Elon Musk wants to buy another election. Musk did rather well in 2024. His huge contributions to Donald Trump's presidential campaign may have made the crucial difference between victory for Democrat Kamala Harris and the return of Trump's sociopathic neofascism to the White House. This time around, Musk has thrown more than $276 million into the political game, all in support of Republican candidates. The trillionaire has put particular effort into the Texas U.S. Senate race, where he is backing Ken Paxton, the most odious and corrupt person on any ballot this year. Read more
Itchy Boots (pro geologist) takes us on her first ride in Japan through a valley of young sister active volcanoes on the southernmost island.
Democrats filed a lawsuit Friday as early voting failures affected thousands of Alaskans in villages "key to Democratic hopes" just days out from the midterms, The New York Times reported Saturday. Filed in Anchorage Superior Court, the lawsuit alleges that 18 early voting sites in rural Alaska had either "failed to open, opened late, maintained irregular hours or lacked ballots altogether," the Times reported. The early voting period in Alaska began on Oct. 19 and is scheduled to end on Monday, Nov. 2. Democratic State Sen. Bill Wielechowski wrote Alaska election officials earlier this month about the matter, arguing there was "no legal excuse for the failure to open" the early voting sites. Democrats' lawsuit suggests that despite Wielechowski's letter, the matter had not been addressed.
C'mon Bolts! Don't Stink Up the Place!
The editor of one of Russia's last independent newspapers on Friday said the publication would cease operations under pressure from the Kremlin. Novaya Gazeta is shutting down after 30 years during which it was known as a source of investigative news that challenged the government.
News coverage of Trump misses the point. Sure, he is racist, cruel, ignorant, corrupt and a pawn of Russia. But the reason he's unfit to be president is that he is a loathsome human being.
Halloween is the season for haunted houses, campfire ghost stories, and manufactured frights. In politics, however, one of the scariest stories is told year-round. The perennial bogeyman? The all-powerful corporate behemoth allegedly buying elections and haunting our democracy. We are told that, unless the government takes radical measures, shadowy corporate titans will devour our civic life whole.
Scare up some good tunes this weekend, any kind you like.
Thread link is:
Creedence Clearwater Revival - I Put A Spell On You
In a priceless troll, a man attending a Trump rally in South Carolina stunned Fox News viewers on live TV. Read more
Europe looks past rioters to their parents and the apps in their pockets
Dockworkers in 22 countries will strike on Friday, protesting against war and the use of ports for arms exports in action organisers say could disrupt over 40% of Mediterranean cargo and snarl over $2 billion worth of freight. 'WE WILL NOT WORK FOR WAR' Read more
At a Dummkopf Trumpf political rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina, an attendee floored a Faux News reporter during an interview, as follows:
Senile Satan
Novelist Patricia Highsmith (1921 " 1995), who gave us The Talented Mr. Ripley, neatly summarizes America in this paragraph from Strangers on a Train (1950). This suspense novel was published decades before NYS Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Dummkopf Trumpf to "unconditional discharge" (10 Jan 2025). Here, protagonist Guy Haines reveals to his fiance Anne his disgust with his soon-to-be ex-wife Miriam (p. 44): She's everything that should be loathed ... .Sometimes I think I hate everything in the world. No decency, no conscience. She's what people mean when they say America never grows up. America rewards the corrupt ... .. This excerpt explains how abolitionist John Brown could be caught, tried, sentenced, and executed, all within an astonishing 45 days (18 Oct - 2 Dec 1859), yet treasonous Jefferson Davis could outlive A. Lincoln unscathed by 24 years or how Jeffrey Epstein or Senile Satan could get away with their evil for so long: Corruption in America.
NPR Business: The U.S. economy grew faster in the summer compared to the spring, driven by consumer spending as well as investments in AI. Gross domestic product, which broadly measures economic activity, grew at an annual rate of 3.4% July through September, according to a report from the Commerce Department released Thursday. The previous quarter GDP grew at a 2.2% annual pace. A big driver for GDP growth in the third quarter was the strong investments from AI companies, which continue to build out data centers and spend big money in developing the technology. Meanwhile, consumer spending was another of the big drivers of GDP growth, led in part by higher-income Americans who are better able to withstand stubbornly high inflation. Read more
JACKSON, Tenn. -- A federal judge has ordered Austin Elrod, 30, of Somerville, Tennessee, to surrender his hunting license for 5 years and to pay a total of $60,000 for an illegal deer hunting operation, according to West Tennessee U.S. District Attorney, D. Michael Dunavant. An investigation by several law enforcement agencies revealed that Elrod was guiding white-tailed deer hunts in the Fayette County area without the required guiding license. The guided hunts were advertised on Facebook and resulted in the illegal harvesting of seven deer throughout the 2021 and 2022 hunting seasons. Elrod's clients included out-of-state hunters from Georgia. One of these hunters was Thomas Boswell, 39, of Barnesville, Georgia. Boswell participated in the guided hunts without a Tennessee hunting license and was responsible for the illegal harvesting of five of the deer. The harvested deer would then be transported to Georgia. Read more
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has accused a newly ousted three-star general of leaking sensitive information to the media just hours after officials confirmed his removal from a top military planning post. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia as head of strategy, plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a defense official said late Wednesday. Typically, the general in the position and their staff are responsible for generating and coordinating military plans for both the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the president. Read more
