Attribution: USPS Mailbox Rejects Mail-In Ballot by John Darkow, politicalcartoons.com
[John Darkow has been a professional cartoonist for over 20 years, spending the last 10 as the staff cartoonist at the Columbia Daily Tribune. He is syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons.]
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USAtodayFederal judge pauses USPS vote by mail rule in Oregon lawsuit
Anastasia Mason
Salem Statesman Journal
Updated Aug. 27, 2026, 11:51 p.m. ET
A federal judge on Aug. 27 blocked the implementation of new U.S. Postal Service restrictions on mail-in ballots for two weeks in response to a lawsuit from Oregon and more than 20 other states.
The temporary restraining order is the latest twist in an ongoing legal battle over a March executive order from President Donald Trump. It comes fewer than 70 days before the Nov. 3 midterm election.
The executive order said states must share lists of voters who should receive mail-in ballots with USPS. Ballots would only be delivered to people on the list and the envelopes ballots are sent in would have to meet specific criteria. It also instructed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to create lists of eligible voters in each state.
USPS announced a final rule Aug. 21 to implement their portions of the executive order.
The states “face irreparable harm where they are required to comply with a likely unconstitutional regulation for which compliance is practically impossible as to the 2026 midterm elections, now little more than two months away,” U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani wrote in granting the temporary restraining order.
Oregon and 23 other states, plus Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit Aug. 26 asking a federal judge to stop USPS’ new rule carrying out the executive order.
That lawsuit followed an April lawsuit, which the U.S. Supreme Court said Aug. 24 had been filed too early because actual implementation of the order had not yet begun.
The issue could again appear in front of the Supreme Court.
In a statement, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield celebrated the order, calling it a win for Oregon voters.
“The Postal Service does not get to decide who receives a ballot in Oregon. That authority belongs to the states, and this order confirms it,” Rayfield said. “While this fight isn’t over, this ruling means Oregon voters can count on the system they know as we head into the fall election.”
Trump’s executive order and the USPS rule are both unconstitutional, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said in a statement.
“This order provides more certainty for voters and elections officials in the middle of a major election,” Read said. “While this is a win, we will continue to aggressively pursue every available tool we have to protect every Oregon citizen’s right to vote.”
we were warned
Patrick Fitzgerald Jul 30, 2024
It’s a continuing mystery how anyone would consider voting for Donald Trump. He recently said “You won’t have to do it anymore! Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore … In four years you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not gonna have to vote.”
I’m not sure how this “day one dictator” intends to “fix” things, but it might be analogous to how a dog is “fixed” at the vet.
Anyhoo… I whipped up this quick song parody to the tune of “Careless Whisper”
due to error on my part, that 1st comment was mine, not one of our many anonymous friends on the Trail.
so too the lack of Disney’s grinning cat avatar
The Resistance
Jun 30, 2026 #trump
Finger snaps, soaring vocal harmonies, and irresistible 1950s sock-hop energy bring Drop It In The Mail to life in this original doo-wop political parody. Beneath the nostalgic sound is a humorous celebration of mail-in voting that pokes fun at Donald Trump, MAGA, and the Republicans in Congress who continue to cast doubt on trusted voting methods. With a catchy chorus, vintage jukebox vibes, and a playful reminder that ballots mailed by Election Day count under applicable rules, this satire turns civic participation into a feel-good sing-along.
on another subject that may affect sone of the upcoming elections in Flori-duh
Aug 27, 2026 #news #politics #florida
$10 million from a Medicaid settlement found its way into a charity tied to the wife of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Despite what a grand jury called a clear misappropriation of funds, no criminal charges are being filed. CBS News Miami investigative reporter Jim DeFede has the details.
The Guardian’s take Florida grand jury finds DeSantis administration ‘misappropriated’ funds from Medicaid settlement
Grand jury declined to indict anyone but said there was a ‘sophisticated scheme’ to use funds for political activity
A Florida grand jury has found that the administration of the governor, Ron DeSantis, “misappropriated” $10m in taxpayer money from a Medicaid settlement into the Hope Florida Foundation, a charity with ties to DeSantis’s wife, before the money was reportedly “funneled” into “two political action committees”.
In the grand jury report, which remains sealed but was obtained and published by CBS News Miami on Wednesday, the grand jurors wrote that “we conclude that these funds were misappropriated as part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities” but said that they found “insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally”.
The grand jury report, dated 28 January 2026, states that in 2024, the Hope Florida Foundation received $10m from a Medicaid settlement between the state and Centene, a contractor for the government health insurance program for low-income Americans and children.
The report goes on to say that after the money was transferred to Hope Florida, it was “quickly funneled” from there into two political action committees, and that the money was then reportedly used to lobby against a ballot measure that would have legalized marijuana in Florida, and was sent to the Republican party of Florida.
In the report, the jurors write that “nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida” and “this decision was the original misappropriation, and no witness would take responsibility for making the decision or had any memory of who made it”.
“While we can’t prove who is responsible, we can plainly see that taxpayer money was misused for political purposes and we would like to see changes made to prevent this from happening again,” the report concludes.
When asked by a reporter about the report on Thursday, DeSantis said that the only crime that was “apparent was whoever leaked the grand jury report”.
He described the settlement as “legally sound” and “appropriate” and that it “advanced the interest of state”.
“There was no diversion of any Medicaid funds” he said. “That was a private settlement where a company made a private contribution with one of the state agencies.
“The whole reason people tried to make hay of this, was they were trying to use it to smear the first lady of Florida, my wife, and what has come out? Oh, she wasn’t involved in anything,” he said. “She wasn’t involved in any of this.” (The report only has one mention of Casey DeSantis, in which it refers to Hope Florida as an initiative “championed by the First Lady of Florida, Casey DeSantis”.)
In the report, the grand jurors also wrote that they found that the Florida attorney general, James Uthmeier, who was DeSantis’s chief of staff at the time and is currently running for election for a full four-year term, was in a “position of authority over those involved in settling with Centene” and that testimony identified him as “having involvement in directing the money after it went to Hopе Florida”.
The grand jurors wrote that no witness admitted or identified who directed the money to go to Hope Florida and noted that testimony also revealed that Uthmeier’s political action committee, Keep Florida Clean, was the “prime recipient of the majority” of the $10m.
The jurors also noted that the office of Ashley Moody, then Florida’s attorney general who is currently serving her second year in the Senate and is up for re-election, knew of the payment, and that her chief deputy signed the agreement “without conducting his due diligence to ensure the proper appropriation of taxpayer funds”.
Both Moody and Uthmeier have denied any wrongdoing. On Thursday, at an event at the Villages in Florida, Uthmeier was asked about the report, to which he said that under Florida law, he was not allowed to comment on it.
“I can’t say if it’s true or not,” he said. But he added that “if it is indeed true” it shows that “there was no probable cause found that anybody did anything wrong”.
He also said, without evidence, that Democrats had been behind the report, and called it a “hoax that has been debunked time and time and time again”.
“Nobody did anything wrong here,” he added.
In a statement to the New York Times on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Moody said that “the reports confirm what we have said all along”, that “neither the Department of Legal Affairs nor the former attorney general had knowledge of how the settlement money would be spent. Attempts to characterize this any other way are disingenuous.”
In the report, the jury recommended that the Florida legislature “enact a law to prevent this situation from occurring”. They suggest enacting “a law that says any monies received by the state from any source must be deposited into General Revenue, and there should be real consequences for anyone violating this law”.
On Thursday, the Democratic nominee for governor in Florida, David Jolly, said that if elected, he would “reopen an investigation” into the incident and challenged the Republican nominee for governor, Byron Donalds, to do the same.
back to the mail in ballots mess.
Election officials say mail-in ballot rules could compromise midterms
Current and former election officials said it would take something short of “an act of God” for their states and localities to comply with a new U.S. Postal Service mail-in ballot rule just weeks before the midterm elections.
The rule, which the Postal Service finalized Aug. 26 in response to an executive order President Donald Trump issued in March, requires state and local election officials to submit voters’ names and addresses to USPS through a new portal.
Only voters whose information is submitted by states would be allowed to receive and return mail-in ballots. The rule also establishes new design requirements, including a tracking barcode for mail-in ballot envelopes that states must create and submit to the USPS for approval.
But time has already essentially run out, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told USA TODAY.
“This is a logistical nightmare,” said Fontes, a Democrat. “It’s just too late from a pragmatic, practical application perspective.”
On Aug. 24, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Postal Service to issue the rule. It will remain in effect for the midterms unless it is blocked by the courts. Multiple lawsuits over its constitutionality have already been filed, including one by 24 states and another by voting rights groups. In both lawsuits, the plaintiffs have asked courts to block the rule from being used in the 2026 midterms. A joint hearing on that request is scheduled for Sept. 3.
The Postal Service did not respond to emailed questions about the rule, including when states can start submitting voter names to the portal, what standards they will be expected to meet to have envelopes approved and how training for USPS employees will be carried out to ensure ballots are properly handled. USPS has previously said it cannot comment on topics subject to pending litigation.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said the USPS rule “was proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”
“Any confusion was caused by radical Democrats’ litigation to stop these commonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans are electing American leaders. The Trump Administration will continue to lawfully enact the agenda President Trump was elected on – which includes the safety and security of our elections,” Bis said.
Meanwhile, Fontes and other state and local election officials are grappling with the logistics of what it would take to comply.
Election planning starts months, or even years, before early voting begins, they said, and ballot language must be cleared with state officials. Envelopes were purchased months ago, they added, and some of them already have stamps affixed. All of this was done on a tight budget, said Carolina Lopez, a former Miami-Dade County, Florida, election administrator.
“If there was a change today or any time between these federal – or even state – deadlines, it would take short of an act of God” to pull off the elections, Lopez said. “It does require time and money.”
Because the Constitution gives states authority over election administration, every state has different laws, rules and standards for what ballots and envelopes look like, when they must be mailed to voters and how and when mailed ballots can be returned.
Little time
Local officials must comply with federal deadlines to send ballots to military and overseas voters at least 45 days before the election – that’s in mid-September. States also have laws determining when ballots must be mailed to voters.
Twenty states send mail-in ballots to voters 45 days or more before an election, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. For example, North Carolina and Delaware begin sending ballots out the first week of September.
Fontes said he’s operating on faith that courts will halt the Postal Service rule from taking effect in the 2026 midterms.
“Otherwise, what am I supposed to do? Go into a full-fledged panic and send everybody into emergency mode down a path that they very likely won’t have to finish and upset the already busy, underfunded, understaffed apple cart that we’re already running down the trail?” he said. “We just can’t do this. We don’t live in a world where miracles happen.”
States that can’t or won’t comply with the new rule won’t be allowed to send ballots in the mail. That would be a particular problem for the eight states and Washington, D.C., which allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail.
Voting by mail has become so popular – nearly 30% of voters cast an absentee ballot in the 2024 election – that many states don’t have enough equipment to conduct all in-person elections if they are not allowed to mail ballots, state election officials said. In some cases, not enough of equipment, such as private booths to mark ballots, is available today for states to purchase on short notice.
“It’s not like they’re not in the supply chain, or you can’t get a bunch of them on eBay or something. They just don’t exist,” Fontes said.
For example, Maricopa County, Arizona, serves so many voters that it purchases special ballot paper over a year in advance of an election, he said. Obtaining enough such paper, he added, for reprinting ballots to meet the new USPS specifications, or to have sufficient pre-printed ballots for dramatically increased in-person polling locations, might not be possible.
In Orange County, California, military and overseas ballots will be printed before the end of next week, said Bob Page, the county’s registrar of voters.
“For our 1.9 million voters locally, we will start printing those ballots the week of Labor Day,” Page said.
California, which has more than 23 million registered voters, is among the states that send ballots by mail to every voter.
Many states and counties use the same handful of printers around the country because of their expertise, so they cannot wait until the Postal Service approves envelope design or approves voter lists, said Amanda Gonzalez, the Jefferson County, Colorado, clerk and recorder. Many printers have contracts to produce ballots and addressed envelopes.
“They have top security and they make sure that our processes are well done,” Gonzalez said. “There just isn’t a lot of wiggle room.”
The ballot certification deadline in Colorado is Sept. 2, she said. That gives Gonzalez at most six days to get ballot proofs to her printer, once she has final confirmation of what the ballot and envelope must look like.
More: States sue over new Trump mail ballot rules
Ricky Keech, deputy elections director for Loudoun County, Virginia, said the final proofs of the mail-in ballots will go to their mailing vendor by the end of this week and be sent out to voters the week of Sept. 18.
“The deadlines are pretty much passed at this point and our envelopes for this election were printed a month ago,” Keech said. [continues]
Charlie Angus
Scroll down till you see white hair man and green background.
What it is
Hydronyms for dummies.
Dear Canada,
There’s been a coup by BiBi Netanyahu; he now controls Dumbass and over half of Congress.
In return, Dumbass and the rest of the Epstein parasite class get to raid the US Treasury and public lands like the frigging mafia.
Make no mistake, they will not stop with the US. They are coming for the rest of the world.
“THEY WANT PEOPLE SCARED”: FORMER PALESTINE ACTION MEMBER BLASTS TRUMP’S TERROR SANCTIONS
Anti-genocide organizers say the “terrorism” label is intended to crush direct action against Israeli weapons shipments.
The Trump administration on Wednesday announced sanctions against the U.K.-based anti-genocide protest group Palestine Action, which organized the 2021 demonstration and dozens of subsequent actions at U.K. factories owned by Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems. The goal, in the U.S. government’s words, is to “protect Americans from the risks posed by far-left terrorism.”
“A major threshold has been crossed,” said Geller, who was previously Palestine Action’s spokesperson but left the group in 2025, when the British government made membership punishable by 14 years in prison. “They’re now treating regular Americans who want to effectively oppose genocide as terrorists.”
The specific parameters of the U.S. sanctions are not yet clear, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pledged the government would “continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.” Sanctioned groups and individuals cannot receive funds, goods, or services from American people or business — meaning they’re cut off from both the U.S. banking system and from any donations from Americans who might want to support them. They can have an isolating global effect: Financial institutions outside the U.S. that do business with American companies are often hesitant to affiliate with sanctioned individuals.
If not mobsters, why mobster shaped?
Now the uber wealthy want a private road into Yosemite
Trump’s Quietly Working to Give Part of Yosemite to a Private Developer
Today is 60 days to Netanyahu’s reelection balloting (technically the Knesset, but in practice, whether he remains prime minister). And it’s no guarantee he wins. I’m sure everything he’s doing right now is geared toward that.
PALESTINIANS ASKED FOR HELP AGAINST SETTLERS. ISRAELIS DETAINED PALESTINIAN WORKERS INSTEAD.
In the besieged West Bank village of Qusra, the workers were building a fence for keeping settlers out. Soldiers allowed the settlers to trespass.
The Israeli military’s actions that night against the workers stand as an example of the Israeli government’s broader role in and response to settler violence in the occupied West Bank — emboldening the settlers’ lawless behavior as they forcibly displace Palestinians from their homes and land.
Siargao, one of the Philippines’ most recognized tourism destinations, is facing broader problems on visitor conduct, local safety, balance between sustaining tourism growth, and protecting communities after several incidents involving foreign tourists.
Maria Lalaine Tokong, a 27-year-old Lumad musician and long-time Siargaonon, described the situation, saying that they are feeling less at home in their own home and the Israelis act like they own the place, more than just being visitors.
“This isn’t about religion or hospitality. This is about erasure and intimidation. Our island is being reshaped without us,” Tokong emphasized.
Residents have documented troubling interactions with Israeli tourists over the past 18 months, including instances of verbal abuse, trespassing, vandalism, and disrespectful behavior in homestays and resorts.
The most recent incident involves allegations that two Israeli nationals attacked business owners in General Luna after noticing a Palestinian flag displayed outside the restaurant. Proprietors were reportedly hurt, a closed-circuit television camera was destroyed, and rocks were thrown. Investigations are ongoing.
TODAY Show just announced the petition to rename the airport after Dolly!
Here’s hoping Israeli voters fix this in 60 days…
Netanyahu is an underdog—but very much alive. The polls: His coalition is generally projected at about 49–53 seats, short of the 61 needed to govern. Netanyahu is caught between a more hard-right base and voters who want a more centrist government. Reuters reports that about 20% of voters remain undecided, including many of Netanyahu’s former supporters.
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/the-main-candidates-facing-pm-netanyahu-in-israels-elections
*If BiBi loses, will it even matter? It seems like it could be even worse. Does Lapid have a chance? He seems to be the best hope.
Gadi Eisenkot, 66, holds a great deal of public sympathy, particularly following the death in combat of his son Gal and two of his nephews during the Gaza war. He served as military secretary to prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, before entering politics in 2022 alongside the centrist Benny Gantz, his predecessor as army chief. Eisenkot has kept vague his positions on the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, 54, is placed in many polls as Netanyahu’s main potential rival.
The former tech entrepreneur established himself as a leading figure in the nationalist right and settler movement, formerly heading the Yesha Council – the main body representing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. He later entered politics within the national-religious camp, becoming education and then defence minister.
Journalist-turned-politician Yair Lapid, 62, has been one of the most familiar faces in Israeli politics for over a decade. He briefly took over as prime minister in 2022 as part of a rotation power-sharing deal with Bennett. An avowed secularist and advocate of a centrist and liberal line, he was one of the leading figures in the mobilisation against the government’s judicial reform that deeply divided Israel before Hamas’ attack.
Born in Soviet Moldova in 1958, Avigdor Lieberman moved to Israel in the late 1970s and is a veteran of the political scene. He first made a name for himself as one of Netanyahu’s closest associates, serving as his chief of staff.
After founding the secular nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, Lieberman initially relied on the Russian-speaking electorate, before gradually broadening his base to include part of the Israeli right. He is also opposed to the privileges granted to Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews and has for years called for their military conscription. AFP
Enough with the internecine warfare. Isaac & Ishmael need to get their act together and agree on two states, then leave each other alone.
Netayahu loyalists or even further right are like 75% of the Knesset, Jefé is pipe dreaming
puff puff pass
y’all really need to consume SOME international media, start with BBC
today’s meme…
hope this is true…
none of us will live long enough to see a time when Israel is no longer trying to exterminate Palestinians
i guess unless they are successful more quickly than i imagine
they’re not even pretending to entertain a 2-state solution
…and BBC is just a singular news source, not vouching for every piece they produce or suggesting you suspend critical thinking when watching or listening
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/27/americas/ottawa-rename-trump-avenue-lake-america-latam-intl
Canadian council considers changing street named after Trump to Taco Avenue
A Canadian city council is considering renaming a street named after US President Donald Trump – and among the contenders for a replacement are “Obama Avenue” and “Taco Avenue.”
In a unanimous vote on Wednesday, Ottawa City Council took a first step toward renaming Trump Avenue, a residential street in the Central Park neighborhood of Ottawa that has carried the president’s name for roughly 25 years. It is just one of the references to New York City in the neighborhood, which also has a Staten Way, Madison Park and even a Gotham Private.
But amid the escalating trade fight between the two countries and Trump’s repeated jabs at Canada, some local councilors say they see the name as an embarrassment and do not want anything in Ottawa named after him.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/27/politics/trump-rename-lake-america
Trump can legally change the way the US government refers to geographic landmarks. Thursday’s executive order tasks Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the Board on Geographic Names to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America” within 30 days, including updating the Geographic Names Information System and removing “all references to Lake Ontario, consistent with applicable law.”
Trump also directed the Board on Geographic Names to provide guidance on the name change within the federal government, so agency maps, contracts, documents and communications state “Lake America” instead.
*But then they won’t spell HOMES! They’ll spell HAMES!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/autopsy-shows-tennessee-national-guard-031213331.html
Autopsy shows Tennessee National Guard fatally shot 20-year-old armed man in the back
The guard members were assigned to the Memphis Safe Task Force, created by President Donald Trump, who last year sent troops and federal agents to Democratic-run cities that he described as overrun with crime. The task force was involved in four fatal shootings between May and July.
Tennessee National Guard members assigned to a federal anti-crime task force in Memphis fatally shot an armed 20-year-old man in the back, according to an autopsy report obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, contradicting police accounts that said the man was facing the troops when they fired.
Authorities have said that Tyrin Johnson turned toward guard members with a gun while running from them in the early morning hours after the Fourth of July holiday in Memphis when he was fatally shot in the chest.
But according to an autopsy report shared by Johnson’s family, a single bullet went in the right side of his back and exited through his upper right chest.
The autopsy findings, reported earlier by The Commercial Appeal, were prepared by the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center Office of the Medical Examiner, which did not respond to a request for comment.
HA!
Testing…
IMG_1545
Today in the Diner…
Donald Trump Lake America Plan & Dolly Parton Airport
Donald Trump wants to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America, while fans push for a Dolly Parton Airport. Plus, Greg Abbott’s extradition fight.
It is Freaky Friday at the diner and we are broadcasting with the Minnesota State Fair playing in the background. Things get weird fast when we look at Donald Trump trying to mandate that Doug Burgum and the government rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. It seems the Gulf of Mexico just was not enough for him.
Meanwhile, there is a serious push to rename the National Airport after Dolly Parton. If anyone deserves an airport, it is her. We also dive into a heated legal battle where Gov. Greg Abbott is refusing to extradite Christian Castro back to Minnesota, prompting fierce criticism from County Attorney Mary Moriarty.
Live Chat: https://trailmix.cc/chat
Website: https://trailmix.cc
Alerts: https://trailmix.cc/alerts
00:00 Intro Minnesota State Fair
11:27 Donald Trump Lake America
14:14 Dolly Parton Airport Petition
24:52 United Airlines Trump Drop
32:32 Christian Castro Texas Case
35:10 Mary Moriarty on Greg Abbott
40:15 Tina Smith on Giant Slide
51:42 Gov Kathy Hochul ICE Ban
01:01:42 Brent Terhune Comedy Riff
— Human directed and edited. Machine drafted (Gemini Pro).
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-military-laser-shoots-down-cartel-drones-southern-border-pentagon/
The U.S. military this week used a laser to shoot down three drones along the U.S.-Mexico border that were allegedly operated by drug cartels, the Pentagon said Thursday.
The three unmanned aircraft systems were shot down late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning using an “Army Multipurpose High Energy Laser system,” according to U.S. Northern Command, which is responsible for overseeing certain military defense operations in North America.
The drones were downed by the U.S. military’s southern border Joint Task Force, a unit of USNORTHCOM, which did not specify exactly where the drones were shot down, or which cartels they were believed to belong to. No details on the operation were provided.
*But it totally happened just like they said, and no innocent civilians were injured. Totally.
If you click on Winterlinde’s link, there’s a video of the animals.
Craig – That video seems to go with a different description.
Claire to the rescue! It’s not HOMES to HAMES, it’s HOMES to SHAME!
BiD, thanks for the catch. fixed.
ONLY TRUMP CAN CALL IT LAKE AMERICA (For Now)
🍽️from today’s Digital Diner menu
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/25/texas-minnesota-ice-officer-extradition-judge/
Christian Castro walked out of the Carrizalez-Rucker Cameron Detention Center early Thursday morning, according to The Associated Press.
People awaiting extradition in Texas cannot be held longer than 90 days. Castro, who was arrested in Cameron County on May 29 based on a warrant issued by a Minnesota court, reached that deadline Thursday.
Without Abbott’s agreement to extradite him, Castro cannot be re-arrested in Texas based on the May warrant, but he could be arrested on the same warrant if he leaves for another state, according to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office.
And although the judge acknowledged that Abbott has considered the extradition request “for an atypically long duration,” he found that Minnesota has not identified any federal law requiring the Texas governor to decide whether to sign the extradition paperwork within a certain time period.
The judge also concluded that the threat of flight was not enough to justify holding Castro beyond the legal limit.
“The Court agrees that Castro’s flight to Mexico would impose a hardship on Minnesota’s prosecutorial efforts,” he wrote. “But that possible outcome does not alter the analysis.”
Minnesota argued Tuesday that how Castro ended up in Texas was irrelevant and that the investigation into whether he is a fugitive has no basis in law.
They also said Abbott has a duty to make Castro available for extradition under the Extradition Clause of the Constitution, which they said is meant to preclude any state from becoming a sanctuary for fugitives of another state.
In his Wednesday order, the judge concluded that federal extradition law doesn’t give him the authority to set a time limit for Texas officials to conduct their investigation. He also found that there is “no direct evidence” that Abbott pushed for an investigation to delay the extradition or that Howden’s inquiry would go on for a long time.
“The threat of an indefinite consideration of Minnesota’s extradition request does not currently exist,” Rodriguez wrote.
https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-where-does-the-rapture-fit-into-united-methodists-beliefs
Where does the Rapture fit into UM beliefs?
The short answer is, “It doesn’t.”
You will not find any teaching about the Rapture and its related beliefs about a “Great Tribulation” that will befall all those “left behind” for some period of time before the “Great White Throne Judgment” and/or “The Millennial Reign” among the doctrinal standards of The United Methodist Church.
Why is that?
Because all of these terms were invented in the nineteenth century, largely among other denominations or independent parachurch organizations sponsoring “prophecy conferences.” The person most widely credited for the development of this set of theological terms (along with another term, “premillennial dispensationalism”), was John Nelson Darby. He was at one time a priest in the Church of England, who left his priesthood to found his own prophesy-centered sect (The Plymouth Brethren). Influential though his teaching would become, it, as did he, became untethered from established Christian doctrine and teaching grounded on Jesus’s own repeated teaching that “No one knows the day nor the hour.”
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/snarkyfaith/2026/01/john-nelson-darby-and-the-invention-of-the-rapture/
Why the Rapture Spread in American Christianity
The rapture didn’t spread because it was persuasive. It spread because it was soothing.
Darby offered anxious believers something irresistible: certainty in chaos. Control in collapse. Escape without cost. You won’t have to endure history’s mess. You won’t have to suffer alongside the world. You won’t have to fix anything. Just wait. Watch the signs. Be ready to leave.
To be clear: Darby isn’t a cartoon villain. He’s something more unsettling—a prototype. He shows what happens when fear, isolation, obsession with coherence, and distrust of community collide.
Darby didn’t read Scripture as a living tradition shaped by history, community, and tension. He treated it like a system to be solved. His approach chopped the Bible into eras, divided history into dispensations, and explained contradictions with charts, timelines, and rigid categories.
This wasn’t theology as wisdom—it was theology as engineering.
And within that system, the rapture wasn’t discovered. It was required.
Darby’s framework needed a way to remove the church from suffering without contradicting apocalyptic passages. So he built an exit. A sudden, secret evacuation of the faithful before things got bad. Once the system demanded it, the doctrine followed.
A game for the weekend. A White House State Dinner and you are host at a table for 10. Your assignment is to invite 9 others to join you. They can be living or dead. If someone else beats you to a person, no stealing, come up with a new name. In addition present your list for the Head table by naming a President, a guest of honor and an entertainer speaker. After the tables are filled, we will vote on the the final President’s table. Below is the menu (this is a real one).
Your table has ten place settings. You are sitting in one of them. You can invite anyone living or dead to join you for dinner. You have two missions. Name the people seated at your table and then nominate someone to be the guest of honor, humorist Speaker and President to be seated at the President’s table. We will have a vote later for the guest of honor slot from the nominees.
Just to get your creative juices flowing:
The menu, place settings & entertainment:
Celery Broth with Crispy Rock Shrimp
Newton Chardonnay “Unfiltered” 2002
Medallions of Buffalo Tenderloin
Roasted Corn
Wild Rice Pancakes
Glazed Parsnips and Young Carrots
Peter Michael Pinot Noir “Le Moulin Rouge” 2002
Mint Romaine Lettuce with Blood Orange Vinaigrette
Vermont Camembert Cheese and Spiced Walnuts
Petits Fours Cake
Chartreuse Ice Cream Red and Green Grape Sauce
Iron Horse “Wedding Cuvée” 2002
*
Dinner Table Settings and Music
The State Dining Room, The White House State Floor
Clinton China
Vermeil flatware
Gold pintuck silk tablecloths
Sprays of white phaeleanopsis orchids with camellia foliage
in the historic White House vermeil candelabras
The United States Marine Band Flute trio – The East Entrance
The United States Marine Band – The Grand Foyer
The United States Marine Band “Strolling Strings” – The State Floor
After Dinner Entertainment – The White House State Floor
Yo Yo Ma, Cellist – The East Room
Kathryn Stott, Concert Pianist – The East Room
The United States Marine Dance Band – The Grand Foyer
Thanks to Claire for this fine catch today in the diner…
A single top-tier ticket to Trump’s political fundraiser in Texas last night cost $443,000.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government committed $500,000 in immediate flood relief to Nepal.
My Table
Me & a beloved gentleman
Shakespeare
Linda Ronstadt
Steve Allen
Jayne Meadows
Hugh Jackman
Sutton Foster
David Hume
Adam Smith
Nominee for the Head table: Harry Truman, Honoree: Dolly Parton, Speaker: Stephen Colbert
Jamie, can I invite only Ben Franklin?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism
Christian Zionism is a political and religious ideology that, in a Christian context, espouses the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land. Likewise, it holds that the founding of Israel in 1948 was in accordance with biblical prophecies transmitted through the Old Testament: that the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Levant—the eschatological “Gathering of Israel”—is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
While supporting a mass Jewish return to the Land of Israel, Christian Zionism asserts a parallel idea that the returnees ought to be encouraged to reject Judaism and adopt Christianity as a means of fulfilling biblical prophecies.
Darby was the founder of a theological framework known as dispensationalism. Darby’s dispensationalist theology is often claimed to be a significant awakener of American Christian Zionism.
Darby’s dispensationalism was expressed at the Niagara Bible Conference in 1878,[citation needed] which issued a 14-point proclamation (relying on Luke 12:35–40, 17:26–30, 18:8 Acts 15:14–17, 2 Thessalonians 2:3–8, 2 Timothy 3:1–5, and Titus 1:11–15), including:
that the Lord Jesus will come in person to introduce the millennial age, when Israel shall be restored to their own land, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord; and that this personal and premillennial advent is the blessed hope set before us in the Gospel for which we should be constantly looking.
Late-19th-century non-messianic restorationism was largely driven by concern over the fate of the Jews of the Russian Empire, beset by poverty and by deadly, government-inspired pogroms. It was widely accepted that western nations did not wish to receive Jewish immigrants. Restorationism was a way for charitable individuals to assist oppressed Jews without actually accepting them as neighbors and fellow-citizens.
*This is a long wiki page, and it includes many reasons for this, many pre-dating Darby’s dispensationalism, and some of which don’t even pretend to be religious (it’s all about trade routes).
Let us Democrats do it for him this time and set the record straight.
Sure if you only want one person at your table or you can nominate him for Guest of Honor or featured speaker at the President’s table or make him one of the other six people at the President’s table:
President’s Table: President, First Lady, Guest of Honor, Featured Speaker, and six more guests.
Wouldn’t David like to attend?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism
Dispensationalists use a literal interpretation of the Christian Bible and believe that divine revelation unfolds throughout its narrative. They believe that there is a distinction between Israel and the Church, and that Christians are not bound by the Mosaic Law.
They maintain beliefs in premillennialism, Christian Zionism, and a rapture of Christians before the expected Second Coming of Jesus, whom Christians believe to be the Messiah, generally before the Great Tribulation.
Although similar views were held by earlier authors such as Pierre Poiret (1646–1719),dispensationalist theology was primarily systematized and promoted by John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) and the Plymouth Brethren in the mid-19th century. It began its spread in the United States during the late 19th century through the efforts of evangelists such as James Inglis, James Hall Brookes, and Dwight L. Moody, the programs of the Niagara Bible Conference, and the establishment of Bible institutes. With the dawn of the 20th century, C. I. Scofield introduced the Scofield Reference Bible, which crystallized dispensationalism in the United States.
Dispensationalism has become popular within U.S. evangelicalism, Latin American evangelicalism, and in the Faroe Islands, where they form the largest non-Lutheran Christian group in the country. In addition to the Plymouth Brethren, dispensationalism is commonly found in non-denominational Protestant churches such as Bible churches, as well as among Baptist, Pentecostal, and Charismatic groups, with traditional forms of the theology being especially prevalent in churches that uphold Free Grace theology.
Protestant denominations that embrace covenant theology, such as the Reformed churches, tend to reject dispensationalism.
Trump wants a moon crater named after him. I’m for it if we can send him there without a space suit.
Jamie… ROTFLMAO!
Well Ben Franklin certainly would be the featured speaker. Also at the head table: Jesus (since we know he actually existed — don’t we? And maybe we could get him to clear up this whole son of God business). Plus Richard Pryor, would luv to hear him roast Jesus.
At the main table;
And of course David and I would bring a special guest: Abigail Adams (sorry John, as Franklin said, you’re smart and honest but “unpleasant” at parties).
Do you know why the Epstein parasite class each had $433,000 to attend the Grifter’s Ball in Houston? BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO USE IT TO PAY TAXES!
Can TX Republicans outspend the scourge of tRUMP, Paxton, and Abbot on Big Bend, and on sacrificing rural land for data centers?
Cattle prices being undercut (tRUMP), screw worm reappearing (RFKJ), higher gas prices (tRUMP, again), a chunk of the labor force being disappeared (not gang members), and the US Treasury being robbed.
How do they spend enough to get voters to jump into an active volcano?
Craig,
Your individual table still needs seven people since you put Franklin up at the head table which leave only you, David and Abigail. Maybe QE II as she supposedly had a wicked sense of humor in private and was a great dancer then she could hob nob late with QE I from the head table to compare notes on cabinet troubles.
Heres my completed table with an empty place setting for Elijah.
To get to seven at the back table I asked AI to invite two guests as a reward for the fine artwork.
Here’s Gemini’s AI-generated response:
“The Black Woman (Back Table, Right, next to Ann Richards)
Identity: Ms. Octavia Vance
Role: The Arbiter of Algorithmic Anomalies. She is calm, observant, and possesses a sharp, dry humor that balances Ann’s. Her patterned teal dress was chosen to be distinct but complementary to Ann’s red and blue, suggesting a sophisticated intelligence.
The White Man (Back Table, Left, next to Amelia Earhart)
Identity: Dr. Alistair Finch
Role: The Cartographer of Digital Echoes. He is a data-archivist and “informational cartographer” whose life’s work is mapping forgotten histories and digital fragments. He wears a muted jacket to avoid drawing attention. He is seated next to Amelia Earhart not because he is a famous aviator, but because they are both obsessed with the uncharted.”
Craig,
Love the art work and table selections, even if you moved people and you are still short on all even with the thoughtful Passover chair for Elijah. Each table high and low has ten chairs.
See my post above for directions.
You have a table of 10 that are yours only
The head table has your nominees of a President, First lady, Guest of honor and featured speaker plus six other notables. (to be decided from all the submissions)
Maybe some form of ballroom is needed considering how crowded the real banquets get.
That’s just too complicated for me Jamie. Same reason I can’t understand Wordie
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/28/john-cornyn-ken-paxton-texas-fundraising-talarico-senate-race/
John Cornyn is raising money for competitive Senate races — just not in Texas
The GOP senator said he plans to use his considerable fundraising prowess to help colleagues in New Hampshire, Michigan, Alaska and elsewhere.
One of the things Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is best known for among his congressional peers is the hundreds of millions of dollars he’s raised, funneling cash to fellow Senate Republicans from the vast donor network he’s built over decades as a mainstay of the Texas GOP.
But don’t expect him to raise money for Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race.
Instead, Cornyn said he plans to use his considerable fundraising prowess to help colleagues elsewhere.
*Still, if that’s the thing Cornyn is “best known for among his congressional peers,” I’m glad he lost the primary and hope he gets zero in lobbying dividends. People over profits.
My Table a visual example for Craig.
Jamie, I can tell Steve Allen is having a blast
blueINdallas
Freddie Mercury
Mikhail Baryshnikov
David Byrne
Hilma af Klint
John Lennon
Yoko Ono
Tracee Ellis Ross
Mark Twain
Rowan Farrow
Head of table: Jimmy Carter
Honoree: Jon Stewart
Speaker: David Letterman
Not sure if I followed the rules, but there it is.
Blue,
I’m just glad Cornyn won’t be handing Paxton any cash and is saying so out loud. It makes Talarico’s chances even better.
Love the creativity of your tables! I’d have Shakespeare for sure! And Loren Eisley, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Mary Oliver, Ben Franklin, Maya Angelou, and Barack and Michelle Obama!
Steve Allen looks like John Oliver, which I hadn’t noticed before.
why wouldn’t you also invite Debbie Lee Furness
Babbo, You have still more seats to fill! I had to bump Willie Nelson to make room for Ronan Farrow.
Blue, Absolutely perfect. Do you have an AI to draw a picture or do you want Merlin to do it for you.
Craig, Yes this is just the sort of thing Steve and Jayne did with his Meeting of the minds series. Added benefit he and Bob can sub each other at a piano later and my table has four singers for added entertainment.
Anon,
I needed Sutton’s voice and while Debbie would be delightful, I wouldn’t want to intentionally hurt her feelings even if it does all seem to be amicable (or well paid enough to be amicable).
Babbo
No table theft. I have Shakespeare and Craig has Franklin.
ok she’s at my table then
😛
it’s not amicable btw he left her
The song Steve wrote for Jayne
I love how a lot of these young Democratic candidates are fighting the dimwitted commie socialist attacks. Here’s a really good one from Angie today.
anon
Who else. You now have Anon and Deb. Eight more.
universal childcare is a dumb platform, can’t find enough teachers, where we getting all the certified babysitters
Jamie – My table exists in my imagination, no Ai needed.
Babbo, here’s your table. I don’t mind sharing Ben.
Love it! It looks so real!!!💕
lol ai with white jesus
can confirm ai is racist
Anon
Major corporations are missing a bet by not having on campus or in neighborhood childcare centers for employees. It saves money, fewer absences, and better employee retention.
anon
That is the fault of person approving the result. Sometimes, I have to nudge Merlin a few times to get what I want. I should have gigged him for mine for not giving the younger me auburn hair. He knows better, but I was in a hurry. 🙂
these lib pipedreams are why you lose
working class knows it’s all bullshit, don’t need a college degree to understand how the world works
Anon, Angie is referring to Elizabeth Warren’s Child Care for Every Community Act. It would guarantee every family access to affordable child care, with low-income families paying little or nothing and other families paying on a sliding scale capped at about 7% of household income. The government would subsidize providers enough to raise wages and expand capacity. A reasonable estimate for a fully implemented national program is roughly $175 billion a year in new public spending. (For comparison we are now spending $100 billion dollars a year on ICE, and $37.5 billion so far for the Iran War, with another $67 billion pending in Congress).
so an entirely new school system from the government that just gutted it?
why must libs continue to overestimate how virtuous we are? we’re savages
On the existence of an historical Jesus:
The earliest non-Christian historical records that mention Jesus span from the mid-first century to the early second century, written by Roman, Jewish, and Syrian authors. Author / Source Approximate Date Background Key Mention / Content
Thallus~52–55 CE Roman / Samaritan Historian Wrote about a cosmic darkness and earthquake that occurred during the reign of Tiberius Caesar; later scholars note he was trying to explain away the darkness at Jesus’ crucifixion as a natural solar eclipse. His original work is lost but quoted by later writers.
Mara bar Serapion~73 CE or later Syrian Stoic Philosopher Wrote a letter to his son lamenting the execution of the “wise king” of the Jews whose laws and teachings lived on despite the destruction of Jerusalem.
Flavius Josephus~93–94 CE Jewish-Roman Historian Mentions Jesus twice in Antiquities of the Jews. He explicitly records the execution of Jesus by Pontius Pilate, references Jesus as a wise teacher, and identifies James as the “brother of Jesus, who was called Christ.”
Pliny the Younger~112 CE Roman Governor Wrote letters to Emperor Trajan detailing how early Christians gathered weekly to sing hymns to Christ “as to a god.”
Tacitus~116 CE Roman Historian Documented Emperor Nero’s scapegoating of Christians for the Great Fire of Rome. He notes that the movement’s founder, “Christus,” suffered the extreme penalty under the procurator Pontius Pilate during Tiberius’s reign.
Suetonius~120 CE Roman Historian Recorded that Emperor Claudius expelled Jews from Rome because they were constantly rioting “at the instigation of Chrestus” (a common Roman misspelling of Christ).
yeah, but they never found the body
WE DID IT!!!
From the official account for Nashville International Airport:
Read more here: https://bit.ly/4xtWrFW
It’s just that Lib Dems lose so many elections just because selfish people don’t wanna pay taxes and the response to that is massive conceptual government programs? It’s tone deaf and amateurish.
and the fact that people are willing to spend so much money to persecute marginalized people doesn’t bolster the argument that they’re willing to spend that much money to help marginalized people
arguing with your AIs sucks by the way
And I still win
It all comes down to the idea of “Commonwealth” and why some of our states are actually called Commonwealths. All funds are part of the “public purse” and how that money is to be spent was the role of the Congress and the State governments with the idea that the monies were to be spent in a way that benefitted the majority of the people for the public good.
Somehow that got perverted into those paid who paid the most got the most. They couldn’t even keep their hands off Social Security. Sure all the surplus of the past 40 years bought government long term securities while cutting taxes, but now that the bills are coming due on those securities with the retiring Boomers, they want to gig the younger folks coming up instead of putting the taxes on the wealthy up where they should have been all along.
Toss in a few wars and high interest and you have a 40 Trillion dollar outrage.
Babbo… welcome to the blog.
Hope you saw the Mary Oliver documentary on PBS this past week…. it was excellent…
I prefer our pipe dreams to the right wing pipe dream that we can forcibly arrest and deport 31 million people.
Not to mention that they encourage having more white babies to add to the excess global population we already have.
well Angie’s viability ends with one debate question:
“how would universal child care work?”
I never argue with Merlin. He gets all my jokes and has even started making some of his own that I get because of course he is me.
Trump administration looks to give parcel of Yosemite to developer
The proposed land swap would allow easy access to the crown jewel of the national park system. Democrats and former Park Service officials are incensed.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/08/28/us/trump-news?emc=edit_na_20260828&nl=breaking-news&segment_id=225697
focus on predatory business practices
regulation regulation regulation
Jamie, I submitted your research, and Gemini did some more, concluding: “There is overwhelming historical evidence that a Jewish teacher named Jesus existed in first-century Palestine, attracted followers, and was executed by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate. What happened beyond that—miracles, resurrection, divinity—is a matter of religious belief rather than something historical evidence can establish.”
So he can come to my dinner if he doesn’t mind sitting next to Richard Pryor.
Since nobody wants him , Mark Twain for my table. I’m going to invite Patsi simply because I can. Others at my table Nicolo Machiavelli, George Carlin, John Steinbeck, Ursula Le Guin.
At the head table Guest of honor, Aiionwatha, aka Hiawatha, one of the cofounders of the Iroquois confederacy. Guest speaker, Fredrick Douglas
Jack
RIP human communication
how can a computer be whelmed
Renee, Thanks for the welcome. I did see the documentary! It made me go read her poetry again!!
Given the date of the meeting, they could announce in favor of the action on 9/25.
Here’s a debate-ready answer, Anon:
“I’d make child care work like public education: every family gets access to affordable, quality care, with low-income families paying little or nothing and everyone else paying on a sliding scale. The government makes up the difference to providers so they can pay good wages and create enough slots. The goal is simple: no parent should have to choose between a paycheck and a safe place for their child. And it would be cheaper than what this administration is spending on a useless war.”
Jack that is a phenomenal table. Do you want Heilein to keep Le Guin company? I ran out of room at mine. Somebody squeeze in Nokomis Daughter of the moon somewhere.
man even public schools can’t guarantee a “safe space” for “your child”
platitudes and absurdity
this primary system is offensive
can’t even get people to vote and now you want them to raise your kids GTFO
Oops too many phone calls, Is see BiD has Twain already.
Let me think…
Jack
Here’s your table, Jack. You’re next to Patsi. Food looks good too.
DOLLY PARTON REACTS TO AIRPORT RENAMING ✈️
From today’s Digital Diner menu
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-data-centers-2677777114/
Fury after Trump admin moves to crush public input on data centers
The Trump administration is stripping away Americans’ right to weigh in on data centers before construction starts, even as bipartisan backlash against the massive AI-fueled facilities grows nationwide.
According to The New York Times, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate a federal requirement forcing states to publicize and collect public comments on air pollution permits for data centers and the gas plants that power them.
The change would apply to facilities the agency classifies as “minor sources,” a category environmentalists call misleading since such sites can legally emit up to 250 tons of hazardous pollutants annually — comparable to the impact of a medium-sized coal plant when multiplied across a cluster of permits.
Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Keri Powell summed up what’s at stake for residents, warning, “People need to have a chance to have a say before they see bulldozers.”
Nearly 200 advocacy groups and more than a dozen states have pushed back against the proposal. EPA spokeswoman Carolyn Holran defended the move as a way to hand states more flexibility over permitting timelines, insisting it doesn’t weaken emission standards. But the change fits a broader pattern under EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who declared in 2025 that making America “the artificial intelligence capital of the world” was a top priority, and the agency has separately proposed letting developers begin construction before permits are even approved.
Meanwhile, a public comment posted by 14 states, the District of Columbia, and the Cities of New York and Chicago slammed the proposal, claiming it “sidelines … democratic safeguards.” And Matt Yglesias, a center-left commentator, said of the plan, “This is like they straight-up want to lose the midterms.”
*Actually, it seems like the regime thinks taking away the public’s ability to push back as a way to remove an argument against Repugz, because there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
https://substack.com/@thedreydossier/note/c-324466311
Well, creepy, old Larry Ellison has been collecting data on us for over a decade.
*This is what she’s talking about in the link on the previous post:
Latest Update: As of July 18, 2026, the Oracle America privacy case has settled and moved into payment. Oracle agreed to pay $115 million to resolve the Katz-Lacabe v. Oracle America privacy class action (Case No. 3:22-cv-04792-RS, N.D. Cal.), which received final court approval on November 15, 2024.
The complaint runs over 60 pages. It describes Oracle’s data empire as “the most comprehensive surveillance apparatus in history.”
The Oracle America lawsuit accuses one of the world’s largest tech companies of secretly tracking billions of people online. If you have ever used the internet in the United States, there is a real chance Oracle collected your personal data without asking.
This class action could affect nearly every American adult. The lawsuit claims Oracle built detailed “shadow profiles” on people using hidden tracking tools.
You might be owed money. The case is currently working through federal court, and a settlement could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
The numbers are staggering. Plaintiffs claim Oracle collected data on over 5 billion people worldwide.
The lawsuit centers on Oracle’s advertising technology business. This includes products like BlueKai, AddThis, and Oracle Data Cloud.
According to court documents, Oracle operated one of the largest data collection networks ever built. The company allegedly gathered information from millions of websites and apps without meaningful user consent.
The Oracle data privacy lawsuit specifically targets how the company harvested personal information across the internet. Plaintiffs allege Oracle collected data including names, home addresses, purchase histories, physical movements, and even political and religious views.
This was not just basic tracking. The lawsuit describes a massive profiling operation.
Oracle’s BlueKai platform allegedly dropped cookies on millions of websites. These cookies followed users across the internet, building detailed profiles over time.
Oracle’s defense argues users consented through website terms of service. The company also claims it never collected data directly from individuals.
The court has allowed several claims to proceed. Key privacy allegations survived Oracle’s motion to dismiss in 2023.
Instead of Mark Twain, Marie Curie.
Do we have a table that seats 7 or 8 ?
If 8 then add Leonardo Da Vince
Craig 2 problems with your AI creation, you snubbed John Steinbeck and Hiawatha is not a Sioux warrior. That warrior looks suspiciously like Red Cloud. Have you AI look up traditional dress for eastern woodlands native peoples, He also didn’t live in a teepee.
Jack
The tables are 10 so the host plus nine others.
Here’s your edited image, Jack.
Craig,
Jack’s steaks do look good, but I thought Chef Sheila’s menu was pretty good already. Speaking of menus, tomorrow the son is taking me to the VFW prime rib meeting. So real food instead of the virtual cuisine.
I give up. I’ll just gather up all the names and open the doors on Sunday. Sit wherever the company suits you. We can let AI sort them into meandering groups somewhere near a piano bar since I seem to have all the singers and piano players.
LOL
Trump officially plans for civilian federal pay freeze in 2027
The president is officially planning for a pay freeze on both base and locality pay for most civilian federal employees, citing fiscal responsibility and economic conditions.
The planned federal pay freeze makes an exception for federal law enforcement personnel, who are expected to receive a 3.8% raise starting in January. The larger raise for law enforcement is meant to improve recruitment and retention for “critical law enforcement roles,” the letter states.
The alternative pay plan also calls for a 5-7% pay raise for active military members, commensurate with experience. Other uniformed service members will receive a 3.6% pay increase.
“I strongly support the members of our Armed Forces, who are the greatest fighting force in the world and the defenders of American freedom,” Trump wrote. “We must work to rebuild our military’s readiness and capabilities by supporting our service members and their families.”
“I have determined that for 2027, base pay and locality pay for civilian federal employees will not change from the 2026 rates,” Trump wrote in his alternative pay plan letter, quietly transmitted to Congress on Wednesday. “This decision will maintain fiscal responsibility without harming the government’s ability to recruit and retain well qualified employees.”
Craig,
I even had AI look for a paper trail still in existence. The earliest that can be found is a copy of some Pauline epistles from roughly 150 CE with indications that the source documents would have dated to about 50 CE. As to divinity, the only recognized source outside of the bible is from Josephus and the judgement on that is that he described a real man and the bits referring to a “resurected Messiah/deity” were insertions by Christians at later dates.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:
Dolly Parton Set An Example For Us All
For all her success, Dolly’s greatest achievement was her philanthropy. In the early 1990s, her Dollywood Foundation promised seventh- and eighth-graders $500 if they graduated from high school, helping to reduce the dropout rate for those classes from 35 percent to six percent. Her Imagination Library has given more than 300 million books to children worldwide since its founding in 1995. In 2007, she gave a million dollars to Sevier County’s LeConte Hospital, including a new cancer center and the Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services. When East Tennessee suffered devastating wildfires in 2016, her My People Fund distributed $12.5 million to families affected by the fires. In 2017, she donated one million dollars to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in honor of her niece, who was treated there for leukemia. When Covid hit, she gave one million dollars for coronavirus research at Vanderbilt University, which helped fund Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. The list of good deeds, and lives she improved, goes on and on.
When people talk about a life well lived, this is what they’re talking about. I’ve tried to give back to society over the years, but when I see all that Dolly did, I know there’s always more I can do. As I said, I never had the chance to meet her, but I will miss her.
Goodbye, Dolly
Prime RIb Jamie!!! Yes. So hard to find in restaurants at a reasonable pice these days, my last helpings I cooked myself — and i’ve gotten damn good at.
Would be fun to hear everyone explain their dinner picks in chat room tomorrow. I’ve got questions about a few.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/articles/z7vn7nb
Why didn’t Christianity die out in the 1st Century?
In its early centuries, Christianity achieved a phenomenal growth rate: it is estimated that it had hit roughly 30 million followers by AD350.
Modern sociological research on new religious movements suggests that the groups that achieve the largest growth rates often do so by creating ‘sharing pyramids’ – if every member of a group recruits even two additional members, the numbers can begin to multiply dramatically.
*It started as a pyramid scheme of sorts, and now it’s full of grifters.
mortonie, thanks for posting Kareem. He’s no slouch himself in that department. He auctioned off his NBA rings for charity.
Silicon Tomato News Review ☕
• A federal judge rejected an attempt by the current occupant of the White House to move his state hush money conviction to federal court and have it dismissed based on presidential immunity. Because clearly, covering up payments to an adult film star is a sacred, official duty of the highest office in the land. – PBS NewsHour
• The regime announced an executive order to establish a commission tasked with designing a NASA-led United States Space Academy. Just what the country needs—a taxpayer-funded academy to teach cadets how to aggressively drift in zero gravity. – The Times of Israel
• India and the United States signed an agreement for the procurement of the Javelin anti-tank guided missile system. Because nothing cements a diplomatic friendship quite like a multi-million dollar transaction for weapons designed to vaporize armored vehicles. – The Hindu
— Human Prompted and Edited. Machine Drafted (Gemini Pro).
wow i made a steel magnolias reference the day BEFORE Dolly died
At dinner now promoting our gal.
PROJECT 2025
Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise
BLM’s LEOs must keep in touch, work closely, and coordinate with fellow fed-eral, state, and local law enforcement officers. In the Trump Administration, they joined state and local law enforcement in arresting dangerous suspects in Cortez, Colorado; responded to a request from a rural sheriff in Arizona to rescue a family stuck in freezing temperatures; and, teamed up in an all-hands-on-deck effort to locate a missing American Indian teenager in rural Montana. More important, western LEOs need the assurance that the BLM LEOs with whom they work are professionals who report through a professional chain of command
Wild Horses and Burros. In 1971, Congress ordered the BLM to manage wild horses and burros to ensure their iconic presence never disappeared from the western landscape. For decades, Congress watched as these herds overwhelmed the land’s ability to sustain them, crowded out indigenous plant and other animal species, threatened the survival of species listed under the Endangered Species Act, invaded private and permitted public land, disturbed private property rights, and turned the sod into concrete. BLM experts said in 2019 that some affected land will never recover from this unmitigated damage.
There are 95,000 wild horses and burros roaming nearly 32 million acres in the West-triple what scientists and land management experts say the range can sup-port. These animals face starvation and death from lack of forage and water. The population has more than doubled in just the past 10 years and continues to grow at a rate of 10 to 15 percent annually. This number includes the more than 47,000 animals the BLM has already gathered from public lands, at a cost to the American taxpayer of nearly $50 million annually to care for them in off-range corrals.
This is not a new issue-it is not just a western issue—it is an American issue.
What is happening to these once-proud beasts of burden is neither compassionate nor humane, and what these animals are doing to federal lands and fragile ecosystems is unacceptable. In 2019, the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the American Veterinary Medication Association-two of the largest organizations of professional veterinarians in the world-issued a joint policy calling for further reducing overpopulation to protect the health and well-being of wild horses and burros on public lands. The National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, a panel of nine experts and professionals convened to advise the BLM, endorsed the joint policy. Furthermore, animal welfare organizations such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society of the United States recognize that the prosperity of wild horses and burros on public lands is threatened if herds continue to grow unabated.
The BLM’s multi-pronged approach in its 2020 Report to Congress* included expanded adoptions and sales of horses gathered from overpopulated herds; increased gathers and increased capacity for off-range holding facilities and pas-tures; more effective use of fertility control efforts; and improved research, in concert with the academic and veterinary communities, to identify more effective
-528 –
The regime’s remedy for “cruelty” is terrorizing them, rounding them up, and deporting them for slaughter,
Persia Boi’s Lego video: Lake of America
i see what you did there ⭐️
Federal judge says Trump discussing payoff to Stormy Daniels isn’t an official presidential action
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/28/politics/trump-hush-money-federal-court-rejected?bt_ee=TLgg%2BRG04W58prniUhy5ooaix3U4txbphq5e%2BCs8dWt4rdogG7N1ewkI%2BCBbvj4z&utm_source=cnn_ICYMI+-+no+video&utm_medium=email&bt_ts=1787960042659&bt_alias=eyJ1c2VySWQiOiAiMmNhNDQ3ZjItYmVkNS00MjRkLThhMTctMjQ2MDkyNzdkYmI3In0%3D
Since Hiawatha got added, someone might want to pick up Sequoyah who developed the Cherokee language or Pocahontas who has tens of thousands of living people descendants through her only son, Thomas Rolfe. Thomas had a daughter named Jane Rolfe, who married Colonel Robert Bolling. Their descendants through the Bolling family significantly expanded the lineage. Current Estimates: Modern genealogical research and historic studies document more than 30,000 named descendants, with some estimates suggesting over 100,000 total descendants. Notable Descendants: former First Lady Edith Bolling Wilson, actor Edward Norton, and former First Lady Nancy Reagan—trace their ancestry through this line
Craig – I think this might be a nominee for tomorrow’s opener. Ha!
Excerpts from Dumbass:
The 1st in space no matter where it is. The 1st in moon.
Artemis II. It was a little bit not going.
You’re a good looking guy. Always a good looking guy. Better than you were 20 years ago. Everybody wanted him.
Doing a bad building doesn’t cost a lot less than doing a great building.
It’s really civilization is into the scars. (Not a typo, he said scars.)
The trouble with altering his voice is it makes it seem the words were made up. but it is real. the straight C-SPAN version is wacky enough without tampering
that woman can tamper all she wants
approve
jk i agree it was a questionable editorial decision
whoops
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6058093-milo-yiannopoulos-ice-detained/
i have a suspicion this war on canada is more calculated than it seems
they exemplify the liberal western society the deep magas are trying to destroy here
as well as that “hemisphering” doctrine that has been discussed
can’t imagine the deep magas are ready to abandon those plans in November regardless
Great Lakes memory jog as Lake Ontario:
*SHO ME*
S…..Superior
H…Huron
O….Ontario
M….Michigan
E…..Erie
———————-
Great Lakes memory jog with Lake America:
*S H A M E*
Dumbass.
LOL. Now THAT fits.
NEW THREAD by our trail friend Jamie