... The Defense Department's inspector general revealed Monday that the United States is facing a shortfall in ammunition as a result of its costly war in Iran. ...

But ... but ... but ...

Pres Trump said such reporting was fake news.

More from the article ...

... But as the share of wealth workers take home through wages"called labor share"is shrinking, corporate profits have exploded, with the S&P 500 index gaining 600% since the beginning of the century, while wages have increased just 12.5% over the same period, adjusted for inflation.

In other words: Corporations are raking in cash, but American workers are reaping less and less of the rewards.

The consequences associated with shrinking labor shares are now becoming tangible.

A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that across the 11 states sampled, Amazon, the country's largest company by revenue, has 12,346 workers on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and 11,338 relying on Medicaid.

That was nearly triple the number of Amazon employees in need of federal assistance compared to 2020, when GAO conducted a similar report.

During that same period, Amazon saw an increase in annual profits from $11.6 billion to $77.7 billion. Amazon's 2025 revenue soared 12% year over year, from $638 billion to a record $717 billion. ...

@#1 ... He looked so life like too. ...

I saw one report indicating that only still pictures were allowed during his appearance. No videos.

Saudi Arabia has (had) a two or three day backup storage capacity in case there was a problem with their east-west pipeline.

Now reporting indicates it may be weeks before the pipeline is fully functioning once again.

... confirming that SoftBank donated $50 million to President Trump's Presidential Library fund and revealing for the first time that it came just two months prior to the Trump administration's announcement of a massive land lease deal for a SoftBank data center. ...

This level of grift has become the norm for the Trump circle.

Which makes the Russian's gift to the wedding even more suspicious.

@#9 ... I would be fine with all convicted criminals being deported. I just have a problem targeting only immigrants. Especially since immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than US citizens. ...

More from the article ...

... The administration continues to assert it is focused on the "worst of the worst," but people with criminal convictions accounted for less than a quarter of arrests in July, the Deportation Data Project figures show. That figure was nearly 60% in December 2024, the month before Trump took office for a second time. ...

@#7 ... This will not stop here. ...

I have to wonder how many mail-in ballots from blue districts arrive ~too late to be counted?~

@#5 ... The US has become just too unstable, threatening and dangerous a neighbor for Canada ...

The sad part is that it is not just Canada that is moving away from the United States.

Our other allies are now searching for other trading partners because the United States has become too whimsical and too unpredictable.

@#2 ... This National NSPM-7 Center appears to be direct assault against speech that the extreme right simply doesn't agree with, or speech they don't want in the public sphere, factual or not. THIS is true government sanctioned censorship. ...

Worth a repeat.

@#27 ... Junior's new bride happens to be the daughter of Epstein's banker. ...

Gee, I wonder how they met?

@#4 ... Deportation requires two parties to agree, the US and the country where the person is to be returned to.

Many countries drag their feet, or just ignore US requests. ...

So, as usual, Pres Trump has been acting (arrests) before he had a plan in place to handle the results of those actions (deportations).

Thanks for confirming that.

More from the article ...

... In 2024, U.S. officials shut down a Chinese-owned data facility near a nuclear missile base in Wyoming, fearing Beijing's surveillance. But as commercial data centers expand rapidly across the globe, a similar threat has gone virtually unnoticed -- American and Chinese companies leasing space under the same roof. In a shared data center, an attacker doesn't need to execute a complex hack to steal sensitive data. They can simply walk in, plant a spying device nearby, or alter physical hardware. ...

Many of the world's data centers operate through a model called "colocation," where multiple companies lease racks of servers in the same facility, sharing electricity, cooling, and network connections. Colocation accounts for more than 90 percent of public data centers worldwide and roughly a fifth of global computing capacity.

It's an efficient model for both data center owners and companies looking to house their data. But it also means an American company could be training its most advanced models just one rack away -- that is, inches -- from a Chinese tenant bound by Beijing's intelligence laws.

Colocation assumes that neighbors can't reach into each other's racks. In reality, servers are swapped constantly, often by short-term, local contractors performing routine maintenance.

A tenant or technician with consistent access could easily bypass basic safeguards such as keycard doors, cameras, and access logs to plant surveillance gear nearby or replace basic components with parts that have been altered to send information elsewhere.

It turns out that good old fashioned spycraft takes far less energy than a complicated hack, even for a sophisticated adversary. And while tampering is possible anywhere in the world, it is much easier overseas, away from stronger oversight and American regulatory guardrails.

Colocation also carries digital risks. Flaws in virtualization software, GPUs, and even management and cooling systems routinely surface, sometimes letting one tenant peer into another's environment or disrupt operations. Patching them quickly doesn't alter the fact that shared infrastructure means vulnerabilities are easier to exploit. ...

More from the article ...

... The status does not currently exist, but the EU could be open to creating special membership arrangements, the newspaper said, citing unnamed EU and Canadian officials. The European Commission did not respond to a request for comment.

The report comes ahead of a speech by Carney to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday, where he is expected to set out his vision for Canada-EU ties in a challenging geopolitical environment.

Ottawa is locked in a historic trade war with the United States, with steep tariffs in place and no signs of de-escalation.

The EU and Canada want to bolster trade ties of goods, services and workers, particularly in areas including energy, artificial intelligence, defence and critical minerals, according to the report.

The two are also said to be discussing major joint projects, including undersea cables, data centres, cloud infrastructure and satellite networks. Canada also wants to expand energy exports to Europe, the WSJ said.

Still, securing any form of "associate member" status could prove difficult. The EU has strict rules on membership and a lengthy process for making changes to its existing arrangements. ...

@#2

Good question.

The city of New York, quite frankly, is quite tolerant of undocumented immigration.... I happen to agree with that. I think New York City should not deal with undocumented immigrants in a harsh way. I think they make a big contribution to the life of the city, and we're much better off being sensible and practical about it.
      - - - Rudy Giuliani (WABC, 2001)

@#21 ... you're worth $300 million. Why did you need a Russian killer to pay for your wedding? ...

How do you think he got that $300 million?

Possibly by leaching off others?

From the article cited in #18

... Donald Trump Jr.'s newlywed wife has confirmed a report that a Russian oligarch substantially paid for a part of their recent multi-day wedding festivities in the Bahamas, calling Umar Kremlev "a dear friend" and the money "simply a wedding gift." ...

... "This is ridiculous," said an employee. "We have thousands of Americans working here, and I don't want to be thinking about losing my job." ...

"Ridiculous" is being kind.

Good charts in the article...

More from the article ...

... Immigration arrests in the U.S. have soared in recent months, aided by more local law enforcement cooperation with ICE, increased use of technology to track and process people, as well as enhanced data sharing between federal agencies.

But the mass arrest campaign this summer did not lead to a commensurate increase in deportations -- according to preliminary U.S. government data reviewed by Reuters -- a reflection of the legal and logistical limits faced by President Donald Trump as he attempts to hit his mass deportation goals.

Even as arrests jumped to nearly 51,000 in August, setting a record for a third straight month, deportation numbers held mostly steady, averaging around 1,200 per day, the preliminary government data showed.

About the same number of people were deported per day in May, for example, when there were around 19,000 fewer arrests, according to arrests data obtained by the Deportation Data Project through a public records request and analyzed by Reuters.

The disconnect is partly due to who is being targeted, five current and former officials said. The arrests include a growing number of people with no criminal conviction or charge and without deportation orders, according to the Deportation Data Project figures.

Many of those picked up had pending asylum or other legal claims -- meaning they could not be immediately removed from the country unless they agreed to waive their rights and voluntarily depart.

A lack of available flights and limits set by receiving countries have also capped Trump's deportation ambitions, former officials said.

"This is a false narrative," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in response to questions from Reuters. "Thanks to President Trump's strong immigration enforcement policies, three million illegals have left the United States." ...

@#16 ... not so secret benefactor ...

... an admission that the article is correct about who funded the wedding?

@#12 ... Half-scoop's new bride calls ProPublica's report fake news. ...

"fake news" is Trump-speak, usually meaning that the article is correct.

Meanwhile ...