Saturday, October 24, 2026

Dear Elmo: Nobody Cares What You Think.

Or how you spend your money. Signed: Texas
. @JamesTalarico : They may have the money, but we have the majority.

The most powerful people in the world know they can’t defeat our movement with the truth, so they’re attacking us with AI deepfakes, foreign bots, and conspiracy theories. They’re trying to make this election about anything other than their corruption.

You should believe our movement can beat their money because they sure do. On November 3rd, we are going to do the unimaginable: flip this seat in Texas, defeat the most corrupt politician in our state, and elect a servant leader to the United States Senate who’s going to fight for all of us.
P.S. You’re a carpetbagger.
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Still Unclear About The Concept

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🤡🎪 Now I’m Convinced She Had Nothing To Do With It

We know the Pope contacted Putin and Zelenskyy, and we knew that happened shortly thereafter. A week later, along comes this clown.
Put a clown in the palace, you don’t make him a king. You turn the palace into a circus. 🎪 🤡
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Friday, October 23, 2026

Feral Cunning

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Is This What Homan Meant?

Homan said he knew “stuff.” Is this it? Or part of it? ‘Cause I gotta say: “Pretty weenie.”

Probably came off the Intertoobs, too.
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Upstaging The Pope?

But evidence is thin on the ground.
WAIT A MINUTE: Melania Trump is now being credited with brokering a ceasefire in Ukraine by the White House—just one week after Pope Leo personally called Vladimir Putin to push for the SAME THING.

On October 16, Reuters reported that Pope Leo had called Putin to request a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky to allow desperately needed humanitarian aid and food to reach civilians.

The Kremlin confirmed Putin had agreed to cooperate. The Vatican made clear the initiative came from the Pope himself.

Fast-forward to today.

The White House is now announcing that Melania Trump brokered a ceasefire in Oleshky, claiming SHE initiated discussions with Russian and Ukrainian leadership.

The Associated Press is reporting the White House's account without mentioning the Pope's earlier intervention.

So why is the White House taking credit for an initiative Pope Leo was publicly pursuing a week ago?
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🚪

Q: Now that you know the backstory about Amy Acton and her stepfather and why she hasn't talked to her mom in so long -- her stepfather was indicted for rape -- do you change your mind about the ad?

TRUMP: No. No. It's a mother speaking badly against Amy Acton. You don't know anything.
Everyone knows the background story except Trump. And he can’t stand that.
YIKES 😳 Trump snaps at a reporter asking him about why he's dismissing sexual abuse allegations 👇

WOMAN REPORTER: Do the sexual abuse allegations mean nothing to you, sir?

TRUMP: Wait. Wait! Wait wait wait. Slow down. Who are you with?

REPORTER: NBC, sir. But they are very serious sexual abuse allegations

TRUMP: Quiet! Isn't she a fresh person? You're a horrible little reporter, aren't you?
He opened the door. Does he realize it swings both ways?
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Who’s On First?

What's on second. I Don’t Know’s on third.
Q: Do you think it's right for the richest man in the world to have so much power over what goes on in a war because Russia and Ukraine?

TRUMP: Well, I don't think he does. First of all, he's a very good person. He's not gonna do anything wrong. Elon will never do anything wrong.
And nobody knows who is in charge. But everyone is denying responsibility.
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The Crisis We Are Supposed To Fear

There are two Daniel Sullivans on the ballot for U.S. Senator in Alaska. One of them is the GOP candidate; the other ran against him in the primary, winning over 4000 votes. The winner garnered over 68,000 votes. Both are on the ballot because of Alaska’s ranked choice voting system. Mary Peltola is the Democratic candidate. Trump is afraid his candidate will lose to Peltola, so he’s sued to prevent that.

No, seriously.

The DOJ has sued to challenge the results if the Republican loses. Again, no, seriously.

[The suit] alleges that the presence of a candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan could confuse voters and wants a court to potentially delay the certification of the election if Sen. Sullivan is defeated next month.
The problem is not the request, which on its face is almost ludicrous (the facts that would have to be shown to justify the remedy requested are, frankly, unimaginable), it’s ludicrous on the legal basis for the request:
The lawsuit points to the preface of a federal law setting guard rails on states’ voter registration procedures – a preface that explains the law’s goals of protecting the “integrity of the electoral process” – as giving the court the power to intervene.
A prelude, like the Preamble to the Constitution, for example, is effectively dicta: commentary on the law that may provide guidance, but has no legal force. Dicta in a judicial opinion is not binding, but it can be an argument picked up later. Preludes to laws are similar; perhaps guidance to interpretation, but not law themselves. IOW, relying on the prelude to a law to make a claim in a civil suit, is the kind of mistake a first year student shouldn’t make in a moot court. If that’s all you’ve got, you really got nothing.
The lawsuit is based on a “strange and unusual” legal theory, said Derek Muller, an election law professor at Notre Dame Law School. It’s also unclear, he said, on a practical level, how a court could even intervene in the way the Justice Department proposes.

...

“They’re just plucking from the preface and saying this gives them a free-wheeling right to enjoin operations in a state, and I just don’t think a court is going to buy that,” Muller said.
These are the great legal minds of the DOJ we’re supposed to be afraid of. And all challenges to the electoral outcome, even the Twilight Zone theory that Johnson will conspire to deny the seating of New Democrats, will still go through the courts. The courts still require evidence, and law. Trump’s DOJ seems to be consistently short of both.
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Starshield Is Controlled By…

Apparently not controlled by Trump. Speaking of Ukraine and not controlled by Trump….
Ukraine’s Starshield access was still limited Friday despite President Donald J. Trump saying Musk restored it, according to the Wall Street Journal. U.S. officials told the Journal President Trump called Musk Wednesday and asked him to lift the restriction. Trump told reporters Thursday: “I don’t want to comment on it, whether I called, or whether somebody else called. The bottom line, he put it back.”

Ukrainian accounts are mixed. Some units tested drones at 200 km/h Thursday, mostly near the Black Sea, but late Thursday and overnight most of the military reported connections failing again above about 161 km/h. Zelenskyy’s spokesman Dmytro Lytvyn wrote, “We see the same limit. So as for now—nothing has changed.” A Zaporizhzhia pilot said failures are now random, and five of ten drones were lost on one mission Thursday night.
According to a release from the office of First Lady Melania Trump, she and her team have secured a localized ceasefire for the city of Oleshky in Ukraine between Ukraine and Russia. Per the release, technical teams between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia have worked to facilitate the safe evacuation of remaining civilians, primarily the elderly, between October 29 and a yet unspecified date. In addition the this, an impartial team of U.S. media will document the ongoing venture and both Ukrainian and Russian non-military personnel will work with residents to facilitate the evacuation.
Reuters confirms, in part:
Ukraine's top negotiator David Arakhamia said on Telegram a ceasefire ​would be established in Oleshky soon, as would an operation to establish permanent humanitarian corridors ⁠for evacuations and food deliveries.

He did not provide additional details on the operation.

Russia did not immediately confirm the ceasefire.

The ​Kremlin said earlier this week that work was underway to ease the humanitarian situation in Oleshky after Russian President Vladimir ​Putin told Pope Leo he was ready to cooperate on the issue.
Yeah, what are those two clowns doing?
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Thursday, October 22, 2026

🎶”It’s Money That Matters/In The U.S.A.” 🎶

 Pretty sure this is what Trump meant;

Speaking on Thursday's episode of "Inside Trump's Head," taped before a live audience in Los Angeles, Michael Wolff said a White House source "very close" to Trump told him the president wants $20 billion by the end of his term. The source added that Trump hopes to have deals in place so that he and his family can make $100 billion after he returns to Mar-a-Lago.

...

"I think Trump in his heart, in his head, wants to be an oligarch," Wolff said.

Wolff argued that ambition explains Trump's long-running affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Coles called it shocking to see an American president "side with the aggressor, side with Russia."

"This is at the root of Trump's interest in and admiration for Putin, that Putin is the one world leader who has access to the most money with the least amount of regulation," Wolff said.
Pausing to say I find this the most persuasive explanation of Trump’s adoration of Putin, whom he clearly wants to do business with (ultimate oligarch move, to Trump).
He also recounted watching Trump's 2018 Helsinki news conference with Putin alongside Steve Bannon, who remarked that Trump "looks like a beaten dog." Bannon then ran through the theories about what Putin might have on Trump, dismissing financial and sexual leverage before joking that Putin might have Trump's transcript from the Wharton School.

Wolff said he believes the answer is bigger than that, and that the war in Ukraine now stands between Trump and a lucrative partnership with Moscow. Imagining the president's thinking, he said, "Ukraine has really frustrated my ability to do a deal to be partners with Putin."

"So I am now going to do everything possible," Wolff continued. "I only got two years left, everything possible to close down the Ukraine situation and make deals with Putin."
Wolff understands Trump’s modus vivendi.
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We’ll Always Have Akron

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The Public Shaming Of The Nation

He also glitches over the "ad."
Trump doubles down on his support for Vivek Ramaswamy's ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mother Trump: Vivek Ramaswamy called me today. Very good guy. Amy Acton's mother said horrible things about her. I thought that meant Vivek would easily win. He called me asking if he should take down an ad about it because the fake news was mad. I would put up an ad too.
Once upon a time, cluelessness was his superpower. Now, he’s just pathetic. His self-awareness is unwavering. Meaning, he’s as clueless as ever. Trump is like a kid with a “Risk” game board and a marker. 
Well, Sundar is right. And a kid would think a “Man of the Century” Award was a compliment. Or at least not a public shaming.
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The Greatest Economy In The History Of The World

If you can count correctly.

Is this the “October Surprise” we were told to watch for?
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The Warmup For Tonight’s Rally

TRUMP TO POISONED FAMILIES: “SHOW SOME GRATITUDE OR FUCK YOU!” Trump HATES taking his medicine. And please: 🙏 
Trump: Amy Acton's mother said horrible things about Amy Acton and I don't know why you're not allowed to broadcast it. That one ad should really win.

Q: What about what the daughter said about the mother?

Trump: I don’t know what she said.

Q: That the mother remained with the stepfather who sexually abused her.

Trump: When did she make that statement? Recently?

Q: Years ago.

Trump: I have no idea. All I know is, Amy Acton's mother said horrible things about Amy Acton. She’s fair game.
… keep this in the news.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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🎶I Started A Joke…”

... which started the whole world crying.” 😿  (Because he’s Muslim!  Oogie-boogie!) (See?) "Oh, I didn’t see… ... that the joke was on me.” 🎶
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You Can Actually See The Hamster…

Trump: Amy Acton's mother said horrible things about Amy Acton and I don't know why you're not allowed to broadcast it. That one ad should really win.

Q: What about what the daughter said about the mother?

Trump: I don’t know what she said.

Q: That the mother remained with the stepfather who sexually abused her.

Trump: When did she make that statement? Recently?

Q: Years ago.

Trump: I have no idea. All I know is, Amy Acton's mother said horrible things about Amy Acton. She’s fair game.
... in his head, running in the wheel as fast as it can.

And hear the GOP, as one... ... realizing they are so fucked. I mean, he put it in writing:
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Aim At Foot And Pull The Trigger

In early August, election workers north of Spokane, Washington, went across the street to the post office to check for late mail-in ballots. It was three days after the primary and they were expecting no more than a few dozen.

Instead, their mailbox was brimming with envelopes — more than 500 of them, each a vote that wouldn’t count. The sight was “jarring,” said Auditor Lori Larsen, a Republican who oversees voting in Stevens County.

Across the region, other election officials were getting similar jolts. In the 11 predominately rural counties in eastern Washington, nearly 2,000 ballots came in late, compared to about 600 in 2022, the previous midterm primary.

In recent weeks, concerns about mail-in voting disruptions have focused almost entirely on President Donald Trump’s now-shelved plan to sharply restrict who can vote by mail.

But a ProPublica data analysis shows that delays resulting from the U.S. Postal Service’s cost-cutting measures have endangered the validity of ballots cast in rural areas, not only in Washington, but across the country.

Over the past three years, as mail volume continued to plummet and annual deficits ballooned, the Postal Service started consolidating the processing of first-class mail at larger regional plants instead of at smaller hubs closer to local post offices. Then, in a little-noted switch that mostly took effect after the 2024 election, the agency cut the frequency of mail pickups in half at many post offices 50 miles or more from these processing plants, from twice daily to once.

The changes often added a day or more to delivery time and, most importantly for ballots, pushed back postmarking, which doesn’t happen until mail reaches the regional centers.

In this year’s primary, the effects of the cuts were clearest in five states that make detailed data on mail-in ballots available: Washington, California, Ohio, North Carolina and Oregon. All have or recently had grace periods allowing ballots to count if they come in after Election Day as long as they’re postmarked by the deadline.

In these states, the number of ballots rejected for arriving late soared in counties affected by the service changes compared to 2022, ProPublica’s analysis showed.

Rejection rates in counties where services were cut doubled or tripled from what they were four years ago, dwarfing any increases in counties where postal pickups remained as they were, our analysis showed. In urban Spokane, for example, the number of ballots rejected for being late actually dropped this year.

Across the five states, the delays have had the most substantial effect in areas that voted for Trump in 2024, ProPublica’s analysis shows. In Washington, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, said he sees the service changes directed by Republican appointees leading the Postal Service as a way to undermine mail-in voting.
Rural areas, IOW, have been most affected by the decline of the Post Office. And, if, indeed, Republicans are trying to undermine mail-in voting, guess who it’s hurting?

😈

Are Republicans stupid? Or are they just stupidly following Trump? Or is there not any difference?
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Wednesday, October 21, 2026

That Was It

Okay... That was it. Nothing about food or prices. Less than usual, actually. 
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The Home Of Fort Sumter

And the crowd goes mild. Seven interruptions must set some kind of record.
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Worst Of Dying Twitter

Wait, let’s put that in context. Whether Elmo throttled StarShield in Ukraine, or the Pentagon did, is an open question. Both parties are pointing fingers at the other, leaving the impression clowns 🤡 and supervillains 🦹 are in charge. Not a good look. But at least one journalist said Elmo would be in jail if Harris were POTUS (and the Pentagon hadn’t locked Elmo out of their system? 🤷‍♂️). Elmo is very touchy about such things. This is his response to her. Which is pretty much how any reasonable person should treat it. I don’t know if this provoked a similar response: Which, honestly, is more objectively true. We can see that for ourselves.  Who screwed Ukraine is going to take a Congressional investigation. Meanwhile, Elmo is conducting another bonfire of the vanities with his own money, this time in Texas: Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.
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I See Dumb People

Pretty sure the last time I heard that line, it was 1970. Sarcasm? Or schoolyard sophistry?
Vance: Vivek has spent his entire life building things and that's what I think Vivek should be proudest of in this campaign, and that's what the Democrats will not stop lying about. They will not stop lying about here is a man who has built his life building life saving medicines and also technology and nuclear energy.
Prolonged proximity to Trump is bad for your mental health. Is adding “-ization” to words a dementia related thing? Seriously, is it?
Certainly not since Nixon. So, the accusation is true? Meanwhile... Trump’s record is skipping. Again. All in the same press conference. Last night: Today’s event started like this: Then: Ending full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
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They Know We Can Hear Them, Right?

So they don’t really want to find fraud. They want to scream “FRAUD!” and point, but not really do anything about it, because, you know, that requires facts. Trump doesn’t “do” facts. Well, unless it’s him doing it. That’s different. The morals of a cockroach.🪳  🪳
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Kavanaugh Stop, a/k/a Bicycling While Brown

ABOLISH ICE. Eradicate it, and start over again.
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“FRAUD!” Ain’t Always “Fraud”

And when it isn’t, it can’t be prosecuted. The Administration is not winning; it’s floundering. All these headlines are too little, too late, and irrelevant. Essayli (who announced the arrests) is an Alina Habba: an improperly appointed AAG who has already been declared invalid by the court, which means whatever his office touched under his tenure is invalid, too. That will include all the people arrested in this week’s “raids.”

They aren’t trying to “prove” their cases, they are only trying to generate headlines, mostly to keep Trump happy. That’s fucked up, but it has bugger all to do with the midterms, or even challenging the outcome in one district. Courts still require facts, and courts still decide how the law is applied. Nothing Trump can, or wants to, do about the midterms doesn’t run through the courts.

EOD.
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Smith County Was Republican When I Was A Child

I remember. I grew up there. And I’d bet Smith County is redder than Fort Worth (though hardly as populous).
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Commending Evil

Waiting for the Community Note on that 👆 one.  Meanwhile:
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy says Russia launched 16 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and the Kyiv region in several waves overnight, along with more than 200 drones, including jet powered Shaheds, and that Ukraine again received no early warning from its partners.

Zelenskyy said a medical clinic, a school, a metro station and residential buildings were damaged. He said Russia hit energy facilities in 11 regions, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa and Vinnytsia, damaging more than 10 energy sites and leaving at least 550,000 families without power.

Zelensky said Ukraine has accepted every ceasefire proposal, and that Russia’s response has been missiles and drones. He said that blocking deliveries of air defense missiles to Ukraine while Russia gets relief or delays in sanctions is “a denial of reality” by partners. He did not say which partners or which deliveries.

The attack follows a similar overnight barrage October 13th into the 14th, after President Donald J. Trump announced an “energy ceasefire” on October 11th. President Trump said October 13th that the U.S. is still sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
The entire Trump Administration is beneath contempt. For those of us who remember the Vietnam War, in country or in TeeVee, there is more than a little irony in that.
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Signs O’ The Times

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Hope Is A Dangerous Thing

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Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Bedtime Story

The needle is skipping on his record. So we’re going to use tax dollars to flood the market with chips in order to offset the rising cost of chips now due to the demand by AI data centers? A demand we are subsidizing (i.e., socializing) by offering tax breaks for said centers?  Isn’t subsidizing chip production…socialism?

Is this going to upset Carville?
Um...where is the money now? Or that money. He’s not even pretending not to be buying votes. Sure he is. No wonder of it. How you know he’s finally done. It wouldn’t be a rally without some protests, and it’s not over until the fat lady sings. The same song, every time. Like a favorite bedtime story nobody asked for.

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Follow The Bouncing Ball

Scoop: Top Republicans are banking on Trump’s promised $8 billion for farmers to stem GOP bleeding in farm states. It’s worked in the past just ahead of Election Day.

But the internal, taxpayer funded USDA account Trump is tapping doesn’t actually have enough $$ in it right now to make the direct payments. Congress will have to approve the new funds (a fight ahead in a GOP pkg or bipartisan year-end bill) or the admin will have to take it from another program, per Trump officials.

Farmers won’t get any payments until late Nov or Dec at the earliest, likely later. The disaster aid-like payment structure is coming later in Nov.

Farm state Hill Rs are still planning to push for another +$12 billion in year-end package. They've said farmers need +$50 million in aid to recover from the hit of tariffs and high fuel costs.
I do wonder how popular socialism for Farmer Brown will be in December, with so many (likely) voting for the last time. Eh, that might make them more generous; who really knows? But focus on the fact that money isn’t there, and then follow this: Andrew Feinberg was the reporter in that exchange. The White House amplified Trump's outrage: Feinberg makes clear the insult is one he would never use. No one should. It didn’t start that way. But it went that way:
All for an event that started off pretty normal. White House officials were going to hand out a reward to Nick Shirley, the right-wing YouTuber whose viral videos jump-started the administration’s crusade against day-care and home health care businesses in Minnesota run or owned by Somali-Americans. For their part, Trump, Vance and even Shirley acted like the idea of rewarding whistleblowers was new and unique to this administration, with the YouTube personality claiming there has “never been an incentive for anyone to ever expose fraud” in the country’s entire history. Because I’ve spent most of my professional life covering the federal government, I know there’s already a mechanism to reward whistleblowers on the books, I knew Shirley — and the rest — were dead wrong about that.
That mechanism is a law dating back to 1863. That’s all that’s really relevant to our conversation, here. That, and the law allows qui tam cases (guaranteed Trump has never heard that term), and pays up to 25% of the recovered funds goes to the whistleblower. Again, by law.

Let’s keep this that simple. Because the important point is the law, and it allows 25% as a “finder’s fee.” Trump’s “big announcement” today was that he was offering 1% for the same info. You can see up there 👆
Feinberg asking about that, and Trump’s response.
So why would anyone use the administration’s “tip line” when they could get far more cash for using the tried-and-true process that’s been around since the days of Abraham Lincoln?

I asked the president that exact question. His response? “Because it’s a lot of money.”

“At 1 percent, people will make millions and millions of dollars for turning in what actually is a somewhat routine crime of, you know, of millions of millions. But we’re talking about we’re talking about billions and actually probably trillions of dollars,” said Trump, who may not have understood the question or was unable to fathom that ten to 25 percent is far more than one percent.
The President, IOW, is innumerate. QED. He’s also a poorly informed boob.  You can’t make millions and millions of dollars off 1% of claims worth millions of dollars. And under the Federal Claims Act, the whistleblower is entitled to up to 25% of the recovery. 

There’s also the simple fact Trump can’t invent a payout system based on his innumeracy and an EO he signed and probably didn’t read. That’s allocation of federal funds. Only Congress can do that. More flatly, the Federal Claims Act is a federal statute with judicial opinions behind it. Trump’s EO is, by contrast, not binding on the Congress or the Treasury, and its terms are subject to Trump’s interpretation. Aside from the fact there’s the whole question of where the money for the “fee” comes from, and can the federal government claw it back in two years if it wants to? Spoiler: it can. EO’s are not binding on Congress, nor on subsequent Administrations. Not if the next President doesn’t want them to be.

Trump has absolutely no idea how any of this works. He cannot spend funds Congress has not allocated, and he can’t offer financial rewards Congress has not authorized. Two sides of the same coin. And it’s not his coin.


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Did Ukraine Violate The Terms Of Service?*

Or is our country’s foreign policy being run by third-rate supervillains from the “Batman” TeeVee show, with various chowder heads playing supporting roles?
The SpaceX founder personally ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink that Ukrainian forces rely on, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter. The speed cap rendered some of Ukraine's attack and interceptor drones close to useless, according to the report.

That account clashes with what Musk told the public. Hours after the slowdown came to light, he posted on X that "any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS."

Some U.S. officials told The Journal that Musk acted on his own and that Trump never specifically ordered any retribution against Kyiv. But one person familiar with the situation said Musk spoke with several senior Trump administration officials, including the president, before imposing the cap. Ukrainian officials said the restriction allowed Russian missiles to slip past their defenses.

Two people said Musk and Trump discussed the decision by phone shortly after it became public, while the president was on the campaign trail. One of them claimed the pair had also talked it over before the cap went into effect.

As the uproar grew, SpaceX representatives reached out to their White House counterparts hoping to settle on a shared message that the company and the Trump administration had worked together before Musk gave the order, according to the report. Trump, meanwhile, told reporters Monday that he didn't know who was behind the slowdown, "but I would like to find out."
I do appreciate Trump and Elmo in the hot dog suits, doing their dead-level best to fool everybody..


I understand (put that in air quotes) that Trump spits down on the ground every time Ukraine gets mentioned. It was his first impeachment, and he’s a petulant child. But Elmo just craves power; and this is an excellent example of why he shouldn’t have it. And another fine example of science fiction “predictions” failing wholly to deal with the evil of the human heart. We don’t need monsters bred from radioactivity or rogue AI to kill us all. Good old human greed and selfishness will do the job in ways we never seem to anticipate. It’s not the technology that’s moving too fast for us; it’s our plodding, blinkered, and starved imaginations. We’re not headed for a cyberpunk world. We never were. Nor are cyborgs going to get us. We need to start with the dumbest, most senseless acts possible; and then imagine technology amplifying those acts to the point populations are at risk.

When I was a child, the risk was nuclear annihilation; but that power was in the hands of governments. Turns out we could control that. Now we are literally putting governing in the hands of children who’ve never outgrown the narcissism of infancy. This is something nobody ever tried to foresee, but the results are perfectly predictable. Now it’s up to government to take that power back, for the people, not the narcissists (their name is “Legion,” because there are so many of them). But until that happens, and for the moment, Vonnegut’s observation from the ‘70’s still holds:

“The winners are at war with the losers, and the fix is in. The prospects for peace are awful.”

*Apparently they did:
(Bradbury and Harlan Ellison came closest to consistently expecting the problem with the future would be us, not the technology. J.G. Ballard saw it, too. But nobody came close to seeing this.
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