IST Saturday News Dump–10Oct26

Another week of Donny said this or he said that and all the while other stories fell through the cracks of the MSM….I will try to present those missing stories.

Local–For the past week we have had to deal with Cruisin’ The Coast, the nation’s biggest block party, traffic has been horrendous….

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) — Cruisin’ the Coast is underway, marking the 30th year of the classic car show. The event has grown from 374 vehicles in its first year to more than 10,000 now, according to Cruisin’ the Coast Executive Director Woody Bailey.

Participants are coming from 42 states and five foreign countries this year.

https://www.wlox.com/2026/10/04/cruisin-coast-begins-classic-car-enthusiasts-arrive-42-states-5-countries/

The average 3 people per car plus the rubber necking public that brings about 30,000 visitors for the week….

We prepare for the hurricane and may be out of touch for awhile…..we here on the MS Coast were fortunate and missed this hurricane instead it went into Florida’s panhandle….my thoughts go out to them.

 

Personal–Not really too much personal doings this past week.

I like to start with medical news….especially what is being done with cancer research….

Some troubling news about pancreatic cancer….

Benzodiazepines are medicines commonly used to help with anxiety, panic attacks and sleep problems.

They include lorazepam, often sold as Ativan, and alprazolam, commonly known as Xanax. These drugs are also frequently prescribed to people with cancer, who may experience anxiety and other difficult symptoms during treatment.

Researchers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that two drugs from this same family may be linked to very different outcomes in pancreatic cancer. Their study suggests that lorazepam may be associated with faster cancer progression, while alprazolam may be associated with slower progression.

This Anxiety Drugs is Linked to Faster Pancreatic Cancer Growth

More on pancreatic cancer….

Pancreatic cancer finally has a drug that buys patients more time—and researchers are already racing to figure out why that benefit fades. Daraxonrasib, cleared in August, roughly doubles median survival time for people with advanced pancreatic cancer, but it often stops working after about seven months. That’s not atypical for cancer treatments, reports the New York Times, which points out many patients need to cycle through therapies as effectiveness subsides. But “each type of resistance looks different,” which drove researchers to investigate what’s at play with daraxonrasib in hopes of extending the punch it packs.

Biopsies from 66 patients before, during, and after treatment showed the drug wipes out about half of cancer cells in an astonishing two weeks. But the surviving cells had a different look: The misshapen and wonky appearance of the original cells gave way to ones that looked more like cells that respond to chemo. Separately, blood tests from 44 patients showed many tumors start producing large amounts of KRAS, the very protein daraxonrasib targets. The findings suggest that combinations of multiple KRAS inhibitors, or pairing daraxonrasib with chemotherapy, may stretch out its effectiveness.

Read the full story here.

This cancer is like aggressive skin cancer almost always deadly.

If you know someone fighting cancer this might be of interest….

Around 12% of the world’s cancer cases in 2024 were likely caused by an infection, according to new research from the World Health Organization (WHO). The study, published today in The Lancet Oncology, analyzed the frequency and causes of different cancers, specifically examining the role of infections.

It linked 2.3 million new cancer cases to an infection. Most were caused by just five pathogens: Helicobacter pylori (4%), human papillomavirus, or HPV (4%), hepatitis B (2%), Epstein-Barr virus (1%) and hepatitis C (under 1%). These infections can cause more than 20 types of cancer, including stomach, liver, blood and cervical cancers.

So, how can an infection cause cancer? And does this mean these cancers are preventable?

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-cancers-infection-worldwide.html

Be mindful of these opportunities for cancer to make an appearance.

An unusual criminal conspiracy….

Federal prosecutors recently described an interstate criminal enterprise with all the trappings of organized crime: clandestine warehouses, money laundering and stolen goods transported across state lines. The mid-September 2026 announcement stated that 19 defendants faced charges; two had just pleaded guilty, while the remainder are slated for trial in April 2027.

The stolen material was not drugs, guns or jewels. It was leftover cooking oil.

According to prosecutors, members of the group drove trucks to restaurants in 10 states, siphoned used cooking oil from collection tanks and transported it to depots for resale. The alleged motive was simple: Used cooking oil has value. It can be refined into biodiesel. A viscous fluid that the food industry formerly considered garbage has become valuable enough to spur a large-scale criminal operation.

https://theconversation.com/criminal-conspiracy-to-steal-used-cooking-oil-shows-how-trash-can-become-treasure-292653

This ranks up there with the theft of Tide pods awhile back….

This is a what was he thinking category….

Airport security in Miami say they made a very literal bird bust. Federal authorities allege 40-year-old Alberto Hernandez Castillo arrived at Miami International Airport from Havana on Monday with 10 live birds hidden in plastic tubes sewn into his underwear. A customs officer reportedly selected him for secondary screening, where an unexplained bulge in his waistband and visible nerves triggered further checks, reports NBC Miami.

A pat-down uncovered six clear cylinders with mesh over one end, each containing live birds—two blue grosbeaks and eight yellow-faced grassquits, a species not usually found in the US, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by the Miami Herald. Hernandez Castillo, a Cuban national and US permanent resident, had declared he was not bringing animals into the country and lacked required import paperwork, officials say. He allegedly told officers the birds were for his “personal use.” He is charged with smuggling goods into the US.

Like something out of a scifi movie….maybe something like Sharknado…..

Whenever you see a street-swimming shark doing the rounds on social media, it pays to be skeptical. This time, however, you can rest assured it’s the real deal.

Last weekend, a shark was spotted swimming down a residential street after flooding hit Surf City, a borough on Long Beach Island, Ocean County, New Jersey.

“Is that a little shark? Oh my god,” a person can be heard saying in the footage. “He’s coming this way,” they added.

But fear not; this wasn’t a Jaws-like villain prowling around town for human prey. The animal was most likely a dusky smooth-hound (Mustelus canis), also called a smooth dogfish or dog shark, which average only 120 centimeters (42 inches) in length and pose no threat to humans.

https://www.iflscience.com/shark-spotted-prowling-the-streets-of-new-jersey-during-noreaster-flooding-84826

This is why ‘influencers’ are a bad idea….

In the year of 2026, a health influencer is claiming that they have been drinking radioactive water for the past 250 days.

If you don’t know why that’s a bad idea, we heavily suggest you look into Radithor, Eben Byers, the “Radium Girls“, and just radiation in general.

But just in case you needed a bit of a reminder, let’s explore just how long we’ve known that usually radiation is not, in fact, that good for your health.

Only idiots allow this type of crap to influence their lives.

That will do it for today…..a hurricane ya know.

Have a good and safe day….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

I Guess I Am His Enemy

AI is everywhere and good deal Donny thinks that a rename is needed….so now his instructions are that instead of AI it will be called ‘super intelligence’…..and he is serious about the name change….

President Trump has a new linguistic red line, and this one relates to his push to get everyone to start using “super intelligence” instead of “artificial intelligence.” In a Truth Social post on Thursday, the president laid it out:

  • “The White House considers anyone that uses the term, ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, ‘Super Intelligence,’ THE ENEMY!” he wrote.

The declaration follows his recent executive order instructing federal agencies to make the switch in semantics, notes the Independent. At least one company has followed suit as well: Elon Musk says SpaceX will change the name of its AI unit from SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI, notes Business Insider. However, CEO Sam Altman tells the Politico Decoded podcast that his company has no plans to change the name of OpenAI.

So I am the enemy?

Then I must be doing something right.

I would think that after the negative things I have said about the idiot in the White House they would know this already.

He has said the I am going to Hell….well people like me…..now I am on an enemy’s list….well I guess in am in good company.

I still called it the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario, etc….his renaming game is not effecting me at all….I will continue to use the term AI and that is that.

Donny can kiss my ass….to put it simply for a simple mind.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The hurricane is predicted to make landfall East of my location….but nothing is for certain until a couple of hours before it smashes into the Coast.

I still have to shudder the house and move stuff around that may be wind effected.

Hopefully I will be here tomorrow and start a weekend without major hurricane damage.

Peace Out my friends.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Moderates And Their Extremism

College of Political Knowledge

2026 Election Series #2

(And the series continues)

With less than a month before we go to the polls and vote for our preferences I would like to talk about what some call the largest voting block in the nation….the moderates, centrists or independents.

The term ‘moderate’ is one that I despise….it is as misleading as the term ‘independent’ (more on that in a later post)….

Let’s look at what being a ‘moderate ‘ means….

A moderate in politics is a person who holds centrist views, avoids extreme or radical positions, and prefers practical problem-solving over strict ideology.  (How many actually stand at the center?)

The supposed core beliefs….

  • The Center Ground: Moderates sit in the middle of the left-right political spectrum. They often combine ideas from both liberal and conservative viewpoints.
  • Pragmatism: They judge issues on a case-by-case basis rather than following a rigid political playbook.
  • Preference for Compromise: They view political cooperation and bipartisanship as essential for good governance.
  • Cautious Change: They support gradual reform rather than sweeping, sudden, or revolutionary changes to society

There you have what politicians and political pundits want you to believe are where most Americans stand….I do not believe that in the least and the last few elections prove it.

These are what the media calls ‘swing voters’….personally I do not believe this at all.

Nowadays “Moderates’ embrace a radical view….

We’ve been hearing a lot of panicky warnings lately after Democratic primary voters chose socialists and other leftists instead of “moderates” in several major elections. The alarm bells got louder this month after Michigan’s progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens – who was, the New York Times reported, “the moderate establishment-backed candidate.”

The soothing “moderate” label routinely goes to candidates like Stevens who’ve supported continual arming of Israel. She “benefited from about $62 million in advertising spending from half a dozen outside groups,” the Times noted. “Over half of that sum came from the super PAC arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the country’s most influential pro-Israel group.”

What’s so “moderate” about supporting genocide?

Politicians are also routinely dubbed “moderate” when they’re running interference for extreme income inequality and deadly healthcare inequities – helping to block popular policy options like tax hikes on the rich and Medicare for All, which is supported by three-quarters of Democrats.

The Democratic base is fed up with a system that gives inordinate power to the wealthy and to large corporations. In the real world, the so-called “moderates” are aligned with a status quo that continues to inflict widespread suffering and preventable death at home and abroad.

To hear timeworn party strategists like James Carville and Paul Begala tell it, leftwing candidates are duping the Democratic electorate. As this month began, Carville threatened to leave the party. Begala made headlines by declaring, “I don’t like the socialists. I can’t stand them.”

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/moderates-support-extreme-injustice/

Moderates want the status quo to remain….all the corruption, the lies, the total lack of empathy for the people…..change is not in their playbook….and without change this country will never move forward….we will remain at the mercy of corporations and their agents like pundits.

What crap!  If anyone is duping the electorate it is these corporate stooges that want the cash to continue to flow.

Some voters are finally seeing what we have been telling them for a generation….moderates are not working for them but rather for themselves and their wallets.

I just wish that the American voter would spend more time looking and researching their candidates and make better decisions on their trip to the polls….but apparently time on Instagram is far more important than improving their lives.

Let the debate begin.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Be The First On Your Block To Witness Death

The White House has cleared a firing squad death for the attacker on Ft. Hood….and now it will be live streamed….

The firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed, the Pentagon said Thursday, a stunning revelation about plans for the first military execution in more than 65 years after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had described it as being “public.”

The Army announced this week that the execution would take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3 after Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the military base in 2009.

Hegseth, speaking to the conservative TV outlet Real America’s Voice on Wednesday, said, “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.” Officials in the Pentagon clarified Thursday that the execution would be livestreamed and that more details would follow.

The revelation from Hegseth about the public nature of the execution — let alone one as violent as a firing squad — has raised further questions about how the death penalty is carried out in the U.S., especially after the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee.

https://apnews.com/article/fort-hood-shooter-execution-pentagon-818853afc1be5c70fe41c5b781a8d559

I have mixed thoughts about this.

This is just a macho move by Pistol Pete to emphasize the miltary-ness that he embraces.

A new low for ‘reality TV’.

Sadly I think it maybe a big hit….for the public has gotten more ghoulish thanx to Donny and the Butts…..

This will not be a deterrent to further terrorists acts…if anything it may create a martyr for what ever cause it is….

This is a game played by morons.

But now ask yourself….what could possibly be next?

How about public hangings?

Under President Donald Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has broken a number of precedents, from targeting Black and female officers in the military to purging top officers for not being sufficiently loyal to the Republican administration. Now he is ordering the first public execution in modern American history.

“Pentagon officials said on Thursday that the Army officer convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting would be executed in public, a practice that ended in the United States nearly a century ago and is most commonly carried out in a handful of countries including Iran, North Korea and the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan,” reported Chris Cameron of The New York Times on Thursday. “The Pentagon said in a statement that the military execution, scheduled for Dec. 3, would also be broadcast via livestream. Such a broadcast has little precedent, and releasing video of executions is most often associated with extremist militant groups like the Islamic State.”

On the social media platform X, commentators from all sides reacted with horror.

https://www.alternet.org/public-lynchings/

The whole idea of public executions is just plain sick.

Your thoughts will be appreciated.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

High Prices–What Could Be Done

NOTE:  This will be it for me today for there is a hurricane headed in our direction and I need to make sure the house in good shape to take the punishment.

We Americans are struggling with the high prices of everything from Food to gas….we can blame the government for useless tariffs and such but it actually runs deeper than that premise.

Our presidents have struggled, from time to time, with rising prices and this will delve into what happened and happen was tried….and mostly failed.

The ‘solutions’ seem to be around election time with the hopes that their meager attempts will be met favorably by the voters that were suffering under the crush of rising prices.

Rising prices make angry voters. Small wonder, then, that presidents look for quick ways to tamp down those prices.

The rub is that presidents don’t have the power to reduce inflation. The Federal Reserve Board can influence inflation by raising interest rates, but without precision. In any case, presidents don’t want higher rates, especially in an election season. And always the most powerful operator in the room is markets, not the president or the Fed.

So chief executives resort to trying short-term magic, what one might call “electoral economics.” Look where you may in our history, you see the same result. A bit of prestidigitation may sometimes appear to control prices long enough to help the president. But only sometimes. And the magic never holds long term.

…

In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy worried about inflation. Although annual inflation rates did not rise much above 1 percent at the time, wages were rising faster. Kennedy believed that wage increases reflected and caused inflation. In general that wasn’t true. Nonetheless, the president wanted to keep wage growth in line with productivity growth, which averaged about 3 percent per year. He also aimed to limit price hikes to normal cost markups.

In short, the president wanted to push down unruly prices somehow, without being too obvious about the effort.

In January 1962, Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers set “guideposts for noninflationary wage and price behavior.” These measures were labeled “guideposts” because the administration understood that Congress would not approve formal price controls.

https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/presidents-high-prices

So the question can be asked….can presidents actually do anything about rising prices?

No, U.S. presidents cannot directly control or quickly curb rising prices, as inflation is driven primarily by global market forces and independent monetary policy.

What Presidents Cannot Do
  • Set prices: Direct price controls or freezes fail long-term and often cause shortages.

  • Control the Federal Reserve: The central bank independently manages interest rates to fight inflation.

  • Fix global commodities: Daily oil, gas, and grocery prices respond to worldwide supply and demand, not executive orders.

  • Command the economy: The massive U.S. market operates mostly through private business and consumer decisions.
What Presidents Can Do (Indirectly)

  • Fiscal policy: Sign or veto spending bills and tax packages, though congressional approval is required and short-term impacts are minimal.

  • Regulatory and executive actions: Adjust federal rules on domestic energy leasing or target corporate consolidation through antitrust enforcement, though these effects take years.  (Donny loves his EOs….but would he try to use them for good?)

  • The bully pulpit: Publicly pressure companies or industries to moderate price hikes, though this relies on persuasion rather than legal enforcement.  (This will not happen for Donny loves his corporate leaders….everything he does is for their benefit)

As it stands today the president can only throw crap at the problem and hope it will work itself out before the next election.

I am an old fart and remember the days, the mid-70s, and the fight inflation of the Ford government….and the WIN program….

On October 8, less than two months after becoming president, Ford addressed a joint session of Congress and declared inflation “public enemy number one.” Unlike Nixon, however, Ford avoided formal mandates. Instead, he retreated to moralizing and recommending, a version of Kennedy’s approach.

Ford urged businesses to restrain prices and wages. He encouraged the public to conserve energy and reduce spending to curb demand. The White House launched the “Whip Inflation Now” campaign, complete with red-and-white “WIN” buttons handed out to citizens. To promote anti-inflation ideas, Ford created a Citizens’ Action Committee that included consumer advocates, business executives, labor leaders, economists, and policy experts. The administration also established the Council on Wage and Price Stability.

Ford’s campaign had virtually no effect on prices. If anything, it undermined his administration’s credibility on economic policy. WIN buttons became a national joke. Some Americans wore them upside-down to read “NIM”—for “No Immediate Miracles” or “Need Immediate Money.”

I remember the beginnings of the ‘generic’ food….the cans with white labels ans black printing…..money was saved but the program was a bust just a short 5 months after it began.

This will give you an overview of the attempts by presidents to control prices….but in the end capitalism won out and we were saddled with ever rising food prices….

https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/presidents-high-prices

We can add Donny to the list of failed programs and the average person struggles and no one will look beyond the markets to settle prices down.

That approach is a cop out….period.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is Impeachment The Best Use Of Their Time?

The election returns are not in yet but many seem to think that there will be some sort of Blue Wave that sweeps Dems into Congress….and the idea of impeaching Donny is once again being floated if the majority switches to the Dems….

Personally I think it is a waste of time to attempt this thing again….the last time was nothing but an exercise in futility.  Donny was impeached and yet he remained to do as much damage as possible.

And now this same impotent situation returns…..personally I think it will be a waste and will divert the policies that will actually help us struggling masses.

I have not been a fan of Dem strategist, James Carville, I think he is a has been and a dinosaur, a throwback to the glory days of Clinton….but on this issue I tend to agree with Carville….

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville urged Democrats to avoid pursuing a third impeachment of President Donald Trump if the party wins control of the House of Representatives in November, arguing it would be “highly unlikely” to succeed.

On the “Politics War Room” podcast on Thursday, Carville and his co-host Al Hunt argued that impeachment would be a waste of time and Democrats should devote their energy to investigating the president instead.

“I’ll tell you one thing that I think Democrats should steer clear of, and that’s impeachment,” Hunt said. “It’s not that Trump has not committed impeachable offenses, far worse than what he was accused of back in 2019 with Ukraine. I mean, he has. I mean, you could come up with a bill of particulars of, you know, a dozen at least. But you know something, James? It’s not going to happen, and it is a distraction.”

Carville agreed, arguing that the Supreme Court is protecting Trump from the consequences of his actions.

“So, you investigate, and, of course, what you’re going to find — and you’re going to find it quickly — is overwhelming evidence of criminal activity. Now, of course, he can’t commit a crime according to the Supreme Court because, well, he’s above the law,” Carville lamented.

“But suppose you say, ‘This is incontrovertible proof. We got to do something about this. How can he stay in office?’ And impeachment would be a very difficult thing,” Carville warned. “It’s time-consuming. It’s highly unlikely to be anything because of the — you need so many votes in the Senate. But we’re going to find out a whole bunch of stuff really fast at the beginning of the year 2027. I promise you.”

https://www.foxnews.com/media/james-carville-warns-dems-against-impeaching-trump-win-control-midterms

Like I said I agree with those that think another impeachment process will be a huge waste of time and energy….but after all is that not what Dems do best….waste time?

You thoughts on impeachment please.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Laws Of Stupidity

These dark days of rampant ignorance I am reminded of something Ben Franklin said…. “We are all born ignorant, but must work hard to remain stupid”….never more true than today.

For years I have been saying that if anyone wants to see where this country is heading they need to watch the movie, Idiocracy, it was very prophetic.

I even wrote about earlier….

“Idiocracy” Is Coming True!

As we get further into the reign of Dear Donny he exemplifies the basic laws of stupidity.

Today, as we witness one of the dumbest wars in history unraveling in Iran, an inept health and human services secretary working to bring back measles and polio, a Republican Party wherein only 20 percent view the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as a violent insurrection but 71 percent deny Joe Biden won the 2020 election, and an administration that refuses to properly regulate AI and crypto industries that threaten the economic well-being and safety of all, Cipolla’s contention is as apt now as when he first proposed it in The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, in 1976—an era when the country, and indeed the world, was similarly roiled by sociopolitical rage and seemed on the brink of a catastrophe.

An Italian economic historian and UC-Berkeley professor who’d seen fascism firsthand and was writing in the wake of the Vietnam War, Cipolla wanted to determine how advanced societies commit truly stupid acts. Originally crafted for his friends, but selling over half a million copies once published, his treatise lies somewhere between satire and serious scholarship, involving a bit of humor and speculation while also applying the laws and language of scientific inquiry and a valid argumentative style. As he wrote in the introduction:

Let me point out at this juncture that most emphatically this little book is neither a product of cynicism nor an exercise in defeatism—no more than a book on microbiology is. The following pages are in fact the result of a constructive effort to detect, know, and thus possibly neutralize one of the most powerful dark forces that hinder the growth of human welfare and happiness.

Cipolla divided people into four groups: the helpless, whose actions harm themselves but benefit others; the intelligent, whose actions benefit themselves and others; the bandits, who enrich themselves while harming others; and the stupid, whose actions harm others while producing no benefit to themselves. This latter group is Cipolla’s main concern. “No matter how high are one’s estimates of human stupidity,” he wrote, “one is repeatedly and recurrently startled by the fact that a) people whom one had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid; b) day after day, with unceasing monotony, one is harassed in one’s activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments.”

…

The theory rest on five “laws,” which are as follows:

  • Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
  • The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
  • A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
  • Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people infallibly turns out to be a costly mistake.
  • A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.

https://newrepublic.com/article/215721/trump-basic-laws-human-stupidity-carlo-cipolla

Can we say right on?

When I was in college after I returned from Vietnam I read this study in the year 1978 (yes I am an old fart)….after witnessing the Vietnam War first hand and up close I wanted to know why we must do such things…..and I see not much has changed in all those 50 years.

Read the study and see just how accurate he was in 1976.

Now this brings me back to an old saying….’can’t fix stupid’.

Anything to add?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Midterms Are Breeding Apprehension

We are a little over a month away from those ever popular midterm elections…..and many seem to think that it will be a fiasco in Donny’s favor….but not to worry Pistol Pete will insure we have a good election (that is sarcasm in case someone may have missed it)

The US National Security Agency and other military intelligence and cybersecurity forces will guard election systems during the November midterms, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday. Military cybersecurity experts have routinely helped monitor systems and deter potential hackers since election equipment was designated “critical infrastructure” in 2017, reports the AP. Hegseth’s announcement comes after President Trump gutted the civilian agency specifically created to safeguard election infrastructure, a division of the Department of Homeland Security called the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. That agency last week released an election infrastructure security plan that lays out potential threats to election systems and lists services it would offer to election officials to protect the vote.

In the memo dated Sept. 22 and announced Monday, Hegseth directed defense intelligence officials to mobilize every resource “to defend our election infrastructure from foreign malign influence and ensure that every lawful voter can cast their ballot free from foreign intimidation, coercion, or fear.” Both announcements come just weeks before Election Day on Nov. 3 and with early voting already underway. The short timeline “suggests this is just theater,” said David Becker, a former Justice Department attorney who leads the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research. “If the administration was serious about assisting state and local election officials, they shouldn’t have dismantled all of the federal government’s election cybersecurity capacity and fired all their experts in early 2025,” he said.

Though cybersecurity assistance from the NSA and US Cyber Command is routine, many elections experts, civil rights groups, and Democratic election officials are on guard for signs of meddling in voting or ballot counting by the Trump administration. The president continues to push false claims that elections are rife with fraud while trying to interfere with longstanding election procedures. The US Supreme Court blocked an attempt by Trump to restrict mail voting, but has allowed the use of a federal database to check the citizenship of voters.

Does this ‘guarantee’ fill you with confidence on the integrity of the elections?

For me I think it is bovine fecal matter.

Anyone that trust anyone in Donny’s sphere of corruption then they are bigger idiots than I anticipated.

The closer the vote comes the more it is being said that the American people are losing confidence….

Americans are deeply frustrated with President Trump’s handling of the economy and rising prices, with most panning his performance and blaming his policies as higher costs threaten his party’s chances in November. A new AP-NORC poll finds that only 17% of US adults approve of the Republican president’s handling of the cost of living, per the AP. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low. A majority (65%) of US adults now blame Trump’s policies for persistently high costs more than factors outside of his control, signaling growing weariness over his aggressive use of tariffs and continued unhappiness with the war with Iran.

…

Now, there’s widespread disappointment with his performance. About 7 in 10 Americans say Trump’s handling of the cost of living has been “worse than expected, including roughly half of GOPers, who are also concerned about being able to afford groceries and gas. About 6 in 10 Republicans don’t approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, up from about half in April. Despite their frustration, however, most Republicans (67%) say factors outside Trump’s control are more to blame for high prices. Overall, the picture isn’t much better: Only about 3 in 10 Americans approve of how Trump is handling his job as president, while about 6 in 10 say the nation as a whole is “much” or “somewhat” worse off than when he began his second term.

More here.

But everyone’s concerns should be considered and Donny has a trick up his sleeve to steal the election….

“Trump has long cast doubt on the security of U.S. elections, including by attacking mail-in voting and promoting baseless conspiracy theories of widespread fraud in previous elections,” Politico’s Dana Nickel and Maggie Miller wrote on Thursday. “In July, he delivered a primetime address on election security, which included claims that China was behind massive interference efforts targeting past elections. None of the documents the White House released in July appear to support this claim.”

…

“What they all add up to is a desire to avoid any accountability to the voters in the midterm elections — to ensure, to preordain the outcome of a midterm that he thinks is going to go badly for him,” Dan Vicuña, Senior Policy Director for Voting and Fair Representation at Common Cause, told AlterNet. “We know, from the Big Lie of the 2020 election to spurring on a violent revolt to overthrow a free and fair election, that he has no respect for democratic norms, for the voice of the people. This is entirely about his own power and his own ego. He will even invest in protecting that ego and protecting his power at the expense of the needs of the public.

https://www.alternet.org/trump-has-2677947640/

Will we see what plan Donny has as the election grows nearer?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Killing Babies Is Moral”

We all are aware of the devastation that Israel has wrought upon Gaza and daily they are killing Palestinians without any morsel of regret….but there was one statement, among many, that is most disturbing, at least to me….

Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin, the leader of Israel’s Zehut party, who has a clear path to a seat in the Knesset in the upcoming election, has said in a new interview that it would be “moral” to kill babies in Gaza.

Feiglin made headlines last year when he declared that every child and every baby in Gaza is the “enemy,” a viewpoint he doubled down on in an English-language interview that was published by The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Feiglin said in the interview that he personally doesn’t want to see babies killed even though he thinks it is “morally” the right thing to do, and that he would prefer all Palestinians to be expelled from Gaza instead.

“I’m saying again again because I’m Jewish and I guess I’m a bit a little bit weak morally. I don’t want to see babies killed, okay? Morally, that should have been done, because of everything I explained. So, but because … I’m Jewish with a soft heart, I would open the borders and let them all go, but no one can stay. And it has to be a part of the Jewish land, Jewish state,” he said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Feiglin said it was “100%” a Jewish point of view to “wipe out” Gaza, expel all the Palestinians, and annex Gaza and the West Bank. He labeled all of Gaza as the “enemy,” not just Hamas.

“The baby that would be born — I’ll say something very tough now, excuse me for saying it — the baby that will be born tomorrow in Gaza, the Arab baby. Notice I’m not saying Hamas, I’m not saying Palestinian … the enemy is Gaza, not Hamas. The baby that will be born in Gaza tomorrow will do exactly the same — God forbid — to your baby that would be born in Jerusalem,” he said.

(antiwar.com)

If that is not proof of the genocidal thinking in Israel then what is?

Personally I think this idiot is a douche like most of the so-called orthodox jews in Israel.

Where is the western media when idiots spout crap?

The extent of their crimes does not stop in Gaza….no they are carry out strikes in Syria and Lebanon killing civilians as they go….it is a despicable situation.

What is this end game?  Is it security or extending an mini empire?

Israel is a pathetic little entity that depends on its ally to do its hard lifting….time for that to end.  Period!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

AI & Voting

The time is approaching when we Americans will go to the polls and decide if we want to continue with the devastation of Donny or to change things hopefully for the better.

Plus we know that I am not a big fan of the use of AI and yes I used it a couple of times to see where it lead, but I read a report that is very disturbing.

How are you deciding who to vote for in the coming midterm elections? Many Americans are turning to ChatGPT.

In a new piece, NPR spoke to several voters who use the OpenAI chatbot to research candidates and get a rundown on their voting records. Some are asking the AI to create spreadsheets on different races or to verify or debunk viral claims. One even used AI to create an entire website for retrieving voting info.

Experts are aghast, noting that AI models tend to be sycophantic and aren’t as impartial as they seem.

“It might select some things that would reinforce and persuade you even more towards the way that you were leaning already,” Rafael Batista, a researcher at John Hopkins University, told NPR. “So you leave more confident, without necessarily learning more about the world.”

40-year-old Adam Johnson in West Virginia uses ChatGPT to organize his life, and he’s now also using it to prep for the midterms. Like many voters, he harbors a grab bag of beliefs. He votes Republican unless the candidate is MAGA, in which case he votes Democrat or third party. He also identifies as “left” on immigration and refugees.

When he asked CHatGPT why it avoided discussing politics before, it gave a mealy-mouthed explanation for why it was now venturing into such territory.

“We can discuss your guiding principles,” it began, per NPR. “I shouldn’t try to manipulate your political views or tell you how to vote, but I can help investigate candidates according to criteria you choose, compare evidence, discuss political philosophy, and reason through priorities.”

https://futurism.com/future-society/voters-chatgpt-midterm-candidate

Is this the way of the future….let AI decide the best candidate to vote for in any election?

Does anyone else find this disturbing?

Are we so lazy that we cannot take the time to research the people that will mold our lives for the next few years?

Any thoughts on this subject?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”