For over a century, the automobile has represented freedom, power, and the thrill of mechanical mastery. The connection between driver, machine, and road defined what it meant to own and love a car. But in today's digital era, a different trend is unfolding. Cars are no longer just machines designed to take us from point A to point B. Increasingly, they resemble something else entirely: smartphones on wheels.
It turns out the pandemic didn't just bring us sourdough bread obsessions and endless Zoom calls. According to a recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), it also fueled a serious"and unexpected"spike in deadly drunk-driving crashes.
In the end, the US bullies its way to control of TikTok.
Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), a data broker owned by the country's major airlines, including AA, UA, and Delta, is selling access to five billion plane ticketing records to the USG for warrantless searching and monitoring of peoples' movements. ARC's data includes information related to more than 270 carriers and is sourced through more than 12,800 travel agencies. ARC has previously told the government to not reveal to the public where this passenger data came from, which includes peoples' names, full flight itineraries, and financial details. ARC acts as a bridge between airlines and travel agencies, in which it helps with fraud prevention and finds trends in travel data. ARC also sells passenger data to the USG as part of what it calls the Travel Intelligence Program (TIP). TIP is updated every day with the previous day's ticket sales and can show a person's paid intent to travel. USG agencies can then search this data by name, credit card, airline, and more. Read more
President Trump said Monday he would have ordered flags to be lowered in honor of the Minnesota state lawmaker who was assassinated this summer at her home if he had been asked. The White House has paid tribute in numerous ways to slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a close ally of Mr. Trump, ordering flags to be flown at half-staff after Kirk was fatally shot during an event on a Utah college campus. The moves have prompted criticism about why the president did not take similar actions after the fatal shooting of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband in June. In June, Mr. Trump was asked aboard Air Force One whether he had called Walz after the Minnesota assassination. Another state lawmaker was also targeted in the attack, and he and his wife sustained serious injuries. "The guy doesn't have a clue. He's a mess. So, you know, I could be nice and call him, but why waste time?" Mr. Trump said of Walz.
President Donald Trump announced Monday that he plans to file a $15 billion defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times. "Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times," Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. The lawsuit would be filed in Florida, Trump said, without providing further details.
If it seems as if this year has featured one report after another about Donald Trump and his team effectively giving up on combating cancer, it's not your imagination. The president has proposed slashing funding for the National Cancer Institute. His conspiratorial and anti-science health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scrapped funding for mRNA research, despite clinical trials showing mRNA-based vaccines increasing survival in patients with deadly cancers. I've lost count of how many cancer-related research grants at universities have been cut off without explanation. It's against this backdrop that The New York Times reported that a half-century after Richard Nixon declared war on cancer, there have been a great many breakthroughs that have saved and extended lives. The incumbent Republican president, however, is effectively waving the white flag in this war.
British officials are preparing for President Donald Trump's state visit to Tuesday " complete with unprecedented security, fact-checking TV specials and its own brand of pre-censoring. According to The Independent, top British brass are warning: warning: "Don't mention the 'E' word!" The "E" word refers to the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Avoiding the subject will be hard, though. Just last week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired British ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson after a cache of emails showed supportive messages he sent after Epstein plead guilty to sex offenses.
Two individuals wearing US military uniforms were photographed attending the joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises Zapad-2025 on Monday 15 Sep. Belarusian DM Viktor Khrenin told the two men wearing US BDUs that they could look at "whatever is of interest for you." Khrenin described the presence of the Americans at the training ground in Belarus as a surprise. "Who would have thought how the morning of another day of the Zapad-2025 exercise would begin?" the Belarusian Defence Minister said. The ministry issued a statement that noted the participation of US officers among representatives from 23 countries, including two other NATO members " Turkiye and Hungary. The ministry released footage showing two US officers in uniform thanking Khrenin for the invitation and shaking his hand. "We will show whatever is of interest for you. Whatever you want. You can go there and see, talk to people," Khrenin told them. The two men in US military uniforms declined to speak to journalists. Read more
Maureen Comey, a federal prosecutor involved in the Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean Combs cases, has sued the Trump administration over her firing this summer, levying another legal challenge to the Justice Department's treatment of career officials. Read more
WASHINGTON (AP) " President Donald Trump said the U.S. military on Monday again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three aboard the vessel, and hinted that the military targeting of cartels could be further expanded. "The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the U.S.," Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the strike. "These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to U.S. National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital U.S. Interests." Read more
Lukium: First, you brand your opponents as wicked, malicious, soulless. You tell the public they're "radicalized people," "terrorists," a "wicked ideology." You convince your followers that the very existence of the opposition is a mortal threat to family, to faith, to civilization itself. And there is only one final stop on that train. Dehumanization always has the same destination: extermination.
It's valid to look for potential politics in the killer's motivations. And there are pieces of evidence that link suspect Tyler Robinson to the left, even as the fuller picture is still being pieced together and remains opaque. But Trump and his allies are cherry-picking evidence and misleading about recent violent episodes. They're also casting stones from a glass house when it comes to the potential role of political rhetoric in such tragedies. In fact, Trump has spent the last decade saying conspicuously violent things and often flirting with the prospect of justified violence by his supporters " including as recently as Friday. Read more
The US Department of Education announced it will withhold $350 million of congressionally approved funds to minority-serving colleges and universities and divert the funds elsewhere, saying that the institutions' admissions quotas are discriminatory. This move will eliminate fiscal 2025 discretionary funding for institutions that serve students who are Asian, Black, Indigenous and Hispanic, as well as a program for students of color pursuing careers in science and engineering. Dummkopf Trumpf's longstanding objective is to eliminate programs that center on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Up to 800 schools will be affected: Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian; Black institutions; Asian American; Pacific Islander; Native American-serving nontribal institutions; and Minority Science and Engineering Improvement grants. Read more
Ryder Corral (19) began kicking over vases, flowers, balloons, and flags at a ridiculous street shrine set up for hatemongering racist college dropout Charlie Kirk outside Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix, AZ. Suddenly a gorill' attacks Ryder Corral by furiously hurling him down onto the pavement. But instead of arresting the violent behemoth, police arrested the victim, charging him with disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property. Seeing is believing: Police Arrest Wrong Man. Social media erupted with MAGA indignation and scorn for poor Ryder Corral. No GoFundMe page for his legal defense costs has been established yet. An arrest is merely an accusation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Only white supremacists, Islamophobes, reprobates, or MAGA followers miss the late human canker sore once known as Charlie Kirk. Read more
This year several European football players complained that UEFA prohibits Russian athletes from participating in the league, but hypocritically allows Israeli athletes to compete. Ireland, Spain, Holland, Iceland, and Slovenia threatened to withdraw from 2026 Eurovision if the Rogue state takes part next year. This weekend in Spain, 100,000 volunteers interrupted and cut short the Grand Prix Bicycle Race because an Israeli team was allowed to compete. In the US, 4,000 filmmakers, actors, and talent have joined a boycott of Israeli film projects. And in NYS, Governor Kathy Hochul finally endorsed NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Other prominent (AIPAC) Democrats have yet to endorse their fellow party colleague against Dummkopf Trumpf/AIPAC tool Andrew Cuomo, who turned his back on the Democratic Party which was the lifelong vehicle of his success. Like Judas Iscariot, we hope the disgraced fallen governor enjoys his 30 pieces of silver AIPAC coins. Read more
