newrepublic.com

During a rambling and largely nonsensical presser in Los Angeles on Friday, Trump constantly tripped over himself, outright rejecting important questions from reporters while making absurd claims, such as the fact that the country was “perfect” in January 2021. In one portion of his speech, Trump badly botched the name of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, by referring to her as “Comrade Howard” while shaking his head. He also referred to Harris as a “radical left Marxist Communist fascist,” an ideological combination that is technically impossible, and attacked her for her “woman-made destruction.” Shortly after the speech ended, Trump had one final thought to share, which he posted in brief on Truth Social: “#.” At the time of publication, the post had more than 2,700 likes.

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Political Memes deconstruct 1mo ago 98%
67.9 million watched the transformation
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News 1mo ago
Jump
Republicans point finger at Laura Loomer for Trump’s pet-eating rant
  • "Initials" by "Florian Körner", licensed under "CC0 1.0". / Remix of the original. - Created with dicebear.comInitialsFlorian Körnerhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearDE
    deconstruct
    1mo ago 100%

    There's a leopard-ate-my-face quality to this. Acting surprised when crazy conspiracy theorists are invited into the campaign.

    It's rich that it's MTG pushing back though, the infamous peddler of Jewish space lasers theories.

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  • www.lgbtqnation.com

    In another bizarre attempt to “own the libs” just by confusing them, openly anti-LGBTQ+ performer Kid Rock has been enlisted to headline a fundraiser for the self-loathing Log Cabin Republicans, the gay conservatives group. The onetime Detroit rapper-now MAGA acolyte will headline the fundraiser “Red White & Rock,” the LCR announced over the weekend. The gay conservatives billed the event as a “star-studded concert uniting conservatives and celebrating American spirit.” The high-dollar event takes place in Nashville on September 29, with special guests Richard Grenell, Donald Trump’s out, onetime acting director of National Intelligence in the last, chaotic days of the twice-impeached president’s administration, and forever-fiancé Kimberly Guilfoyle, who’ll serve as emcee of the event, if never Donald Trump Jr’s bride.

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    Never Forget 9/11
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    deconstruct
    1mo ago 100%

    Fascinating. Hey, can we talk about Uyghurs for a minute? Also, do you think Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is going to turn up anytime soon?

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  • www.navytimes.com

    For a variety of reasons, including operational security, a crew’s internet access is regularly restricted while underway, to preserve bandwidth for the mission and to keep their ship safe from nefarious online attacks. But the senior enlisted leaders among the littoral combat ship Manchester’s gold crew knew no such privation last year, when they installed and secretly used their very own Wi-Fi network during a deployment, according to a scathing internal investigation obtained by Navy Times. As the ship prepared for a West Pacific deployment in April 2023, the enlisted leader onboard conspired with the ship’s chiefs to install the secret, unauthorized network aboard the ship, for use exclusively by them. So while rank-and-file sailors lived without the level of internet connectivity they enjoyed ashore, the chiefs installed a Starlink satellite internet dish on the top of the ship and used a Wi-Fi network they dubbed “STINKY” to check sports scores, text home and stream movies.

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    www.cnn.com

    Asking to leave work on time or taking some time off can be tricky enough. Even trickier is tendering a resignation, which can be seen as the ultimate form of disrespect in the world’s fourth-biggest economy, where workers traditionally stick with one employer for decades, if not for a lifetime. In the most extreme cases, grumpy bosses rip up resignation letters and harass employees to force them to stay. Yuki Watanabe was unhappy at her previous job, saying her former supervisor often ignored her, making her feel bad. But she didn’t dare resign. “I didn’t want my ex-employer to deny my resignation and keep me working for longer,” she told CNN during a recent interview.

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    www.advocate.com

    A former congressional staffer has filed a lawsuit against Texas Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, claiming he was forced to quit his position due to a “hostile work environment.” Alex Chadwell, who is gay and began working for Nehls in January 2021, accused the representative, his chief of staff, and special adviser of regularly making homophobic comments such as “gays go to hell” or “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." He said that the chief of staff even once told him “not to engage with gay constituents." Chadwell claimed that Nehls's special adviser kept an anti-LGBTQ+ poster in his office specifically to mock him and would often point at it in his presence, saying things like “We don’t need to let gays into military" or “We don’t need to support the queers."

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    www.cnn.com

    Robert Morris, who founded and led Gateway Church for nearly 25 years in the affluent Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake, Texas, resigned after the scandal came to light in June. His exit sent thousands of evangelicals into a season of struggle that has lasted months. Last week, a pastor who oversaw all of Gateway’s campuses departed amid an undisclosed “moral issue,” becoming the latest in a series of changes for the church: The cancellation of its annual conference. The departure of Morris’ successor. The renaming of its Houston campus and an exodus of worshippers. At each weekend service, worshippers continue to face reminders of the scandal, with interim or guest pastors kicking off their sermons saying “I’m sorry,” talking about grief or finding hope in difficult times. They’ve noticed people who have sat and prayed around them for years are once again not showing up for service. The church has seen a decrease of 17% to 19% in weekend services attendance, a church spokesperson told CNN.

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    www.independent.co.uk

    A die-hard Trumper in Florida says he was discriminated against by a right-wing political advocacy group, claiming he was called a “slave” during his 12 days with the organization before it fired him for complaining. Carl Baxter, who is Black, is suing Americans for Prosperity, the nonprofit “grassroots” conservative operation established by Charles and David Koch, the billionaire siblings and hard-line climate change deniers. Baxter serves as president of the Republican Club of North & East Fort Myers, and is not at all shy about his outsized affection for Donald Trump. He can be seen on social media at Trump appearances, waving a MAGA flag at a “Trump Truck Parade,” at charity galas giving the camera a Trumpian “thumbs-up,” and donning a red MAGA hat and posing with, among others, a county tax collector who has come out as a vociferous opponent of critical race theory.

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    www.nbcnews.com

    At an anti-vaccine conference in Georgia on Friday, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed his commitment to the cause and spoke to his base about how he, as president, would serve the movement he built. “I feel like I’ve come home today,” he said to a standing ovation, crediting the assembled audience with his candidacy. He then laid out his vision for a Kennedy presidency, which would include telling the National Institutes of Health to take “a break” from studying infectious diseases, like Covid-19 and measles, and pivoting the agency to the study of chronic diseases, like diabetes and obesity. Kennedy has suggested without evidence that researchers and pharmaceutical companies are driven by profit to neglect such chronic conditions and invest in ineffective and even harmful treatments; he includes vaccines among them. “I’m gonna say to NIH scientists, God bless you all,” Kennedy said. “Thank you for public service. We’re going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years.”

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    www.nbcnews.com

    A man who beat a 66-year-old Sikh man to death while calling him “turban man” after a fender bender in New York City has been charged with manslaughter as a hate crime, prosecutors announced Tuesday. Gilbert Augustin, 30, also faces charges including assault as a hate crime and unlicensed driving in the Oct. 19 death of Jasmer Singh, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced. Prosecutors said Augustin called Singh “turban man” during an argument that followed their crash on the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens. The family of Singh, who wore a turban as part of his Sikh religious practice, had pushed for hate crime charges to be filed against Augustin. The altercation began after Singh’s Toyota collided with Augustin’s Ford Mustang. Both men pulled over and Augustin got out of his car and confronted Singh, prosecutors said. A witness said Augustin said “No police, no police” and repeatedly referred to Singh as “turban man” as they argued, prosecutors said.

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    www.nbcnews.com

    A popular drug used to regrow hair and thicken thinning locks in both men and women may be difficult to find in some pharmacies, according to new research. The pill, called minoxidil, must be taken every day for patients to maintain the progress they've made in restoring hair growth. An interruption could be devastating. "You can go backwards and start losing your hair again," said Dr. Adam Friedman, professor and chair of dermatology at George Washington University. Minoxidil is often used for androgenetic alopecia, also known as male or female pattern hair loss. It's a condition that affects nearly half of men and about a quarter of women by age 50, according to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology. In recent months, Friedman noticed that his patients were having difficulty obtaining 30-day supplies of the drug from their Washington, D.C.-area pharmacies. Earlier this month, he and colleagues called 277 pharmacies in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia to ask about their minoxidil supplies. They found considerable shortages. Just 40% of those pharmacies had the ability to immediately fill 30-day prescriptions for minoxidil in doses used to treat hair loss (2.5 milligrams). The research has been published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology. Friedman could not identify a reason for the shortage, but said that the drug had been gaining attention through both mainstream and social media — which could have triggered a rise in prescriptions.

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    thehill.com

    A judge in New York rejected a request by attorneys for Fox News to subpoena billionaire George Soros as part of the cable news channel’s ongoing legal fight with voting systems company Smartmatic. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice David B. Cohen on Monday shot down a request from Fox to compel Soros to provide documents and testimony as part of its process of discovery in the case. Soros is a progressive billionaire who often draws the ire of conservative media figures and Republican politicians. Fox, in a court filing earlier this month, sought to depose Mark Malloch Brown, who is the president of the Soros-backed Open Society Foundation and served as chairman of Smartmatic’s parent company. “I base that on the finding that the crux of Smartmatic’s claims is that Fox has asserted they were part of rigging [the election], not that Smartmatic was affiliated with George Soros, Alex Soros, or the OSF,” Cohen said in open court on Monday, CNN reported. “That’s a peripheral matter — at best, it’s a possible rationale for defamation.”

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    apnews.com

    Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday accused Ukrainian and Western spy agencies of helping engineer a riot in the southern region of Dagestan, where a mob stormed the airport after a flight from Israel landed there. More than 20 people were hurt — none Israelis — in clashes that Putin cast as part of U.S. efforts to weaken Russia. Hundreds of angry men, some carrying banners with antisemitic slogans, rushed onto the tarmac of the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, on Sunday night, looking for Israeli passengers on the flight from Tel Aviv. Police officers and civilians were injured and two of them were in critical condition, regional health authorities said. More than 80 people were detained in the unrest, according to police. Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal probe on charges of organizing mass unrest.

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    Florida man bashes woman's head into tree stump because she woke him up on her way to the bathroom: deputies
    www.yahoo.com

    A man was arrested after he allegedly "bashed" a woman's head into a tree stump because she woke him up on her way to the bathroom, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office. Eric Barr was arrested and charged with domestic aggravated battery after the incident that unfolded Friday at the Silver Springs State Park campsite, according to an arrest affidavit. Deputies on routine patrol in the area were dispatched regarding a verbal disturbance and possible battery. When a deputy arrived, he found the victim "extremely shaken up" with spots of blood on her hands, arms and legs, the report said. She said she was in an argument with Barr, adding that they had been drinking and she "woke him up." She pointed to the back of her head, which was covered in soaking wet blood, deputies said. They immediately requested emergency medical services. Deputies found a log on the ground that had blood on it next to a bottle of liquor.

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    www.mediamatters.org

    When X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk changed his platform’s verification system, he ushered in a new reality where fringe conspiracy theorists could easily promote false claims about breaking news. That happened again shortly after the deadly mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine, as Media Matters found numerous heavily followed verified accounts claiming that the tragedy was actually a “false flag” attack that was staged or orchestrated by the government. As the Guardian defined it, the concept of a false flag event “is the idea that powerful forces routinely arrange massacres or terrorist atrocities, and make it appear as if some other individual or group did them, in order to achieve their sinister political goals.” Conspiracy theorists have routinely claimed that mass shootings and other atrocities, including 9/11, were false flags. Following the deadly October 25 mass shootings in Maine, numerous verified X accounts with tens of thousands of followers claimed that they were a “false flag” or planned by the government. Rumble host and bigot Laura Loomer, who seems to have the direct attention of former President Donald Trump, raised doubts about the shooting on her formerly banned X account, which has more than 630,000 followers.

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    www.bbc.com

    Berlin-based business consultant Matt and his colleague were among the first at their workplace to discover ChatGPT, mere weeks after its release. He says the chatbot transformed their workdays overnight. "It was like discovering a video game cheat," says Matt. "I asked a really technical question from my PhD thesis, and it provided an answer that no one would be able to find without consulting people with very specific expertise. I knew it would be a game changer." Day-to-day tasks in his fast-paced environment – such as researching scientific topics, gathering sources and producing thorough presentations to clients – suddenly became a breeze. The only catch: Matt and his colleague had to keep their use of ChatGPT a closely guarded secret. They accessed the tool covertly, mostly on working-from-home days. "We had a significant competitive advantage against our colleagues – our output was so much faster and they couldn't comprehend how. Our manager was very impressed and spoke about our performance with senior management," he says. Whether the technology is explicitly banned, highly frowned upon or giving some workers a covert leg up, some employees are searching for ways to keep using generative AI tools discreetly. The technology is increasingly becoming an employee backchannel: in a February 2023 study by professional social network Fishbowl, 68% of 5,067 respondents who used AI at work said they don't disclose usage to their bosses. Even in instances without workplace bans, employees may still want to keep their use of AI hidden, or at least guarded, from peers. "We don't have norms established around AI yet – it can initially look like you're conceding you're not actually that good at your job if the machine is doing many of your tasks," says Johnson. "It's natural that people would want to conceal that." As a result, forums are popping up for workers to swap strategies for keeping a low profile. In communities like Reddit, many people seek methods of secretly circumventing workplace bans, either through high-tech solutions (integrating ChatGPT into a native app disguised as a workplace tool) or rudimentary ones to obscure usage (adding a privacy screen, or discreetly accessing the technology on their personal phone at their desk).

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    edition.cnn.com

    Police in China have rescued some 1,000 cats from a truck en route to a slaughterhouse, state-affiliated media has reported, busting part of an illicit trade that fraudulently sells feline meat as pork or mutton and sparking fresh food safety concerns. Acting on a tip-off by animal activists earlier this month, officers from Zhangjiagang, in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, intercepted a vehicle used to collect and transport captured cats, according to Chinese state-affiliated news outlet The Paper. Without the intervention, the batch was likely to be slaughtered and shipped south to be served as pork and lamb skewers as well as sausages, the report said. Police and agricultural authorities have since sent the cats to a shelter nearby, The Paper said, after foiling a plot that could have raked in as much as $20,500.

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