecticut, one of its prized Seawolf class nuclear attack submarines, back into service has slipped into next summer. The boat suffered severe damage, especially to its bow, in a collision with an underwater seamount in the South China Sea in 2021. The service had previously hoped that repairs would be finished before the end of this year, and planning is also now underway for the submarine’s retirement in 2031. This would mean it could serve for just four years before being pulled from service once and for all.

“USS Connecticut (SSN 22) is currently undergoing a complex Extended Docking Selected Restricted Availability (EDSRA) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility. Current work consists of structural and systems restoration and required lifecycle maintenance,” a Navy official told TWZ today. “The Navy’s target completion date for the availability is the summer of 2027. PSNS & IMF is dedicated to executing this work with the highest standards of safety, technical accuracy, and craftsmanship to ensure the ship returns to the fleet ready to take its place at the tip of the spear in defense of our nation’s interests.”

I'm guessing that a lot of this delay comes from contractor's rat-f%$#ing the ability of the Navy to conduct repairs in house, but I am cynical that way.

Well, Bless His Heart! (Meant in the Southern Way) ⃰

If you were to tell me that Samuel f%$#ing Alito would recuse himself on a climate change case because of his investments in energy companies, I would have responded with, "Very droll!"

Not this time.  He HAS recused himself from Suncor v. Boulder.

Call me a cynic, but my guess is that he got assurances from the other "Felonious Five," justices that they would vote his way before making this announcement.

I do not believe that Alito has even the vaguest concept of what legal ethics means.

He does not care.  He does not have to. He's a Supreme Court justice. 

Supreme court justice Samuel Alito recused himself on Monday from a major climate-change case after facing calls to step aside due to stock holdings in oil companies.

A letter posted in the case did not specify a reason, but the conservative justice has previously recused himself from other cases involving companies where he holds stock.

………

Alito had so far resisted calls to step aside in the case, which the court agreed to hear in February. He does not own stock in Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil but does have holdings in other oil companies such as ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66, according to his disclosures. The group Consumer Watchdog says that means he could indirectly benefit from a decision in the industry’s favor.

The group’s organizing director, Alexandra Nagy, pointed to the court’s recently adopted code of ethics, which says a justice should step aside if they or their families have a “subject matter or controversy”.

Ethics, schmethics.  This is optics, and the fix is in.

^*It means, "Go f%$# yourself!"

Headline of the Day

Iran War Exposes Saudi Arabia's Bad Bet on Trumpism

Foreign Policy, on how Trump has done lasting damage to the House of Saud (Archive.is link)

It has been known for about 50 years that Donald Trump is a sucker bet. 

Saudi Arabia is in serious trouble. Its global influence primarily comes from its leading position as an oil producer and the money resulting from that role, but now the Middle East is on fire. Today, Saudi tankers are blocked in the Persian Gulf and under threat in the Red Sea, and the country’s biggest oil pipeline had to shut down after a drone attack. Yet Saudi Arabia’s biggest long-term problem may be that its longtime security guarantor, the United States, is unable to put out the fire and doesn’t seem especially interested in trying. 

Since World War II and especially since the end of the Cold War, the Middle East has rested on a deal: U.S. military dominance provides relative stability, deterring and countering aggression, ensuring freedom of navigation, containing Iran, organizing air defense, and helping friendly governments to stay in power. In exchange, Saudi Arabia and the smaller Gulf Arab states—Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates—host U.S. bases, cooperate on counterterrorism, and maintain the smooth flow of oil. The clearest example of this working was in 1990-91, when a U.S.-led coalition prevented Iraq from taking any Saudi oil fields and pushed Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. 

U.S. President Donald Trump’s attack on Iran broke that arrangement beyond repair, and Saudi Arabia doesn’t have a replacement.

 To quote the movie Animal House, "You f%$#ed up, you trusted us."

Linkage

• Private Schools Are Bad for Society (Hamilton Nolan) A cogent argument that private schools are a major contributor to numerous societal ills.
• Queen Elizabeth I Owned Two Thousand Dresses. Only a Scrap of One Remains (Vanity Fair) (Archive.is link) It's a wonderful piece of embroidery.
• AI: EU Member States plan “digital expropriation” of Europeans in the interest of AI companies Attempting to sell out consumer data protections.
• Volkswagen ejected from European blue-chip index in blow to crisis-hit carmaker (Financial Times) Yeah, Germany is finally suffering what inflicted on other EU members. (Archive.is link)
• Network science reveals the structure and lasting impact of the Roman road system (Nature Communications) An interesting analysis of the Roman road network from the perspective of networks,
• Navy's shipyard revamp could cost more than $200 billion: GAO (Breaking Defense) A 10-fold increase.  And we wonder why the Chinese navy is catching up.
• Scientists Found a Deep-Sea ‘Death Pool’ That Vanished. It May Show How Earth's First Life Survived (Gizmodo) Pre oxygen life on earth is reflected in these oxygen free pools.
• New York Sues Polymarket, Accuses It of Running an "Illegal Gambling" Operation (Futurism) They have already sued Kalshi, so this is welcome but not surprising.
• Los Angeles Has a Flea Problem—and It's Fueling Typhus Outbreaks (Gizmodo) Typhus?  Welcome to the 3rd world.
• The anthropogenic fingerprint on emerging infectious diseases (Nature) Climate change is finding another way to kill us.
• Oracle credit default swaps hit record high as AI debt worries mount (Seeking Alpha) The banksters are now betting against Oracle.  Sweet!
• Private List Warns Woman of "Over a Hundred" Allegedly Predatory Men in Silicon Valley (Futurism) They really are the worst of us.

This is a fascinating look at Kubrick's use of light in Barry Lyndon

Worse than Being Labeled a Pervert?

It appears that a new batch of pervert glasses are burning people's faces, because it appears that basic consumer electronics safety is beyond these mooks.

Smart glasses have been shrouded in controversy for quite some time now.

They’ve earned the moniker of “pervert glasses” for allowing creeps to spy on unsuspecting strangers, while sketchy facial recognition software generates fear of a dystopian surveillance state. Meta’s even been hit with a lawsuit for allowing contracts to see users’ intimate moments.

The smart glasses world just can’t catch a break. Now, gadget maker Inmo had to recall its Air3 smart glasses because the left arm can “overheat during extended use, posing a risk of serious injury or death due to burn hazard,” according to an official notice by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

“Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled product and update the product firmware to version 3.16 before reusing the product,” a separate recall notice by Health Canada warned.

In addition to being morally bankrupt, it appears that the tech bros cannot manage even basic consumer electronics safely. 

Guck Favin

Once again, we find that, despite his stellar social media operation, at his core, Gavin Newsom is a punk.

The California Governor just vetoed a bill that would ban extraditing doctors who provide abortions or gender affirming care.

The reason given?  He thinks that it does not respect the executive power of the Governor.

This is a bullsh%$ reason from a crap politician. 

When Louisiana authorities tried to extradite a California doctor last winter for sending abortion pills to women in their state, Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back—hard. “We will not allow extremist politicians from other states to reach into California and try to punish doctors based on allegations that they provided reproductive health care services,” Newsom declared. “Not today. Not ever.”

Yet nine months after that ringing defense of abortion providers and reproductive freedom, Newsom has blocked Democratic efforts to enshrine the same anti-extradition policy into state law.

The soon-to-be-ex-governor has vetoed a bill that would have prohibited future governors from handing over abortion providers, helpers, and patients to red states for criminal prosecution. The bill also would have barred extraditions involving transgender care. Newsom’s decision was “incredibly disappointing” and “certainly not what we were expecting,” says Pavitra Abraham, director of state campaigns for Reproductive Freedom for All.

The veto of AB 2164—also known as the Care Without Fear Act—has alarmed reproductive rights advocates around the country because of California’s critical role in preserving abortion access since the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The state is home to telemedicine providers, mail-order pharmacies, research organizations, and other groups that have helped keep abortion pills flowing even to the most conservative parts of the US.

………

But instead, Newsom vetoed the bill, announcing the move in a Sunday legislative update. In his statement explaining his decision, Newsom pointed to his strong record on reproductive health issues, including privacy. But he said he was “troubled by the precedent that would be set if an outgoing administration agreed with the Legislature to erode the executive authority of an incoming Governor based on their shared policy preferences, regardless of how righteous and well-intentioned those actions may be.”

This is bullsh%$, and Gavin Newsom is bullsh=%$. 

The Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment), So Much Winning

In Michigan Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is leading in the polls against Mike Rogers and Maine’s Troy Jackson is behind Susan Collins.

The difference between these campaigns?  Troy Jackson is following the advice of the mainstream Democratic Party political consultants.

The Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) are to winning elections what Ebola is to French kissing.

The New York Times has a new article headlined “Democrats Show Strength in Michigan Senate Race but Trail in Maine, Polls Find.” It highlights the divergent electoral prospects of two Democratic Senate candidates: Michigan’s Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Maine’s Troy Jackson. Both Michigan and Maine are swing states that have voted statewide for both Democrats and Republicans in recent years, yet polls currently show El-Sayed leading his opponent, Mike Rogers, by five percentage points, while Jackson is trailing Republican Susan Collins by three percent.

We have to regard polls skeptically. In the primary, polls showing El-Sayed far ahead of his rivals turned out to be wildly wrong, and his ultimate victory was very narrow. But the paper’s report also presents some illuminating facts, beyond the raw polling data. They note that:

In Michigan, support for Dr. El-Sayed appears to be fueled by the popularity of his economic message and his vocal support for single-payer health care. He is more trusted to handle the cost of living by nine points, the only Democrat who is more trusted on the issue across the three states. And despite a bitter primary, a whopping 95 percent of Democrats are now supporting his candidacy. Dr. El-Sayed is also winning 8 percent of voters who supported Mr. Trump in the 2024 election, more than either of the other two Democrats in the survey. Abel Kang, a social worker from Grand Rapids, said he knew very little about Mr. Rogers other than his support of Mr. Trump. Mr. Kang said he planned to support Dr. El-Sayed largely because of economic issues and his support of single-payer health care. “He is talking about free health care,” said Mr. Kang, 47, an independent. “Personally, I think that is a necessity. It’s a basic human need.”  

The paper spends less time trying to explain why Troy Jackson is not having as much success during an electoral cycle that is widely assumed to favor Democrats, who hold an 11-point national lead on the “generic” congressional ballot. They note that Susan Collins is seen by “a majority of Maine voters as more likely than Mr. Jackson to be an effective senator and as having better character.” But a recent report in New York magazine adds critical additional context to help us understand why the Jackson campaign isn’t catching fire. In it, Rebecca Traister documents that Jackson’s campaign has been directed in large part by establishment Democratic consultants who are crushing Jackson’s main sources of appeal: his populism, his authenticity, his ability to connect with ordinary people. Traister’s report is full of utterly damning findings:

“These advisers are frustrated by Jackson and his backwoods cadence, his insistence on taking questions, and his unapologetically progressive stances. Jackson, a decent, marble-mouthed logger with a phone belt clip[…] has often deferred to their expertise, angering longtime allies and organizers who have their own thoughts on how he can win. “These people are very convincing… He’s being taken advantage of by people who have a lot of power and influence in this political sphere.” 

[The] effect of the campaign on the 58-year-old Jackson is readily apparent. Typically an impassioned speaker, Jackson has become more tentative, with answers on Israel and ICE getting muddier. His political identity is now undergoing an awkward transformation before voters’ eyes as he struggles to incorporate new, seemingly foreign talking points. Internal campaign documents instruct him to say, when asked about his position that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, “No matter what you’re comfortable calling it, I think we can all agree this is senseless violence.”

“The Jackson campaign’s wariness of in-person events seems to merge with a general suspicion of Mainers and their conviction that they know what’s best for Jackson. A handful of them who work as staffers at this point “are treated like garbage” by the campaign bosses, according to one source[…] “They think it’s going well when Troy is boring AF,” said another person with knowledge of the campaign.” […] “They want to run this campaign through numbers and spreadsheets. And wherever a campaign is connecting with people or doing anything quirky or unique, they’re like, ‘This is bad and weird.’” A lot of this friction comes down to competing theories of how to win elections. The people running Jackson’s campaign are relying on heavy vetting, poll testing, and data that pinpoints exactly who may be persuadable. They focus on ads, the messages neatly sculpted, while the candidate attends fundraisers and does call time, raising more money to pay for more ads. Emphasizing ads over a field operation is more profitable for the companies running that campaign. TKO and McCollister’s firm, Frame, make and sell ads for Jackson.”

Say what you will about Graham Plattner, but he went all over the state, and he listened to and talked to voters.

This was popular and provided a contrast with both with Collins and his primary opponent Mills.

Of course, the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) consultants cannot tolerate this, because campaigning in person and talking to voters does not make them any money. 

Republicans may be the opposition, but the The Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) is the enemy.

Not Good

It appears that Donald Trump and some of his more unhinged supporters are considering meddling with the upcoming election with a martial law declaration. 

Of all the outside advisers urging President Trump to seize control of federal elections this fall, the attorney Peter Ticktin can claim the deepest ties; the two men went to military school together as teenagers. In 2022, Ticktin helped Trump sue Hillary Clinton. This year, he pushed Trump to secure a pardon for Tina Peters, a former Colorado clerk convicted of charges related to tampering with election equipment.

Which is why it might be worth listening when Ticktin says that Trump could do something soon to take over elections. “He’s the only one that I know for sure has the understanding of the severity of it,” Ticktin told us this month before taking the stage at an election-skeptic conference in Las Vegas. The way Ticktin sees it, there are three possible outcomes this fall. The first—a smooth election—won’t happen in his view because, he claims without evidence, Democrats already cheated in the primaries. The second is that Trump takes action before the election to prevent cheating. The last option is that Trump tries to declare martial law on or around November 3. “Either martial law, or step aside,” he told us about Trump’s choices in the last scenario. When we asked about the prospect of riots if Trump tries to overturn the election results, Ticktin said he was not concerned. “Believe me, our armed forces are a lot bigger than they are,” he said.

………

To head off a crisis, Trump’s White House and Cabinet advisers have been working for months to move Trump’s focus away from baseless theories of election fraud peddled by people like Ticktin, Root, and Peters. At the same time, they have authorized as-yet-unsuccessful efforts to uncover actual evidence that would make the conspiracies more credible: Trump’s advisers gathered once-classified documents that he could share on genuine foreign efforts to influence elections, set up a prime-time address where he again falsely suggested that the 2020 election was stolen, authorized the seizure of Georgia election records, and reviewed voting equipment used in Puerto Rico. None of these efforts has revealed the type of large-scale fraud that Trump has alleged, though they have allowed the president to keep the idea of election theft in the news. Meanwhile, Trump has failed to persuade Senate Republicans to pass legislation, called the SAVE America Act, that would restrict mail-in voting and impose new voter-ID and citizenship checks on ballot access, and the Supreme Court has rejected his effort to restrict voting by mail.

………

But the prospect of Trump deciding to act on the demands of his most fervent election-denying supporters has remained a constant threat, one that even Trump’s inner circle admits remains possible. Such measures are broadly opposed by Republican leaders on Capitol Hill and within Trump’s own administration, not least because they’re considered bad politics. Polling commissioned by Republicans earlier this year found that if the SAVE America Act passed, it was likely to increase Democratic enthusiasm and suppress Republican turnout, particularly in red states, such as Florida, that have long embraced mail-in voting, according to a person who has reviewed the numbers.

We need to make sure that local and state authorities are prepared for this.

We also personally need to be prepared to push back against this personally. 

Speaking of Elon

His car company is arguing in it's fine for the N-word being thrown around the workplace.

I guess you can take the psychopath out of Apartheid, but you cannot take Apartheid out of the psychopath.

Whatever special kind of brain worms have established themselves in Elon Musk’s noggin appear to be spreading throughout his companies.

In the midst of a state trial on behalf of over 6,000 Black workers at Tesla’s flagship factory in Fremont, California, attorneys for Musk’s electric vehicle argued that it’s acceptable to use the n-word in certain situations, insisting that it’s a “term of respect and endearment” in the Black community.

Sure, it’s true that many Black people have reclaimed the word. But the lawsuit is about non-Black Tesla employees and managers abusing Black workers — including allegedly hurling the slur at them in ways that don’t sound like anything resembling gestures of “respect and endearment.”

On top of that, the first witness called to the stand testified to the court that senior counsel for Tesla had tried to mislead him days before the trial, by claiming to represent the state, rather than the EV company, Electrek reported. Prosecutors allege four more potential witnesses were approached by Tesla’s lawyers prior to the case, who have since fallen “off our [the states attorneys’] radar” following possible deals, threats, or persuasion by the company’s counsel.

The jaw dropping gaffes emerged the first day of a major bench trial being prosecuted by the state of California, over an alleged pattern of rampant racism and negligence in Tesla’s massive production facility. Previously, Electrek reported that Black Tesla workers at the facility were subjected to racial prejudice by way of wage discrimination, segregation, and racial slurs.

Why Elon Musk has achieved success is beyond me.

The Fix is In

I not particularly surprised that the major social media networks are refusing ads for Alex Gibney's new Elon Musk documentary.

Tech bros gonna protect tech bros.

All of the major social media platforms are refusing to run ads for the upcoming Musk documentary, which hits theaters Oct. 9, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Google-owned YouTube and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram have declined to run trailers for Musk, much to distributor Bleecker Street’s surprise. So has TikTok, which in the U.S. is run by an Oracle-backed joint venture. According to THR, all three tech firms cited reasons related to “political content.”

TikTok does not allow political ads. Meta has restrictions on political ads but not a strict ban, just pre-authorization. YouTube only requires disclosures. But all of those restrictions have until now mostly been understood as applying to political campaigns/parties and advocacy or lobbying groups, not Hollywood.

Not only has Elon Musk-owned X (née Twitter) refused to acknowledge Bleecker Street’s ad inquiries, X won’t “even accept advertising for any of its other films on its upcoming calendar,” THR wrote.

THR reported TikTok and YouTube “are still entertaining the petitions” from Bleecker Street to reconsider, though Meta is not and has rejected the distribution company’s appeal. None of the social media companies immediately returned THR’s requests for comment.

………

In other words, this is exactly the kind of thing that might piss off Musk, who has a notoriously thin skin and needs no excuse to slip into a fit of rage. Musk already has: he responded by tweeting Gibney has “ZERO integrity” and is a “horrible human.”

Musk’s webs of companies and business interests weave all throughout Silicon Valley and beyond—that’s how you become the world’s first temporary trillionaire. He has wealth, business relationships to threaten, and other methods of influence, not to mention an army of right-wing trolls and/or government officials who indulge his every grievance. No telling whether he’s called any of those favors in, or tech firms are just helping shush the baby as a matter of habit.

………

But Musk can’t stop people from talking about how much he doesn’t want them to see Musk, can he? Perhaps that Streisand effect will kick into motion soon enough.

One can only hope for the Streisand effect.

Nakedly Corrupt and Partisan

In an unsigned shadow docket opinion (the 3 court liberals issued a dissent) the Supreme Court issued a ruling saying that the Trump Administration’s "Verified Voter" database.

Despite the fact that the database is inaccurate, and despite the Supreme Court's own Purcell Doctrine, which says that courts should not change rules too close to the elections, the corrupt 6 want to allow the Trump to use their bogus database to undermine the election.

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Trump administration can deploy an expansive online system that combines citizenship information, Social Security numbers and other sensitive data about millions of Americans, allowing states to use it to hunt for ineligible voters.

Critics fear that states could use the system to purge large numbers of valid voters from their rolls ahead of the midterm elections.

The decision is a win for President Trump, who has pressed his administration to find evidence of widespread noncitizen voting, even though such instances are exceedingly rare. However, states are not required to use the federal system and it remains to be seen how much enthusiasm there will be among local and state election officials for it, as it has mistakenly flagged U.S. citizens as noncitizens in past searches.

The majority concluded that a lower-court ruling that had blocked the Trump administration from rolling out the system was improper because it inhibited “the federal government’s efforts to assist state and local agencies in the proper administration of the midterm elections.”

The emergency ruling was unsigned and gave no vote count, but the court’s three liberal justices joined in dissent. In a 12-page dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson emphasized that the majority’s decision created the conditions for some states to cancel the voter registrations of at least some recently naturalized citizens or to force them to provide proof of citizenship before voting.

Force Majeur?

Oracle has issued a force majeur warning to the companies building and funding the a data center in them for New Mexico.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, "force majeur," is a concept in contract law that serves as a kind of, "Get out of jail free," card.

Typically, things like wars, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and strikes might trigger a force majeur.

It appears that Oracle believes that potential delays in grid connections qualify.  

That has to be the lamest reason for an attempt to invoke this provision that have ever heard of.

Oracle set out last year to lease a massive AI data-center campus being built in New Mexico’s Doña Ana County, part of a blitz of deals to create computing power for OpenAI.

The company made aggressive financial commitments for the facility in contracts that allow it little wiggle room. Now, “Project Jupiter” is mired in challenges over power supply and permitting and is fast becoming a prime example of the risks in the tech giant’s sprawling and expensive artificial-intelligence gambit.

………

Earlier this week, Oracle delivered a force majeure notice to Stack Infrastructure—the site’s developer, which is owned by investment firm Blue Owl Capital funds—that it would push back the date at which it will pay full rent. The lease gives Oracle the right to do that for up to three years. Project Jupiter’s first phase was originally expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2028.

Oracle said that force majeure notices are commonplace in projects like the one in New Mexico and don’t necessarily mean there is a delay or change in expectations.

“Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule,” a spokesman said in an email. “We are fully committed to New Mexico and confident in our path forward.

Yeah sure.  Confident.

More like trying to dump these contracts because interest rates on the financing have jumped. 

Well They Would, Wouldn't They? ⃰

Flock Safety is attempting to suppress a new extremely accurate map of all of their spy equipment locations.

It turns out that their network is far more extensive than previously known. 

Amid mounting concerns about its sprawling surveillance camera network, Flock Security told the press this summer that it operates more than 120,000 cameras nationwide.

But a new map published Wednesday by a cybersecurity researcher reveals Flock’s nationwide reach is even bigger. Based on location coordinates from Flock’s own database, the map shows more than 170,000 cameras, plus more than 130,000 accompanying gadgets that play a part in the company’s expansive American surveillance network.

Joshua Michael’s Flock Surveillance Map highlights the locations of what he says are 300,000 Flock surveillance devices spread across the country. His findings — which were cited in Wednesday’s Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism hearing on Flock — differ from existing maps of Flock’s automated license plate readers in scope and methodology.

Unlike crowd-sourced projects such as DeFlock, which are built on locations submitted by users, the Flock Surveillance Map relies on location data culled from a snapshot, archived by Michael in December 2025, of Flock’s own records. In addition to cameras, it maps supplemental devices — including 27,000 acoustic detection devices, as well as networking equipment that integrates third-party cameras — to illustrate the scale of Flock’s surveillance web.

………

Michael told The Intercept that Flock’s recent claims about its data security record don’t reflect reality. Flock has publicly claimed multiple times that the company has never experienced a data breach, “and this was after I pulled their database of devices.”

“That leaves two possibilities,” he said. “Either they knew and chose not to disclose it for fear of bad press, or they didn’t know I exfiltrated the data at all. The first is a transparency failure. The second is a detection failure with national security implications.”

On Thursday, Michael was notified that Doppel, which describes itself as an “AI-native social engineering defense platfom,” filed a trademark infringement complaint regarding his site, claiming to be working on Flock’s behalf. Doppel says that the site is using the trademark “FLOCK SAFETY” without authorization, which “may cause customer confusion / harm.” Doppel requested the site be taken down.

As opposed to securing their network, they are trying to use bull sh%$ trademark claims.

^*Mandy Rice-Davies Applies.

Today in Corruption

According to whistle-blowers Kennedy Center management has systematically ignored maintenance needs in order the manufacture a justification for shutting down the facility.

Needless to say, this is not the behavior of a good faith actor.

Former employees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts say that center officials canceled a plan to start overhauling its leaking infrastructure months ago, despite those officials now asserting the leaks posed an urgent safety risk requiring the building to close.

On Thursday, a lawyer for the former employees sent internal documents and a letter that detailed their concerns to Congress amid mounting scrutiny of President Trump’s reign over the Washington arts institution.

The center’s main building remains closed because of what officials have characterized as escalating structural deterioration that was never properly addressed by former leadership. But in the letter to Congress sent via a lawyer, the former employees say it’s clear the problems have been exaggerated because, given the chance, the center deferred responding to them over the past year.

………

Democratic lawmakers have accused officials of using the maintenance issues as a pretext for a shutdown that is actually necessitated by the center’s financial and artistic decline under Mr. Trump.

Gee, you think. 

This Only Way This Prank Could Be More Epic Would Be if Virginia Woolf Were a Co-Conspirator Oh, Wait.

It's the early 1900s, and the most powerful ship of its day, HMS Dreadnought, is visited by an Abyssinian Prince and his entourage.

Only it wasn't an Abyssinian Prince and his entourage, it was a bunch of pranksters from Cambridge University. 

One of the participants was one Virginia Stephen, better known by here married name of Woolf, who later observed that she was treated with more respect when she was disguised as a black man than she was as a white woman, which likely informed some of her later feminist writings.

In any case, the prank, and it's stupid macho aftermath, is well worth learning about.

No Blogging Tonite

My son for into an accident.  A motorcycle ran into his car. 

Thankfully, no injuries.

So, Tech Bros are Rapey? Hoocoodanode!

It seems that "Hacker Houses" are a thing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Someone who hit the tech lottery sets one or more houses that function as group homes for coders.

The residents go to work, and to blow off steam, they sexually harass and sexually assault women at their parties.

We already knew that they were self entitled misogynous assholes.

Packing them in like sardines and throwing money at parties in an attempt to keep the residents working is a petri dish for sexual misconduct.

The eight-bedroom Mediterranean-style mansion, which borders a golf course in the wealthy Silicon Valley town of Hillsborough, Calif., has gone through a lot in recent years.

………

The mansion is one of the most prominent — and notorious — tech group homes, which have proliferated across Silicon Valley and San Francisco amid the artificial intelligence boom. Long gone are the fraternity-style rental homes popularized by Mark Zuckerberg in the early days of Facebook, where grungy engineers coded all day and crammed into shared rooms at night.

Today these so-called hacker houses are driven by missions, like the advancement of humanity, and have become critical nodes for the A.I. industry. Residents are often start-up founders or engineers working at OpenAI or Anthropic. Rent can hit $10,000 a month for a room.

But what has unfolded in them has sometimes gone far beyond socializing and networking. Some houses have become the sites for sexual harassment cases and rape allegations, as well as infighting among residents, according to previously unreported police reports obtained by The New York Times, court records and more than 20 people in the A.I. industry.

………

At the mansion in Hillsborough known as AGI House — named for “artificial general intelligence,” a technology that can match the powers of the human mind — the local police have logged 37 incidents since 2022. At least 17 were related to complaints about large parties and events, according to the reports.

The others included an episode in December when a woman called the police and told them that a male AGI House resident had pressured her to have sex; she climbed over a gate to escape. Last year, the police were also asked at least four times to perform welfare checks, which typically happen when people experience mental health issues or are considered unsafe to themselves or others.

………

Some of the industry’s biggest names are involved. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, has advised the Residency, which aims to be a global network of hacker houses for “ambitious builders” to live and work.

………

Sofie Bukovska, 26, who works at the A.I. film production company Trippy Pictures, moved into AGI House last year for a few months and said she had quickly realized how helpful it was to her career. She met A.I. executives and personalities, including Grimes, whom she probably wouldn’t have otherwise, she said.

The atmosphere “was something very different from normal life,” Ms. Bukovska said.

Rocky Yu, a venture capitalist who has managed AGI House since 2023, has tried to curb the partying, he has claimed in court documents. Reached by phone, he said he was not aware of any police reports and declined to answer questions.

The mansion, which is connected to a venture capital fund, is backed by Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive, and Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist, according to its website. A representative for Mr. Andreessen said he was not involved.

………

The 18,000-square-foot property has become such a center of gravity for the A.I. industry that Mr. Yu and a former manager are embroiled in a court battle over who owns the rights to the AGI House brand. The home has become emblematic of the behind-the-scenes issues — often not publicly discussed — that group houses face.

………

AGI House’s roots trace back to Jeremy Nixon, 33, a former Google researcher who established other tech group homes before the A.I. boom. One that he co-founded around 2019 at a five-bedroom house in San Francisco was called Genesis.

………

Yehong Zhu, 30, who is not related to Mr. Zhu, filed a police report accusing a former Genesis house member of rape and assault in December 2021, according to a copy of the report. She has lived in four tech houses and initially viewed them almost as utopias where she could quickly meet other entrepreneurs, she said, before seeing a darker side.

Ms. Zhu’s case remains under investigation. The Genesis resident she accused has left the house and cannot be located, she said.

“I’m far from the only one this has happened to,” said Ms. Zhu, the founder of an A.I. start-up called Zette.

It appears that tech frat boys are even worse than the ordinary kind of frat boys.

Least Surprising News of the Day

Is anyone surprised that Maine Senator Susan Collins was likely engaging in corrupt pay to play campaign donations with a defense contractor and that the FBI was hot on her trail until the Trump DoJ stood down the investigation?

I'm not. 

Collins has responded with a profoundly misleading denial.

In the final weeks of 2019, a top fundraiser for Sen. Susan Collins walked into a perilous meeting at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C.

For the first time in her two-decade Senate career, the Republican lawmaker from Maine was in danger of losing her seat. President Donald Trump’s dismal approval ratings were dragging her down in the polls, and she was falling behind her likely 2020 Democratic challenger in fundraising.

Scott Reed, head of the Collins super PAC, was on a mission to close that gap. Reed was meeting that day with three executives from a Hawaiian defense contractor, Navatek. A year earlier, Collins had helped their company land a multimillion-dollar Navy research contract in Maine. Now, seated at a coffee shop not far from the U.S. Capitol, Reed asked them for a $500,000 donation.

Government contractors are banned from making political contributions. More consequentially, for the company to offer donations to Collins in exchange for an official action, or for Collins to accept, would constitute criminal bribery.

But the company did have such a proposal: Navatek was hungry for more government contracts in Maine. If they cut a big check, the CEO told Reed, Navatek wanted Collins to guarantee tens of millions of dollars in additional federal funding.

To skirt campaign finance laws and conceal the source of the funds, Navatek planned to funnel the donation through a shell company. The CEO wanted assurance that Collins would know where the money came from. Reed confirmed that she would, the executive said — and that Navatek would get its government contracts.

To quote the Maine Senator, this apparent quid pro quo makes me, "Concerned."

Why Am I Not Surprised?

It appears that the original architect for the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Trump ballroom pulled out of the project because Trump was demanding that he design an unsafe building.

Trump thinks that he is above safety regulations.  Imagine that?

In the weeks leading up to his resignation last year, the first architect on the White House ballroom clashed with President Donald Trump over design features that the architect believed violated building safety codes, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions and corroborating documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

James McCrery II withdrew from the project last October after warning repeatedly that Trump was insisting on a preliminary design that did not provide adequate emergency exit routes or fire-containment measures, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions.

Trump brushed off McCrery’s concerns, they said, and the president countered that no building codes apply to White House construction.

“I am the code,” Trump said.

That episode, as described by the people familiar with the matter, offers new insight into Trump’s priorities for the ballroom at a time when he is flexing executive power to fast-track construction projects across the nation’s capital. The interviews and documents obtained by The Post — including early ballroom designs and images Trump appeared to have marked up with his trademark black-ink Sharpie — also show how deeply involved the president has been in the details of the project.

So, in addition to being a crime against architecture, it appears that the ballroom is just a crime.

Republican Family Values

Have you heard the one about the state representative who co-authored the Texas abortion ban paid for multiple abortions for his former exotic dancer mistress?

Also, he started f%$#ing her when she was just 18.

No, this is not a joke.

Texas Republican state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione helped write one of the country’s strictest abortion laws.

Now he’s been forced into a stunning admission after a woman revealed that she had carried on a 17-year relationship with Capriglione and accused him of “secretly paying for multiple abortions.”

“Years ago, I selfishly had an affair,” the Southlake Republican said in a statement after the allegations became public. “I’m not proud of this.”

And that’s where this story gets politically explosive.

Capriglione was the House author of Texas’ 2021 Human Life Protection Act, the so-called trigger ban that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The law prohibits abortion except under specified circumstances and provides both civil and criminal penalties.

The woman making the allegations is Alex Grace, a former exotic dancer who says she met Capriglione in 2004, when she was 18, according to International Business Times.

Stay classy, my froiend.

This is Beautiful, Man!

Too good not to share
by u/Roy4Pris in Military

It's funny because it's true.

Good News Everyone!

Walmart workers at a distribution center in  Mississauga, Ontario have secured the first successful union contract in the retail giant's history.  (There was an earlier attempt, but IIRC Walmart shut down every butcher counter in the chain after they won that union election rather than negotiate.)

Eight hundred workers at a Walmart distribution center in Mississauga, Ontario, succeeded where others have not: they are now working under a two-year contract with North America’s largest logistics giant.

The landmark collective bargaining agreement went into effect on July 1, nearly two years after workers won union representation, joining Unifor Local 252, motivated by low wages and unsafe working conditions.

As punishment two years ago, Walmart bumped the pay of every logistics worker in Canada—except those who unionized. This was an effective maneuver to halt further union drives.

“Walmart gave all the wage increases to all the non-union folks, and everything fell apart,” said Angela Drew Kimelman, a Unifor organizer who worked on organizing campaigns at multiple warehouses, including one in Cornwall, near Montreal.

But now, the new contract prevents Walmart from raising wages at other warehouses without doing the same at this one. The unionized workers have received a matching raise, and back pay for the months when other warehouse workers received raises that they didn’t.

Unifor has restarted its organizing efforts at other Ontario warehouses.

Walmart management is a bunch of evil motherf%$#ers who should suffer the fate of the Marketing Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.

This Has Me Stoked

Disney is rebooting the Darkwing Duck animated series with Mark Hamill as the voice of the main character.

Disney is about to get dangerous. Six years after news of the project first broke, Disney has greenlit a brand-new animated version of the hit 1990s show Darkwing Duck for Disney+. Mark Hamill will voice the title character, with Seth Rogen producing and providing the voice of Launchpad McQuack.

The show is a continuation of the story told in the original series, which ran for 91 episodes in the early 1990s. “For the last 35 years, Darkwing Duck has been trapped in his worst nightmare: an alternate world that’s never heard of his superhero exploits,” the official description reads. “Now a rebellious teen named Duckie who knows all about his heroic past shows up to pull this ego-fueled vigilante back into battle. Together, this unlikely duo will get dangerous to fight old enemies like Negaduck and Megavolt and reunite with allies Launchpad, Gosalyn, and Morgana to save the entire universe.”

Duckie is voiced by Lilimar, who voiced Val in Inside Out 2. Lizzy Caplan is Gosalyn Mallard, Dan Stevens is Glade McTowers, and it’s being showrun by Sean Tretta (Star Trek: Picard) and Borja Peña Gorostegui. The original creator of Darkwing Duck, Tad Stones, consulted on the series.

“Like every other fan of the original show, I’m excited to see Darkwing getting dangerous again in a whole new series,” Stones said in a press release. “The new creative team has certainly amped up the action and comedy without forgetting the Disney heart. This series places DW in the literary tradition of Robin Hood, Zorro, and Sherlock Holmes, heroes whose lore has been reinterpreted by multiple creators in multiple mediums. They explored the core of those characters by tossing them into new eras, new relationships, and even new universes. No matter when or where, Darkwing Duck will appear in a cloud of blue smoke to grab the spotlight.”

There are some risks, but, "Like the chicken said, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it." (An actual homage of Superchicken used in the original series.)

I cannot wait for this to show up on the torrents. (Like I'm gonna give a cent to the f%$#ing mouse) 

Linkage

• The Movement to Ban Glyphosate Grows (Barn Raising Media) But bought and paid for "Environmentalists" and "Liberals" still support the herbicide.
• What If The System Isn’t Broken? (Chusana Prasertkul) The author suggests that our current system is performing as intended, which is f%$#ing scary.
• Full article: Unequal exchange between France and Africa’s CFA zone: monetary dependency and imperialist appropriation (New Political Economy) The French continue to exploit their former colonies.
• Does the discovery of a new coronavirus upend the Covid-19 lab-leak hypothesis? | Research | Chemistry World By, "Upend," they mean another nail in the coffin.  
• Unprecedented: Most Supreme Court Decisions Issued On 'Shadow Docket' (National Memo) The "Shadow Docket" is something that Congress has express authority to regulate.  They dhould do so.
• German Court Holds Meta Liable for Scam Ads (Technology Org) This long overdue result comes from an EU high court ruling that, "A platform can lose its hosting protection when its algorithm, working in the operator’s interest, chooses which content users see and in what sequence."  
• T. rex teeth indicate it ran as warm as an elephant (Ars Technica) This has been known in the shift of predator to prey ratios for decades.
• Microsoft Director Privately Admitted AI Was the "Largest Theft of Labor in Human History," Unsealed Court Documents Show (Futurism) The "Titans of Tech" tell the truth in slack chats.

This is an interesting video. The basic thesis, that the "Bomber Mafia" was wrong in their belief that the bomber could always get through, is correct.

Speaking of Political Cowardice

It appears that Democratic consultants are telling candidates that they should play nice with AI companies.

They claim that they are worried that these companies will spend too much money if they get their feelings hurt, which I do not believe.

I believe that the consultants really want is to continue to have access to that sweet AI and data center cash.

Democratic consultants are privately encouraging their battleground candidates to avoid talking about artificial intelligence regulations out of fear that powerful tech groups will unleash a tidal wave of spending against them ahead of November.

That guidance came from strategists in three separate top-tier House races, according to people involved in those races, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. And it follows a surge in AI panic on Capitol Hill as industry leaders warn about existential threats posed by their rapidly developing technology.

Voters are increasingly worried about AI: About two-thirds of Americans say there’s a risk advanced AI could destroy humanity in a new POLITICO Poll. President Donald Trump has called that concern a “hoax,” leaving an opening for Democrats to seize on the issue. But they still are grappling with how hard to go after big tech.

Senior Democrats and candidates are worried that if they go too hard in criticizing AI, industry-affiliated super PACs could drop millions more dollars against them, according to interviews with more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers and strategists. They are especially worried about a slate of competitive races, including Reps. Don Davis in North Carolina, Marcy Kaptur in Ohio, Henry Cuellar in Texas and a handful of South Texas and Pennsylvania races, getting hit with even more spending on topics like AI.

AI and data centers are phenomenally unpopular.  Democrats hate them, Republicans hate them, MAGAts hate them, Communists hate them.

If AI goes after you, how is this anything but a positive thing for a candidate?

This is political consultants looking at the needs of their paycheck, not the needs of their clients. 

This Sh%$ is Getting Real

The Houthis have now made drone strikes in Riyadh, bringing the war home to Saudi Arabia in a very concrete way.

What took them so long?

Saudi civil defense sent an all-clear on Saturday after issuing alerts for a second time for potential danger in Riyadh and the city of Al-Kharj east of the capital, amid an uptick in attacks by Iran-backed Houthis on the Gulf country.

The alerts were the first for the capital since Houthis in neighboring Yemen intensified their attacks on Saudi Arabia.

A Reuters journalist heard two booms in Riyadh’s Olaya area.

The alerts come hours after the Houthis' military spokesperson said the group had foiled unspecified "criminal attempts" in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, blaming Saudi Arabia and vowing a response.

Were I a betting man, my money would be on Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud eventually being forced into some sort of accommodation of the Houthis.

Flock for Thee but Not for Me

When I first heard about the DC police union objecting to the use of Flock cameras, I thought that perhaps someone in the organization was showing some integrity.

Silly me, Police Benevolent Associations and their ilk have no integrity at all. 

What they were objecting to was the use of Flock cameras to enforce police accountability.

The national blowback against Flock license-plate readers is also hitting the Washington region, with D.C.’s police union and leaders in a Northern Virginia city raising concerns about the use of the technology in recent days.

Gregg Pemberton, president of the D.C. police union, said Friday the city’s department has used license plate readers for many years and is a powerful investigative tool. But he noted Flock’s technology can also create detailed files on people not suspected of any crimes.

………

Pemberton’s skepticism of the technology also comes as the union said it learned the police force’s internal affairs department had used the technology to investigate sworn officers.

The union filed misconduct complaints and a grievance about what it said was improper use of the technology, but Pemberton said department leadership has so far declined to investigate. The department has since restricted access to the system, according to the union.

To the degree that the Flock panopticon can be said to have a highest use, the investigation of potential police misconduct is that highest use.

The fact that the cops are gored by their own ox is a good thing.

Of Course They Caved

Despite every indication that they would win in court, state attorneys general have settled with Paramount for little more than some magic beans, because our political system has been deeply corrupted  by big money.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has settled the challenge that he brought with 11 other state AGs to the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. The deal to settle the suit is both improbable and outrageous.

The $81 billion merger will give the Ellison family control of two of America’s biggest media companies, rolled into one behemoth combining film, television, sports, entertainment, and news. It would slash jobs and reduce competition throughout several industries. David Ellison has already destroyed the independence of CBS News. This would allow him to destroy CNN as well.

As an indication of the strength of Bonta’s case, on July 20, U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a temporary restraining order against the merger that rejected many of Paramount’s arguments, and scheduled a trial for next March. At that point, the Ellisons began applying political pressure for a settlement and threatening that Paramount would leave California if the suit succeeded.

In late August, Bonta canceled a scheduled meeting with representatives of Paramount after leaks of supposed settlement talks began appearing in the media, accusing Paramount of bad-faith tactics.

The tactics never changed. Paramount, Bonta, and other AGs spent the weekend in “advanced settlement talks” in which Paramount would stay in California, agree to 30 film releases per year among the two studios under threat of divesting some production companies if they don’t, invest $1.5 billion, and add an editorial board to allow for independence at CNN and CBS. The leaks of the deal very likely came from Paramount.

………

Yet Bonta caved under pressure, after being abandoned by every major politician in California (from current Gov. Gavin Newsom to heir apparent Xavier Becerra to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass), all of whom are worried about jobs in the event of a Paramount exit. But Paramount’s stated plan post-merger includes $8 billion in “savings,” which translates into the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

So, the right-wing nepo-baby, and his even more right-wing dad, end up with control over much of the US media landscape.

This sucks. 

Trump Admin Lying About Troop Deaths

Is anyone surprised that Pete Hegseth's Pentagon is lying about casualties?

Hell, the US military has been lying about troop deaths since before Vietnam. 

More American service members have died in the Middle East during the ongoing Iran war than the Pentagon has disclosed publicly, according to six U.S. officials familiar with the Defense Department’s internal casualty accounting data.

Five of the officials said there have been at least 22 military fatalities — four more than what appears in the Pentagon’s public database, known as the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS.

A sixth official, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the figures, said 23 service members have died since Feb. 28, when the Trump administration, in concert with Israel, initiated the Iran war. Not all of the undisclosed deaths are directly tied to the conflict but have involved U.S. personnel who were in the Middle East amid ongoing hostilities, this person said.

Additionally, the official said, three U.S. contractors who were based in the region have died since combat operations began.

As of Friday, the Pentagon’s DCAS database lists 18 U.S. military fatalities, including deaths caused by hostile and nonhostile action dating to the start of the Iran conflict.

 

This Makes Me Smile

It looks like Flock Security is now offering employee buyouts in an attempt to reduce headcount.

They have become too toxic, and contracts are being canceled, not being renewed, or sales inquiries are being rebuffed.

Good. 

Flock Safety announced a voluntary employee separation program on Friday, offering a “generous” severance package to those who want to leave amid growing backlash against the surveillance technology company, according to an internal email shared with WIRED.

Applications for Flock’s voluntary severance program opened Friday, and employees have until October 2 to decide whether to leave the company. Flock expects to grant buyouts to the majority of workers who apply, according to the email. People familiar with the program but not authorized to discuss it publicly say they believe that a significant number of the startup’s roughly 1,500 employees may try to depart.

Flock is making the severance offers as it continues to lose customers amid growing frustration across the US about its sprawling network of license plate readers, which have raised concerns about privacy and misuse. In the last month, WIRED has documented officers allegedly abusing Flock to track former romantic partners and colleagues, exposed how widely some agencies share access to the system, shown how little is known about the manufacturing of the devices, and revealed in new detail how much information Flock’s cameras collect based on data from a dismantled Flock device.

 

Headline of the Day

FBI Warns ICE Agents Not to Trust Any Woman Willing to Date Them

—Gizmodo on the warning to ICE agents that no woman in their right mind would want to date them without an ulterior motive.

So, ICE are basically a large violent incel pod.

Completely Unfair

It appears that as sick of SecDef Pete Hegseth's Pentagon staffers are, they find his overbearing wife Jennifer even more aggravating that Captain Cirrhosis.

It's gotten to the point that she is widely referred to as, "Yoko Ono." 

Pentagon insiders are sounding the alarm over the “mess” engulfing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s department — as his wife reportedly tightens her grip on both her husband and his public image.

“She's like his parole officer and PR agent all at once,” one source told the Daily Mail, which detailed Jennifer Hegseth’s unusually powerful but unofficial presence inside the Trump Pentagon.

“Now there's a woman with an extremely tight leash on the man she married,” another source told the outlet Thursday.

Staffers have reportedly nicknamed Jennifer Hegseth “Yoko Ono,” comparing her to John Lennon’s fiercely protective wife. She has accompanied her husband to meetings with foreign defense officials, reportedly taken notes and photos during some discussions, and was included in a sensitive Signal chat about U.S. military operations.

This is completely unfair ……… to Yoko Ono.

Now there is a sentence that I could not have imagined ever saying just a few years ago. 

Pathetic

Remarkable achievements 😜

[image or embed]

— Antifa H.R. Manager on Blueskee (@starfinder.bsky.social) September 19, 2026 at 11:07 AM

Lame

So, it appears thatTrump's, "Triumph," on Greenland is little more than a restatement of an agreement that has been in force for over 75 years.

So much winning. 

Donald Trump is celebrating a Greenland security deal as a “dream come true”—even though it stops short of the thing he has spent months demanding: control of Greenland.

Trump crowed on Truth Social Friday that the proposed arrangement with Denmark and Greenland addresses “ALL” of the United States’ concerns about the strategic Arctic territory.

Denmark and Greenland had a different take on the proposed agreement, which involves an update to a 1951 treaty between the U.S. and Denmark that already allowed the U.S. to maintain a military presence and expand its activities in Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a joint statement that the agreement will strengthen the security of the Arctic and the North Atlantic. The proposed deal also pointedly recognizes “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination,” while keeping Greenland under Danish sovereignty.

………

Trump boasted in his post that no other president has been able to work out any deal, but he failed to mention the 1951 agreement.

Seriously, just how tiny is Donald Trump's schwanzstucker?

Headline of the Day

Republicans Don't Have a Nazi Problem—They Are the Nazi Problem

—The Handbasket

This is true. This is as true as turnips is and as true as taxes is and nothing's truer than them.

Since Nothing Happened Anywhere in the World Today

I won't be blocking tonight. 

Actually, things did happen, what the f#$& Greenland? 

I think I have a stomach bug or something so I'm resting. 

Posted via mobile.

Kawaii

So cute!


What a cute homicidal killer!

Showing major 'tude For the first time in over 100 years a new cat species has been identified in Bolivia.

The diminutive cat, it weighs around 1½ kilos, has been named Leopardus tilcayo.

I want one.  I also want a Pallas' cat, but I am getting neither.  These are wild animals, and except for professionals doing rehabilitation or study, people should not disturb them.

But they are so cute!

A diminutive wild cat that inhabits Bolivia’s ⁠cloud forest has been identified as a previously unknown species, marking the first time a new living feline species has been formally named and described in more than a century.

The cat, called tilcayo by local communities, is part of a group called tiger ⁠cats found across much of South ⁠America. It was found in Bolivia’s ​lush Yungas forest, a mountainous region where forests are often covered by clouds and surrounded by high humidity, according to researchers. It measures about 18in (46cm) long and weighs about 3lb (1.4kg), making it smaller than the average domestic ⁠cat.

Researchers used genetic data to confirm that the cat is a new species, and gave it the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo, retaining its local name.

Tiger cats are difficult to distinguish by physical characteristics, and this cutie pie was identified through DNA studies.

Score one for DNA assisted taxonomy. 

It's Thursday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

First, let me say that I have no f%$#ing clue as to what is going on in the US economy.

What I do know is that yesterday, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee hiked its benchmark rate by 25 basis points (¼%) for the first time since 2023.

How's that Iran War going, Donnie?

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates Wednesday for the first time in three years, a sharp reversal that began taking back cuts it made last year and implicitly undercut the White House’s insistence that inflation isn’t a concern.

The increase, approved unanimously, will raise the benchmark federal-funds rate range by a quarter point to between 3.75% and 4%. The vast majority of officials penciled in one more hike this year in interest-rate projections released after their meeting.

Chairman Kevin Warsh vowed shortly after taking office in May to end an overshoot of the Fed’s 2% target now in its sixth year and followed through with an increase that had been widely anticipated in recent days.

“Today’s action starts to show that we’re serious about this,” Warsh said at a news conference. The Fed’s policy statement said its action would support a “timelier” return to the inflation goal.

The rate hike scrambled an account the White House had offered of the man tapped by President Trump for the job in January. Trump and his allies had cast pressure to raise rates as coming from a committee hostile to Warsh, who last year said he would have cut rates sooner than the Fed ultimately did.

Meanwhile, in related economic news, (I'm sure that the FOMC knew this yesterday) we had initial unemployment claims falling by 10,000 to 196,000 and continuing claims falling by  39,000 to 1.730 million.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, though the decline was likely exaggerated by the Labor Day holiday, with the ​underlying trend pointing to continued labor market stability.

………

"The exceptionally depressed number last week might reflect seasonal adjustment issues related to Labor Day, but the underlying picture remains encouraging," said Samuel Tombs, chief US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. "For now, then, the Fed will remain laser-focused on inflation."

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 196,000 for the week ended September 12, the lowest level since mid-July, the ​Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 208,000 claims for the latest week.

………

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 162,000 jobs in August after job growth slowed sharply in the prior three months. The claims report showed the number of people receiving unemployment benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, dropped 39,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.730 million during the week ended September 5, the lowest level since January 2024.

I expect to see home sales falling sharply with the interest rate hike, and as to commercial real estate, I think that it going to get even uglier. 

………

Rising inflation is boosting mortgage rates, putting pressure on the housing market.

A separate report from the Commerce Department's Census Bureau on Thursday showed permits for the future construction of single-family homes dropped 1.8% in August to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 878,000 units. Building permits increased 1.3% on a year-over-year basis.

The decline over ​the month in permits followed on the heels of news ​on Wednesday of a slump in single-family homebuilder ⁠sentiment to a one-year low in September.

The National Association of Home Builders blamed the deterioration in morale on rising mortgage rates as well as worsening labor shortages because of an immigration crackdown and higher prices for materials amid import tariffs.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has jumped nearly 100 basis points since the Middle East war started. It ​averaged 6.95% in the latest week, the highest level since January 2025, data from mortgage finance firm Freddie Mac showed.

………

Multi-family homebuilding plunged 22.5% to a rate of 344,000 units in August. Multi-family housing starts decreased 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. Overall housing starts fell 2.6% to a pace ⁠of 1.275 million ​units. They decreased 1.2% on a year-over-year basis in August. Residential investment has contracted in five of the last six quarters.

It's going to be interesting to see how the sagging real estate market shakes out in the next few months, particularly in Florida, where real-estate fraud is about  ⅔ of the economy.

Criminals Gotta Crime

Said criminal is the Apartheid Era Emerald Heir Pedo Guy™, who is under investigation for breaking the law in his rollout of his Robotaxi.

Safety, schmafety, I guess. 

It says nothing good about America how easily Elon Musk convinced the press and public he was a supergenius engineer who could cobble together complicated rocket machinery wearing coveralls in his backyard shed.

Hindsight continues to illustrate how Elon Musk’s real skill sets are opportunism, taking singular credit for the innovations of real engineers, the manipulation of a very broken media, and taking legal, regulatory, environmental, labor, and consumer protection “shortcuts” wherever possible.

Enter the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is investigating Musk’s automated-taxi Cybercab deployments in Austin for violating public safety guidelines.

The Trump NHTSA is updating existing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) to help companies speed toward automated cars and taxis. But until then our previous (already fairly lax) standards still apply. This being America, companies self-certify whether they’re adhering to the rules in order to get a two-year exemption (Amazon’s Zoox got approval last month).

Tesla, owned by a man who doesn’t believe in coherent governance, is facing a new NHTSA investigation for simply refusing to participate in the process

“Ann Carlson, a former acting NHTSA administrator who is now a professor of environmental law at UCLA, says the investigation is likely “an indication that NHTSA is super frustrated with Tesla.” The agency made clear through the Zoox case that it expects driverless vehicle developers to go through the exemption process. “For Tesla to slap them in the face and ignore that—that is gobsmacking,” she says.”

Frog march his flabby white ass out of his offices in handcuffs.

The War is Going Great

Oil at $109/bbl the Houthis took out the East-West oil pipeline.

So much winning.

Oil prices surged higher after a wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure last week forced Riyadh to shut a vital export pipeline.

The kingdom, the world’s top oil exporter, then pulled out of a regional meeting with Iran scheduled for Monday, setting back regional efforts to de-escalate hostilities over the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose as much as 5 per cent to $109.80 a barrel on Monday. It later settled at $109.80, up 1 per cent for the day.

Riyadh announced late Friday that it was shutting the pipeline — which became crucial to the kingdom’s ability to export crude from its oil-rich east to its west coast after Iran throttled shipping through the Hormuz Strait — following a drone attack from Iraq, where Iran-backed Shia militias and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are active.