@#58 ... It'll be Vance doing vetoes. ...

I'm not yet convinced of that sofa-hugging person.

But I do want to correct my prior post.

I said in #54 ...

... imo, if the Democrats actually take over both Houses of Congress, they might be in trouble because they will not be able to pass any laws because of the Trump veto. ...

What I had wanted to say was (and your current alias picked up on) ...

... imo, if the Democrats actually take over both Houses of Congress, they might be in trouble in 2028 because they will not be able to pass any laws because of the Trump veto. ...

Yes, I was thinking about 2028 when I posted my #54 comment.

Thanks for picking up on that.

More from the article ...

... For decades now we've documented how while "smart" TV makers are obsessed with making money off of in-home surveillance (which is now more profitable than the actual TV), they do an abysmal job protecting the data they collect. They also routinely don't respect consumer choice when users say they don't want to participate in the full scope of hyper-commercialized mass surveillance.

That latter point is central to a new study out of Northeastern that conducted 5,943 experiments across twelve commercial "smart" TV devices. The researchers found that most smart TVs utilize automatic content recognition (ACR), a technology that captures audio or video snapshots of viewed content and then monetizes that data to help build personalized profiles of viewers.

TV makers insist that users are supposed to be able to opt out, but the choice simply doesn't work across a large segment of TVs. Companies like Vizio simply ignored the consumer requests entirely more often than not:

"We find that the advertised ACR opt-out fully suppresses ACR-attributable traffic on only four operating systems; on Samsung Tizen traffic consistent with ACR activity persists in more than 60% of evaluated scenarios, and on Vizio SmartCast a content correlated endpoint hosted on Amazon Kinesis continues to receive traffic in 100% of opted-out scenarios."

These companies have been awful for a long while now, and U.S. regulation of the sector has varied between soggy and inconsistent ...

@#49 ... If the Democrats actually take both houses of Congress they will be in trouble because it is possible to abuse power, ...

imo, if the Democrats actually take over both Houses of Congress, they might be in trouble because they will not be able to pass any laws because of the Trump veto.

@#1 ... Former officials and outside experts said the disruptions risk leaving policymakers with an incomplete picture of threats facing the country, ...

It almost appears that the Trump administration wants to make it easier for our adversaries to attack us.

But that Reflecting Pool now looks great!

Can you say, "misplaced priorities?"

I knew you could.

@#44 ... Weirdest numbers: 50% mail in votes. ...

... and that is weird ... why?

Maybe because of things like this?

OK, I'll go away now.

@#30

You noticed that also?

@#16 ... Opposed to throwing trash at the universe. ...

In some respects, I agree.

But I also think we should start with the orbital debris that we have in Earth orbit.

More from the article ...

... A person in Washington state has died from bird flu after exposure at an infected dairy farm, state health officials reported Sunday. It marks the third human bird flu death in the US since a strain of highly pathogenic (H5) avian influenza (HPAI) made the unprecedented jump from wild, migratory birds to dairy cows, which was first reported in the US in March 2024.

The person who died was a Yakima County resident and was said to have had underlying health conditions, which could have made the person more vulnerable to the infection. ...

In all, three people have tested positive for bird flu in Washington since the virus was reported in dairy cattle in the state on October 8. All three have been in Yakima County. While announcing the death on Sunday, officials also reported the third case. That case, like the first case, was in a person who had exposure to an infected dairy herd in the county. Both people have reportedly not experienced severe illness nor been hospitalized.

Since the October 8 report of infected herds, Washington state has had 40 detections of bird flu in dairy cows, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Most of those have been in Yakima County, which has reported detections in 33 herds.

This year, the USDA has reported 134 cases of bird flu in cattle, including cases in Texas, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Kansas. The USDA lists no other reports of cases in other domestic livestock, including swine. But the virus has continued to spread in other wild and captive mammals. A report last month from ProPublica revealed that the virus is raging on a mink farm in Utah. The report raised alarm because mink is a species that could give the virus opportunities to mutate to better spread among humans.

To date, no human-to-human transmission of HPAI has been reported from the over 70 human cases detected since 2024. ...

@#20 ... The Archdiocese of New York recently agreed to an $800 million settlement with roughly 1,300 survivors of clergy sexual abuse. ...

@#68 ... Can we all agree that in the future, we should be required to show proof that we're Republicans in order to be able to vote. ...

My sarcasm detector lit up on that comment.

That aside, perhaps that seems to be the end aim the GOP is striving to work towards, for years.

Another option ...

MAGA false flags?

More from the article ...

... That trio of rulings has stymied the administration's efforts to advance an expansive view of executive power that would allow the president to install loyalists without Senate confirmation and fire those he perceives as disloyal without cause.

Across the country, federal judges have told him he can't do either.

In Washington state, a federal judge ruled last month that Trump's firing of a U.S. attorney who had been appointed by the district's judges was unlawful. Allowing the president to terminate a court-appointed U.S. attorney "would upend the framework created by the Constitution and the statutes, which together balance the president's right to appoint and the Senate's right to confirm," the Barack Obama appointee wrote. The Justice Department is appealing that decision.

In California, a federal judge on Friday said Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, has been serving unlawfully. Trump doesn't have the right to keep Essayli in charge while he operates as the office's No. 2, the George W. Bush appointee said.

And in New York, a federal judge ruled last week that Article II of the Constitution didn't give Trump the right to fire Maurene Comey, once a star prosecutor in Manhattan who was terminated last summer without explanation. "[I]n purporting to fire Comey pursuant to Article II and the laws of the United States, Defendants invented a new and expansive theory of executive power," the Obama appointee wrote. ...

@#11 ... has reportedly been arrested again, this time for allegedly threatening to kill federal judges ...

That, and cop-assaulters, seem to be one aspect of Pres Trump's kind of pardonees.

@#7 ... It seems obvious to me that as Netanyahu lost his election, this is his punishment/retribution for those who voted against him. ...

Looks similar to my view.

But then there's this ...

... Gov. Mikie Sherrill sent a letter to 12 port and terminal operators in the state, warning them they "could be subject to millions of dollars in penalties" long after President Trump leaves office. ...

I note the optimistic "after Trump leaves office" part.