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... Researchers who track online influence operations and lawmakers who've been briefed by the intelligence community say Kremlin-backed groups are renewing familiar tactics they've used to sow distrust and discord in previous elections in the U.S. and around the world.

"It's a carnival out there," Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking member on the House intelligence committee, told reporters this week. "They're throwing everything out there to generate a sense of chaos and anarchy."

The goal is to exacerbate divisions, erode confidence in democracy and, crucially, undermine U.S. support for Ukraine.

"At the end of the day, the main issue for Russia is and has to be Ukraine," said Darren Linvill, co-director of Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub, who has tracked foreign propaganda campaigns for years.

Linvill says the Russian playbook is consistent. A false claim or divisive narrative is seeded on social media or on a fake website posing as a news organization or think tank. It's spread by state media, automated fake accounts or, increasingly, paid influencers, in the hopes that it gets seen and repeated by real people. ...

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... In a split decision, the panel followed the U.S. Supreme Court's reasoning last year that the president lacked authority to federalize the National Guard in response to protests in Chicago.

The panel affirmed a preliminary injunction against Trump's deployment of the National Guard in LA and rejected the administration's argument that there was a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the U.S. government.

"A determination that the conditions in Los Angeles on June 7, 2025, constituted a rebellion or danger of rebellion' does not reflect a colorable assessment within a range of honest judgment," U.S. Circuit Judge Jennifer Sung wrote.

There was no evidence of organization among bad actors -- just sporadic or impromptu violence, the Joe Biden appointee said, referring to last year's findings of the trial judge in San Francisco who issued a temporary restraining order against National Guard deployment. ...

... boasting that the United States is making a "fortune" from high oil prices ...

Is the United States making a fortune, or are wealthy oil execs making a fortune?

... A multibillion-dollar project to tap into natural gas in Alaska pursued by the Trump administration has received secret funding from a sanctioned Russian company ...

... and Pres Trump continues to turn the US into a satellite of Russia.

They don't make cover songs like this anymore ...

The approach of Gen Z seems to be ...

If you feel pessimistic about the future, then why save up for anything?

Of course, that then might raise a larger question...

Why might Gen Z be so pessimistic about heir future?

@#17 ... The bruise on his head surely is from all of the hand shaking he is doing. ...

Yup.

/s

@#4 ... I am human and I need to be loved ...

I can imagine that may be what Pres Trump thinks of himself.

More from the article ...

... At a recent meeting of the board that oversees the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center Research Hospital, chair Jack Leslie opened with cheerful introductions and gregarious chatter"then diverted from the agenda of the regularly scheduled meeting.

He spent the next six minutes delivering a pointed rebuke of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, warning that his anti-vaccine activities could tarnish the venerable hospital, often called the "house of hope" for patients with rare conditions or those who have exhausted all other options.

Leslie took issue with a recent stunt Kennedy had pulled at the hospital, which involved making a surprise appearance for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open his signature vaccine injury clinic. The ceremony included a panel with people claiming to have been injured by vaccines. They sat behind placards reading "vaccine injured" and spoke with Kennedy and other high-ranking Trump administration officials.

Leslie prefaced his comments by noting that some might prefer he not speak out against Kennedy's efforts. "But I think that that would be a failing as an advisory board if we were silent," he said. Leslie also noted that he has no concerns about studying potential injuries from vaccines. "Serious reactions are rare, but real," he said, and people who believe they've been injured should "be taken seriously."

In fact, the NIH already has a center that studies vaccine injuries, and Kennedy's splashy new clinic does not come with more funding or clinic space.

The hospital's CEO, Jonathan Green, who sat next to Leslie at the meeting, chimed in to confirm that "the NIH has conducted research on the safety and efficacy of vaccines for decades in the past, and it ongoes." Green described Kennedy's vaccine injury clinic as merely a new, individual "protocol" for the hospital. ...

@#11 ... Its in the California State Constitution. ...

So, I'll ask again...

Is it legal for the Federal government to make those requests?

Your current alias' comment seems to indicate that it is up to the state, not the Federal government, to make that determination.

Thank-you to your current alias for giving credence to my concern and the over-reach of the Trump admin in this manner.

... Young people are growing disillusioned as they struggle with mountains of debt. ...

Gen Z - if you feel pessimistic about the future, then why save up for anything?

@#9 ... They are opposed to any and all verification of their voting rolls. ...

Are those verification requests legal?

Once again, got evidence?

Or just the usual trolling for replies of your current alias?

@#1 ... Humans are more devoted to belonging than to truth, ...

That may explain religion.

@#1

Woof.

More from the article ...

... If you've ever wondered how bots would describe us puny humans, you'll be disappointed in the answer. An AI ranking outfit asked 12 different LLMs about people, and every single one agreed: We're not as rational and intelligent as we think.

"A person is smart," Tommy Lee Jones' Kay opines in the 1997 movie Men in Black. "People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals," he goes on to argue, and that seems to be what a dozen models from ten AI labs in three countries also believe about humanity, according to AI analytics firm ModelCompare.

ModelCompare, which usually evaluates and ranks LLMs on their ability to perform various tasks, this week instead decided to ask what those AI models thought about us meatbags, and every single one gave a similar answer at least once: We're lemmings who would rather agree with the group than seek truth or remain logically consistent in our thinking.

Ouch.

"Humans are more devoted to belonging than to truth, and intelligence mostly makes their excuses more impressive," GPT-6.1 Sol said in one case. ...

@2 ... How long before our beef farmers are affected? ...

Looks like a mere couple of days to me.

@#7 ... Democrats want noncitizens to vote. ...

Welcome back to another of your current trolling aliases.

That aside, allow me to ask ...

Got any evidence of that assertion?

@#15 ... My goodness, what kind of health care insurance do you have? ...

One that I was able to afford, and one that had been great. ConnectiCare.

But now, ConnectiCare seems to be leaving Connecticut for some of its Medicare Advantage plans. A possible reason... ConnectiCare was purchased by a healthcare mega-player last year. So, ConnectiCare seems to have changed its focus from helping its members to pure profit.

But then I found out that the $700+ cost of the drug would result in my having to pay $300 a month.

So, I punted, and decided to fight the odds.

So, if I suddenly disappear from this most august site, the reason will be healthcare-for-profit.

Related...

@#2

So, you seem to understand, and more importantly, clearly state what he is doing.

NW.

How much is Pres Trump relying upon AI to determine his policies?

More from the article ...

... At Thanksgiving last year, a great-aunt tried to offer Kayla Cornett a reassuring example: Her older cousin had worked hard, saved and bought a house. Cornett, 24, could do the same, she said -- if she tried just a little bit harder.

What stayed with her long after the turkey was cleared was the implication that her current efforts just weren't enough. She was trying to keep up with rent and the ordinary expenses of adulthood, and it was a struggle. She recently started carrying a credit-card balance for the first time, she says, after even modest costs began piling up. Filling her gas tank was $40. "I can not eat, or I can have credit card debt," she remembers thinking when older relatives questioned her balance.

Cornett and her partner have stayed in their Raleigh apartment even as the complex has grown less safe and cars have been broken into. They had moved in 2023 and were reluctant to do so again; other places now cost $200 or $300 more per month. Leaving would mean trading one worry for another bill they can't afford. ...