Oops, already posted earlier today.

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... Just a few months earlier, in September, Trump began ordering U.S. military strikes against Venezuelan boats that Trump alleged were involved in drug trafficking.

People had apparently been turning to Grok asking about the boat strikes and political climate in Venezuela, as The Atlantic reported at the time. So Grok told Trump that Maduro was a "deeply unpopular dictator and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall," Time reported.

When such celebrations indeed happened after the U.S. invaded on January 3, Trump apparently "came away thinking Grok was ingenious," that source told Time.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that in June of this year, the Pentagon's head of AI said that the military used Grok Gov to deploy and strike targets during the Iran War. ...

Non-paywalled article on the topic...

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... Of the 14 cameras found, 11 had no obvious owners, raising concerns about who has access to sensitive data that bad actors could abuse. After the cameras were discovered, St. Lucie County Commissioner James Clasby told a local news outlet that there's "potential for non-law enforcement to have cameras out there, and I'm not OK with that."

But the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office ended up claiming three of those cameras, then refused to explain why they never obtained the required permits. The office did not immediately respond to Ars' request to clarify whether it ever accessed data recorded by the cameras.

In Florida, police have repeatedly been caught misusing Flock cameras, sometimes tracking single cars hundreds of times for personal reasons. ...

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... That includes reinstating canceled contracts, rehiring staff and buying new equipment -- while paying 420 employees $3.2 million every two weeks to remain on leave, according to a new report by the State Department's inspector general. The State Department and USAGM, an independent federal agency, share the same inspector general office.

The watchdog doesn't tally the total of the shutdown whipsaw and resulting lawsuits, which are still working their way through the courts. But it notes that some decisions intended to save money were being reversed, "incurring additional costs to taxpayers."

The findings offer a view into how the DOGE-era push to slash the federal government to cut costs created new ones, and how haphazard cuts and ill-planned program terminations and location moves also hampered the agency's mission. ...

@#13 ... Hence the devolution. ...

Exactly.

Republicans want to defund public education in favor of providing themselves discounts to attend their private schools.

So, instead of Republicans wanting to improve the problems they may see in public schools, all Republicans seem to want to do is make public schools even worse by defunding them.

It just fits into the uber-wealthy wanting to continue to have a whole class of people who are unable to do anything by work for the uber-wealthy.

@#12 ... You really are a moron. ...

imo, even worse than that.

It is just a reply-craving troll.

Of course, then the question may become, why does that current trolling alias seem to crave replies to its posted phlegm?

That one, I cannot answer.

... Anyone paying attention to recent education-related headlines knows that education bureaucrats across the nation are burying evidence of a widespread and unpleasant truth ...

Please provide examples of those recent education-related headlines.

thx.

@#10 ... While the right and Republicans CONTROL public education. ...

So, you've also noticed that the GOP drum-beating reduction of money for public schools may have had an effect upon the outcome for students graduating from those schools.

For me, if I were assigned the task of improving public schools, the first thing i would do would be to equalize the money spent upon the schooling of each student.

From what I see here in Connecticut, the difference between the wealthy towns and the non-wealthy towns is amazing.

@#9 ... Read the article. ...

It's an OpEd, not a news article. Written by an apparent social media wannabe.

Even the link your current trolling alias provides flags it as "opinion."

Do try harder.

So, it seems that Pres Trump's ~what can you do for me today~ policies and deal-driven tactics are doing little to pull our strategy-driven allies into the fold?

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... And even that agreement was largely meaningless, according to Polish Finance and Economy Minister Andrzej Domaski.

"There is consensus that food should not be used as a weapon. Of course, there is no consensus on who is using food trade as a weapon," Domaski said, pointing the finger at "what Russia is doing on the Black Sea" to block grain from Ukraine.

The divisions underscore the challenges the Trump administration faces trying to secure buy-in for its global trade priorities -- particularly vis-a-vis China -- after spending the better part of two years hammering traditional allies with a steady tide of tariffs. Trump's recent stances, from a chummy summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to a push to expand U.S. steel supply beyond the country's current demand, only add to the doubts.

A European Union official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the closed door discussions, agreed that Trump's blanket tariffs on steel, aluminum and other manufacturing sectors "negatively impact" efforts to coordinate on an issue like China's flood of exports, which much of the West otherwise agree on.

The 27-country bloc has been swamped by cheap Chinese imports in recent years that are threatening to hollow out its manufacturing sector. Speaking in Spain on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron criticized China for unfairly subsidizing its domestic producers and urged the European Commission to deploy more safeguards to protect European industry. ...

... What the Oligarch who Paid for Jr's Wedding Really Wants ...

imo...

Influence.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Why else would a Russian oligarch associated with Pres Putin do such a thing?

Possibly, trying to build the future control should Don, Jr. run for and win the Oval office.

It looks like what Russia might have done with Pres Trump back in his NYC real estate mogul days.

RFK,Jr's approach to medicine?

@#4 ... Progressives: "our taxes should pay for healthcare."

MAHA: "trillionaires need more money!" ...

Agreed.

But, when Pres Trump meets with the AI executives and signs an agreement with them, you might have thought that The President of the United States would actually know the name of the Country he is President of.

But, then there's this ...

@#2 ... But, over the past seven years, the toll it took on Mount Pleasant residents, the billions of dollars it sucked from state and local coffers and the virtually-barren land that's been left in its wake are a painful lesson on what can happen when public officials jump on an opportunity without really studying a company's history and listening to citizens, before committing more than $1 billion of those citizens' money on a project that didn't make a lot of sense in the first place. ...

imo, it is a painful lesson learned from believing what Pres Trump says about his deals.

@#12 ... That's established fact. ...

Got a link?

@#11

thx for the follow-up.

@#8 ... "No, the DNC didn't rig' the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton"

we'll be fortunate enough to get someone who can ...

I object to any hint of rigging elections.

Is that what you really meant? Or did I just misread it?

@#7 ... I'll be back in a few. ...

Looking forward ...

:)

@#10 ... Lancaster County, PA, used to be Amish country. ...

As you note... related?

I do not yet know.

Was this measles outbreak a problem two years ago?

Three years ago?

If not, what might have changed in the past year or two?

PM Carney seems to be doing quite well in the Canadian polling that I've seen.

@#2

... and fwiw, the Dell PC (Intel 5 CPU, Win11 Pro, 16GB memory) that I bought a year ago for $900 is now around $1200.

If I want half the amount of memory and Win11 Home instead of Win11 Pro, then the cost goes down to $900 again.

@#5

Hey, great to see your comment(s) again.

:)

Found this ...