NEWS AROUND US: September 2024

Monday, 30 September 2024

Republicans Continue To File Lawsuits To Gain Election Control

In Arizona, an advocacy group founded by the creepy and dangerous Stephen Miller is advancing a bold legal theory: that judges can throw out election results over "failures or irregularities" by local officials. And of course Republicans are in charge. Via Reuters:

The lawsuit by the America First Legal Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, says the court in such cases should be able to toss the election results and order new rounds of voting in two counties in Arizona, where Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris is leading Trump in the polls by a razor-thin margin. Almost four years after former president Trump and his allies tried and failed to overturn his election defeat with a flurry of more than 60 hastily arranged lawsuits, Republicans have launched an aggressive legal campaign laying the groundwork to challenge potential losses.

The Republican National Committee says it is involved in more than 120 lawsuits across 26 states, in a strategy that some legal experts and voting rights groups say is meant to undercut faith in the system. Republicans say the lawsuits are aimed at restoring faith in elections by ensuring people don't vote illegally. Trump and his allies have falsely claimed that his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden was tainted by widespread fraud.

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Snapchat’s new Footsteps feature tracks your location history

Snapchat is quietly rolling out a new “Footsteps” feature to all iOS users this week, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday. The new feature, which was previously only available to Snapchat+ subscribers, uses Snap Map to let you see how much of the world you’ve explored and track where you’ve traveled to. The first […]

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Sunday, 29 September 2024

'It Is Not True': ABC Host Interrupts Top Vance Surrogate On Pet-eating Claims

ABC News host Martha Raddatz interrupted a top surrogate for Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance Sunday after he refused to deny false claims that Haitians are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), who is helping Vance prepare for the vice presidential debate by playing the part of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, appeared on ABC's This Week program.

"Trump last night called Kamala Harris mentally disabled," Raddatz noted. "He said that Joe Biden became that way, she was born that way. Do you think Kamala Harris is mentally disabled? Do you approve of that kind of language?"

"I think Kamala Harris is the wrong choice for America," Emmer stated. "I think Kamala Harris is actually as bad or worse as the administration that we've witnessed for the last four years, Martha."

"Congressman, do you approve of that language?" the host interrupted. "Do you approve of that language, Donald Trump calling her mentally disabled, mentally impaired?"

"I think we should stick to the issues," Emmer admitted.

Raddatz moved on to the topic of immigration.

"I can't believe we're still talking about this, but the baseless claims elevated by Vance and Trump that Haitian migrants were eating their pets," the host said. "If the moderators in the debate ask Vance about this, should he finally make clear it is not true?"

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Saturday, 28 September 2024

Brian Williams might host a live election night special for Amazon

Amazon Prime Video could be getting into the live news business, if only for one night. Variety reports that the company is in talks with longtime NBC and MSNBC news anchor Brian Williams to host a live Election Night special, competing with more traditional TV news broadcasts to offer non-partisan coverage of the U.S. presidential […]

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Did Mark Robinson's Pants Actually Light On Fire?

Mark Robinson, proud Black Nazi, pro-slavery, trans porn lover, and alleged urine sex play lover, allegedly suffered burns at a campaign event on Friday.

Here is my question: DID HIS PANTS ACTUALLY LIGHT ON FIRE FROM ALL HIS LIES???

His "communications director", one of the few staff to remain after the mass exodus following that bombshell CNN expose just one week ago, told the media that Robinson "is currently being treated for burns. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is currently being treated for burns following an incident at a campaign event in Mt. Airy. He is in good spirits."

No further details have been provided.

Robinson was supposed to speak at a Faith & Freedom event on Saturday, but the event was cancelled following the *burn* incident and due to the aftermath or Hurricane Helene.

So what happened? Robinson cannot be trust to tell the truth. Did he pick up a candle and have wax drip on his hand? Did he spill coffee on himself? How about some ash from a lit cigar? If it was a serious FIRE burn, surely photos or video would have made it to social media already. I mean, nothing stays off twitter anymore.

Keep an eye out or more details. I am still going with "pants lit on fire."

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
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Friday, 27 September 2024

We Agree, Marge, Republicans Don't Deserve To Be Reelected

"Controversial" (yeah) Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene threw her party under the bus on Thursday, saying that Republicans don't deserve to be reelected. We agree! They proved they can't govern, including the sporkfooted troll doll, who voted nay on funding the government.

As usual, Marge didn't seem to make sense on the Real America's Voice Show "War Room" as she said that Republicans shouldn't hold the majority but to "hold your nose and vote for that RINO that you absolutely hate."

"Because the truth is, and everyone needs to understand this, I share the anger and frustration, and I don't think Republicans deserve to be reelected to hold the majority,," she said. And it's a double-edged sword, and here it is."

Ok, we disagree with the following part, but it's nice to watch her panic.

"We have to elect President Trump in order to control the federal government, in order to take back all of these huge agencies and departments and set the course right," she continued. "We also have to control the House because if we don't control the House, the Democrats are going to rewrite the tax code."

"So it is a nasty, double-edged sword, and here's what I'm telling everyone," she said. "Look, vote for (former) President Trump like your life depends on it, and then hold your nose and vote for that RINO that you absolutely hate, because we need a good tax code in place."

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Canoo hit with two supplier lawsuits as last remaining co-founder leaves

EV startup Canoo has been hit with two new lawsuits from suppliers linked to the drivetrains that power its electric vehicles, just weeks after the company kicked off a major reorganization that included the departure of its chief technology officer. Canoo has also parted ways with senior director of advanced vehicle engineering Christoph Kuttner, who […]

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AI dominated both YC Demo Day and startup news

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week was a busy one for the startup and VC world, with its fair share of funding news and, of course, the latest edition of YC’s […]

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Thursday, 26 September 2024

Nomi’s companion chatbots will now remember things like the colleague you don’t get along with

As OpenAI boasts about its o1 model’s increased thoughtfulness, a small, self-funded startup Nomi AI is building the same kind of technology. Unlike the broad generalist ChatGPT, which slows down to think through anything from math problems or historical research, Nomi niches down on a specific use-case: AI companions. Now, Nomi’s already-sophisticated chatbots take additional […]

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Wednesday, 25 September 2024

Convergence AI played with agents ‘for years’ until raising $12M to give them long-term memory

The strategy is to create consumer agents, but then use those to inform how they train agents in the enterprise.

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Tuesday, 24 September 2024

Sexual Abuser Felon45 Now Claims He's The 'Protector' Of Women

These Republicans just keep getting more condescending by the day, don't they? You've got his running-mate out there calling women "childless cat ladies" and mocking women for being disturbed about the real cost they've extracted from women's lives by overturning Roe, and this clown keeps stepping in it every single time he opens his mouth.

Here's Trump at a rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, claiming that "lonely" women will "no longer be thinking about abortion" if he wins, with the serial sexual predator also having the nerve to call himself some sort of "protector" of women. What's more disgusting than anything was watching the lemmings in the audience, many of whom were female, applauding this garbage.

TRUMP: All right, so we have to talk business. I always thought women liked me. I never thought I had a problem. But the fake news keeps saying women don't like me. (Sorry Dementia Donny, but most women don't actually like you, but go on.)

I don't believe it. I think, I think, you know why they like they like to have strong borders. They like to have safety. Nothing personal. I think they like me. (No, it's actually very "personal" why most women don't like you after taking away their reproductive rights.)

But I make this statement. Thank you. I love you too. I love you too. Thank you. But I think they like me because I represent something that's very important. I make this statement to the great women of our country.

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EGYM, a connected fitness startup conceived after the founder hit a wall at the gym, lands $200M at a $1.2B+ valuation

Getting healthy is big business these days. Now a startup that’s come up with a unique approach leveraging tech to help people with their exercise regimes is announcing a big round of funding, putting some weight behind its own push for growth. Munich-based EGYM — a maker of connected fitness equipment and personalized training tech […]

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Trump's End-Times Racist Rant Against Haitian Migrants

During a rally in Pennsylvania on Monday, Trump continued to lie incessantly about Springfield, Ohio, and their Haitian migrant community. He then went further, claiming migrants are destroying every town and village in the entire country.

Demented Donald sounds more like the Grand Wizard of the KKK than a nominee for public office.

TRUMP: With left-wing nonprofits to inundate Pennsylvania communities, changing the character of small towns and villages all over our country, and changing them forever.

They will never be the same.

They will never be.

Do you think Springfield will ever be the same?

I don't think.

The fact is — and I'll say it now — you have to get them the hell out.

You have to get them out.

I'm sorry.

You have to get them out.

Can't have it.

Can't have it.

They've destroyed it.

It's terrible.

No matter how many times the mayor of Springfield or the Governor of Ohio tell Trump to shut the fck up and stop lying, he refuses, putting Haitians in physical danger.

This man is unfit and unwell.

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
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Monday, 23 September 2024

Rafael Warnock On Mark Robinson: 'White Supremacy In Blackface'

Georgia Senator Rafael Warnock blasted Trump's handpicked candidate for North Carolina governor as the antithesis of everything that Dr. King represented.

Robertson's alleged use of porn sites and fondness for Nazis has thrown his camp into turmoil resulting in most of the staffers quitting.

Warnock was asked about Robinson on MSNBC by Jen Psaki.

PSAKI: What do you make of all of this and how they're talking about his legacy?

WARNOCK: I can tell you as the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. served that Mark Robinson is no Martin Luther King Jr.

He is the antithesis of everything that Dr. King represented. He is white supremacy in blackface as he talks about his desire to bring slavery back.

I mean, this talk is way beyond the pale, calling himself 'a black Nazi.'

Warnock then turned his ire towards demented Don.

WARNOCK: These are his words, and I think that the people of North Carolina need to take note of the fact that this is Donald Trump's candidate.

This is who he keeps pushing and encouraging.

This is who he thinks should represent them.

But Donald Trump has a long history of this.

He tried this in my race.

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Some Kaspersky customers receive surprise forced-update to new antivirus software

After U.S. ban, Kaspersky's American customers were automatically migrated to UltraAV antivirus, in some cases without the customers' knowledge.

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Sunday, 22 September 2024

Elon Musk Sends Cybertrucks To Chechen Warlord, Lies About It

Sending a Tesla Cybertruck, or a bunch of them, to a Chechen warlord violates international sanctions as they are a Russian ally. When the Tesla owner was accused of doing just that last month Musk did what all would-be fascists do: He lied about it.

Given the penalties for such behavior, the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is now accusing Musk of disabling the Cybertrucks, making them unusable. And given the choice of whose word to believe between these two scumbags I would bet it's the Chechen's version that is more truthful.

Military.com called it the worst use of technology it had ever seen. "The belt-fed Kord fires 12.7x108 mm ammunition that, as manufacturer ZKMK is quick to point out, is larger than NATO's 12.7x99 mm round (that's .50 BMG, to nations that have been to the moon). It's designed to take out lightly armored vehicles and positions from as much as 2,000 meters away."

You can probably guess what happens when you put that much firepower on a civilian vehicle that is not designed for it. But everything these Chechens do is designed for show, not for real combat. The Ukrainians refer to them derisively as "TikTok warriors" for all the staged videos they put out.

Source: CNN

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SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son has been planning his comeback

A new Financial Times profile of Mayayoshi Son opens with SoftBank CEO seeming to hit bottom, staring at his “ugly” face on Zoom and telling himself, “I have done nothing I can be proud of.” The scene is presented as the prelude to a hoped-for a comeback, with Son largely disappearing from the public eye […]

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Saturday, 21 September 2024

GOP Lawmaker Is Mad As Hell He Can't Stifle Free Press

In 2021, Cory Tomczyk, who is now a Wisconsin State Senator, attended a public meeting which was discussing a resolution regarding diversity and inclusivity. During this meeting, Tomczyk used a homophobic slur against a 13-year-old boy. The Wausau Pilot & Review watched the video of the meeting and interviewed several people who witnessed the event, and then they committed the dastardly deed of reporting the news!

Oh, humanity!

Tomczyk decided to sue the paper for defamation because they accurately reported on his behaviors. He lost that case. So, in an effort to bankrupt the small paper, he appealed the ruling. Earlier this week, he lost again. Judging by the pity party he threw for himself, he didn't take it well:

In a statement this week, Tomcyk said he’s currently reviewing his legal options, adding that the Wausau Pilot had “smeared” his “reputation and name.”

The appeals court “punted” by concluding that Tomczyk counted as public figure in the context of the Community for All debate, the statement said.

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai announces $120M fund for global AI education

Speaking Saturday at the UN Summit of the Future, Google CEO Sundar Pichai described AI as “the most transformative technology yet” and announced a new fund for AI education and training around the world. Pichai pointed to four broad opportunities he sees for AI and sustainable development, according to a transcript of his prepared remarks […]

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Donald Fumes: Democrats Want To 'Close Up All Windows!'

We're all used to Donald launching nonsensical rants. That's nothing new, but he is an excellent salesman to his rubes as they somehow believe their hero is a Stable Genius™, but don't tell them they're weird or in a cult, OK?

Donald addressed the Israeli American Council National Summit in Washington on Thursday, which was pretty awkward since it was an event for "Fighting Anti-Semitism in America," even though his bestie, N.C. gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson identified himself on a porn site as a "Black Nazi." There is a lot to unpack there.

Naturally, while touting himself as pro-Jewish, Trump insulted Jews at the event by blaming them if he doesn't win the election.

Then, for some unknown reason, Trump launched a rant about windows and how Democrats want to close them up on buildings. Hasn't that been our plan all along, you guys?

"We need all the defense we can get, and a friend of mine, and a man who’s actually a great environmentalist, he really is a great one, and he wrote a book on Donald Trump is a great environmentalist, which is actually true, but a lot of people don’t know that," Bloaty McBatshit said. "But I’m an environmentalist with common sense. I like buildings to have windows."

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
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Friday, 20 September 2024

Here are the hottest product announcements from Apple, Google, Microsoft and others so far in 2024

We’ve poked through the many product announcements made by the biggest tech companies and product trade shows of the year, so far, and compiled them into this list.

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Apple breaks down iPhone 16 repair process

Apple published step-by-step instructions for swapping out the new handset’s battery.

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The 25 battery tech startups that just got a piece of $3B in federal funds

This tranche of funding went to startups across 14 states, but there were certain winners that will see the bulk of the expected 18,000 jobs to be created as a result of this funding.

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Oh, Look, Trump Media Shares Tank

I've been writing about this scam for over a year. At this point, any ordinary MAGA chump who thinks they're going to get rich off this just doesn't understand the game. The deal was always designed to do one thing: Make Trump a massive chunk of change. Via ABC News:

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. slumped to their lowest level ever at the opening bell Friday, the first day that its biggest shareholder, former President Donald Trump, is free to sell his stake in the company behind the Truth Social platform.

Shares of Trump Media, commonly called TMTG, tumbled almost 7% to $13.73, putting the value of the company at less than $3 billion. Trump owns more than half of it.

Trump and other insiders in the company have been unable to cash in on the highly volatile stock due standard lock-up agreements that prevent big stakeholders from selling stakes for a set period after a company becomes publicly traded. TMTG began trading publicly in March.

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Thursday, 19 September 2024

FTC report on predatory social media data hoarding hints at future regulations

A new FTC report on how social media and streaming sites collect and monetize their hoards of user data doesn’t really feature a lot of surprises for anyone who’s followed the space. It’s more helpful to consider this part of a paper trail the agency is laying down in order to justify new regulations in […]

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Apple, Google wallets now support California driver’s licenses

California residents can now store their driver’s license or state ID in their Apple Wallet apps, the state’s government announced on Thursday. California started allowing digital IDs through Google Wallet just last month. Californians with an ID in the Apple Wallet or Google Wallet app can use their mobile devices to present their ID in […]

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Wednesday, 18 September 2024

Bill requiring AM radio in new cars gets closer to law

A House committee overwhelmingly voted to approve a bill that would require new cars to be built with AM radio at no additional cost to the owner. The AM for Every Vehicle Act will now head to the House floor for final approval. If successful, it’ll go to the president’s desk to be signed into […]

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Charlie Kirk: Take Jimmy Carter's Secret Service, Give It To Trump

Christian nationalist Charlie Kirk wants to take Secret Service agents away from Jimmy Carter and give them to Trump.

Jimmy Carter's old and as we saw through the pandemic, MAGAts wanted seniors to sacrifice themselves and die from COVID so that younger people could go back to work.

KIRK: We protect 33 different people in this country with Secret Service, so we're out of people to protect President Trump.

So we have to go another direction, and obviously it's probably going to have to either be military, I would say, because they understand the situation.

Yeah, so here's what I'm failing to understand, is that this is simply and solely a question of the will.

So, for example, if President Trump visits Afghanistan, which he did, it's not just Secret Service. There are diplomatically trained detail for the State Department and for the Department of Defense that know how to protect ambassadors, that know how to protect people of interest, five-star generals.

So the Secret Service is not the only agency in the federal government that is trained in personal protection.

And by the way, I don't buy this idea that a $5 billion agency doesn't have enough people.

You can reallocate people away from Jimmy Carter, you can pay people.
The lack of creativity here is infuriating.

This is but another grotesque idea from the brain of Captain Brain Drain Kirk.

Aye, aye, sir.

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Tuesday, 17 September 2024

Ursa Major nabs $12.5M from U.S. Navy, DoD for 3D printed rocket motors

Ursa Major, a startup that produces rocket motors through 3D printing, received a $12.5 million grant to develop new solid fuel rocket engines

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Monday, 16 September 2024

Elon Musk: I Was Just Making A Jokey Joke With Harris Assassination Post

Guys, calm down. The self-entitled dickwad billionaire, Elon "Leon" Musk, was only making a little jokey joke with his post on the Bad App that he destroyed, where he wondered why no one was trying to assassinate Vice President Kamala Harris. What a funny guy!

Leon posted that just after the second assassination attempt on Trump in our gun-saturated country by an absolute nutjob who voted for the former President in 2016, then went all in for Haley and Ramaswamy. Republicans, gun saturation in our country is a YOU problem, though.

Via Rolling Stone:

In response to a pro-Trump account asking why "do they want to kill Donald Trump?" Musk wrote to his nearly 200 million followers: "And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala ?"

The post drew immediate backlash.

"Dude I'm not kidding here, get help. This is unhinged and dangerous," former Republican House Representative Adam Kinzinger replied.

"A reminder that @elonmusk is a contractor for DOD and the US Govt and has said things that would have gotten anyone kicked out of the military," Kinzinger added in a separate post. "He needs to stop, or the govt needs to treat him equally to everyone else. Being rich doesn't put you above the law.”

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Microsoft Copilot: Everything you need to know about Microsoft’s AI

In this post, we explain the many Microsoft Copilots available and what they do, and highlight the key differences between each.

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Fisker Ocean owners stuck paying for recall repairs

As EV startup Fisker prepares to enter the fourth month of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, existing owners have received some bad news: they will have to pay labor costs to resolve two of the five outstanding recalls on their Ocean SUVs. Fisker broke the bad news Sunday night in an FAQ posted to its […]

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Sunday, 15 September 2024

JD Vance Admits Trump Lied About Migrants Eating Pets

Republican Vice president candidate JD Vance told CNN's Dana Bash that Trump and his campaign have been lying about Haitian migrants eating cats and dogs.

Wow.

Trump yelling about Haitians eating the cats and the dogs in Springfield at the presidential debate has become a national joke since it had already been exposed as a fraud perpetrated by the MAGA cult.

Dana Bash was stunned.

BASH: He just said, Haitians are eating dogs and cats. Can you affirmatively say now that that is a rumor that has no basis with evidence?

VANCE: Dana, the evidence is the firsthand account of my constituents who are telling me that this happened. And by the way, I've been trying to talk about the problems in Springfield for months, and the American media ignored it. There was a congressional hearing just last week of angel moms who lost children because Kamala Harris let criminal migrants into this country who then murdered their children.

The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes.

If I have to, if I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm gonna do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast.

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Tom Cotton Repeats Pet-Eating Rumors: 'I Don't Know If They're True Or Not'

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) repeated unsubstantiated claims that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets even though he admitted that he didn't know "if they're true or not."

During a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo faulted "the mainstream media" for not promoting unverified stories about migrants.

"Kamala Harris chose ABC for an interview, and they edited down her word salad answers to make it appear quite concise," Bartirmo told Cotton. "Why is it that we're not getting the true story of the status of this country on the mainstream media?"

"Well, the mainstream media is fully in the tank for Kamala Harris," Cotton complained. "Look at what's happened in the situation in Springfield, Ohio, Maria."

"You had a town of about 58,000 Americans, and 20,000 Haitian migrants have flooded into that town in recent years," he continued. "You've got Haitians who don't know how to drive, causing accidents all around the roads of Springfield."

Cotton argued that Springfield schools should be spending money on "American citizens who wanted new uniforms for the football team" instead of educating migrants who were in the country legally.

The senator said the media wanted to attack Springfield residents and "wants to tar them as racists and bigoted and nativist because of reports that Haitians have also been killing ducks or geese from the city pond."

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Saturday, 14 September 2024

The LinkedIn games are fun, actually

I have a guilty pleasure, and it’s not that I just rewatched “Glee” in its entirety (yes, even the awful later seasons), or that I have read an ungodly amount of Harry Potter fan fiction in my time. My guilty pleasure is that I play the LinkedIn games. To answer the obvious question: Wait, LinkedIn […]

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Every fusion startup that has raised over $300M

Fusion startups have raised $7.1 billion to date, with the majority of it going to a handful of companies.

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‘Hot Ones’ could add some heat to Netflix’s live lineup

Netflix has never quite cracked the talk show formula, but maybe it can borrow an existing hit from YouTube. According to Bloomberg, the streamer is in talks with BuzzFeed to create live episodes of the popular YouTube talk show “Hot Ones.” Netflix and BuzzFeed did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. The show […]

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Friday, 13 September 2024

How Self-Centered Donald Trump Desecrated The Flag On 9/11

Section 8 (g) of the U.S. Flag Code states, “The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.”

Yet Donald Trump can clearly be seen signing his name on a flag, apparently on the recent anniversary of 9/11, of all occasions:

Trump signs American flag, violates flag code on 9/11 pic.twitter.com/s9U1sUUSyz

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) September 12, 2024

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Fintech Bolt is buying out the investor suing over Ryan Breslow’s $30M loan

Bolt says it has settled its long-standing lawsuit with its investor Activant Capital. One-click payments startup Bolt is settling the suit by buying out the investor’s stake “after which Activant will no longer hold any interest in Bolt,” the company said in a statement. Activant’s suit accused founder and then CEO Ryan Breslow of adding […]

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First impressions of ChatGPT o1: An AI designed to overthink it

OpenAI released its new o1 models on Thursday, giving ChatGPT users their first chance to try AI models that pause to “think” before they answer. There’s been a lot of hype building up to these models, codenamed “Strawberry” inside OpenAI. But does Strawberry live up to the hype? Sort of. Compared to GPT-4o, the o1 […]

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Thursday, 12 September 2024

This startup is making manure out of other biogas power plants and now has $62M to play with

Working away on his PhD in Munich only a few years ago, Stephan Herrmann (now a doctor) couldn’t have conceived of a time when his idea for a carbon-negative power plant would attract millions in funding. But now, together with Reverion co-founder Felix Fischer, he has a $100 million backlog of orders for his invention […]

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Frank Luntz: 'Trump Loses Because Of This Debate Performance'

Longtime Republican focus group and pollster Frank Luntz lit into Donald Trump's awful presidential debate showing to Piers Morgan on his Uncensored streaming program.

Early in the debate, Luntz was criticizing Kamala Harris' facial expressions, which was sexist and he was rebuked on Xitter about it.

If she wants to win, Harris needs to train her face not to respond.

It feeds into a female stereotype and, more importantly, risks offending undecided voters. #Debate2024

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 11, 2024

On content, Harris is winning.
Visually, she's hurting herself. #Debate2024 pic.twitter.com/74jGI6VHbh

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 11, 2024

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Wednesday, 11 September 2024

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024.

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OpenAI reportedly in talks to raise at $150B valuation

OpenAI is reportedly in talks with investors to raise $6.5 billion in new funding, valuing the startup at $150 billion, according to Bloomberg and the Financial Times. That’s significantly higher than OpenAI’s previously reported valuation from earlier this year, $86 billion, and far higher than any other AI startup today. The funding round will reportedly […]

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Debate 2024: Twitter Responses Flooding In

Tonight was the first (and maybe only) debate between disgraced former President* Donald Trump and current badass Vice President Kamala Harris. The debate lasted just over 90 minutes and Trump spent his time wisely rambling about immigrants eating cats (lie), Democrats aborting babies after birth (also a lie), him actually winning the 2020 election (a total lie) and litany of other demonstrably false statements.

Harris dominated, baiting him repeatedly (crowd size was one of the best ones and she launched it pretty early in the debate). She was calm, strong, poised and had a positive vision for America. Trump had his usual doom and gloom about world war 3 and our country being a "failing nation."

TWITTER HAD LOTS OF THOUGHTS. Here are some of the best:

From start to end, Kamala Harris has just delivered what is easily one of the most successful Presidential debate performances in all of American history.

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) September 11, 2024

Breaking:

The Harris campaign is calling for a second debate.

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These sub-1mm robots morph and crawl with an electric zap

Along with biological organisms, the robots were inspired kirigami, a variation of origami wherein objects are cut in addition to folded.

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Tuesday, 10 September 2024

Drybaby is a dating app for the ‘sober curious’ movement

Drybaby is the newest dating app designed for singles who are sober or interested in reducing their alcohol consumption. The app arrives as 41% of Americans are cutting back on drinking as part of the so-called “sober curious” movement. According to a recent study commissioned by NCSolutions, Gen Zers have expressed particular interest in the movement, […]

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Taylor-Greene Defends J6 Insurrectionists By Attacking Haitians

Depraved Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene held a hearing Monday for the Unusually Cruel Treatment of J6 Political Prisoners.

I kid you not.

The QAnon Klan Mom is defending treasonous Trump supporters because they were arrested, charged, and incarcerated for the type of domestic terrorism we haven't seen since the British attacked Washington DC in 1812.

One of Marge's key witnesses is Yehuda Miller, who says much of his work has been featured in the Gateway Pundit. Welp, that explains the quality of Marge's witnesses!

Miller claimed the insurrectionists had legitimate questions about the 2020 election and wanted to redress the government with their concerns. They should be talking to Rudy Giuliani and Trump, who were pivotal in orchestrating the failed coup.

Jonathan Gross is an attorney for J6 defendants and was pissed off that no BLM and ANTIFA attorneys were present.

During the hearing, Marge broke into Chip Roy's time to attack Haitian migrants who appear to be victims of a MAGA-State-led operation to smear them as eating pets and murdering ducks in parks to attack VP Harris.

TAYLOR-GREEN: OK. Wait, can we add in that there's Haitian illegal migrants taking over towns, eating people's pets?

But yet there's not a government show of force against that.

However, it is against these people that protest the election.

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Monday, 9 September 2024

Here’s the full list of 35 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024

In the first half of 2024 alone, more than $35.5 billion was invested into AI startups globally.

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Sunday, 8 September 2024

Sarah Sanders: People Against Trump's Jan. 6 Coup Attempt Are 'In The Minority'

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) defended former President Donald Trump's Jan. 6 attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election by claiming that Americans who opposed his effort were "in the minority."

During a Sunday interview on ABC's This Week program, host Jonathan Karl told Sanders that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was supporting the Democratic presidential nominee because she believed Trump was "unfit for office."

"How do you square [Harris'] record that you just talked about, which is obviously debatable and will be debated, with what happened at the end of the Trump presidency where he did try to overturn a presidential election, tried to overturn a Democratic election?" Karl wondered.

"I do think she actually is significantly in the minority here," Sanders pushed back. "You look across the board, prominent Republicans are supporting President Trump, but ultimately I think she's a non-factor."

"I'm not trying to be rude, but you don't get to call yourself a conservative or a Republican when you support the most radical nominee that the Democrats have ever put up," she continued. "That doesn't make you a conservative. It certainly doesn't make you a Republican."

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European VC Atomico closes $1.24B across two funds for early and growth-stage startups

Atomico has historically leaned toward earlier funding rounds while dipping into later stages where it made sense; now it's setting itself up to focus just as much on the later stages of a startup's journey.

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Apple Intelligence delays could impede iPhone 16 ‘supercycle’

When Apple unveiled its AI plans at WWDC in June, analysts suggested the feature could put the iPhone 16 on track for another “supercycle.” Like the addition of 5G before it, industry watchers believed that Apple Intelligence’s arrival might convince holdouts to bite the bullet and upgrade their device. We’ll have a much better picture […]

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Saturday, 7 September 2024

Disarray!: Brawl Breaks Out At County Republican Meeting

Fists flew between a self-described First Amendment advocate and a conservative radio personality at a Saline County Republican Committee meeting in Arkansas. Others piled in, trying to break up the fight. What started the fight? That depends on what source you read. However, dysfunction and chaos are a common theme when reading about Saline County. Chaos ensued in a fight that started between Jimmy Cavin and Johnathan Newcomb.

The Saline Courier reports:

“Last night’s Saline County Republican Committee meeting devolved into chaos, culminating in a physical altercation between two individuals, along with heated verbal exchanges among others throughout the room,” they stated. “We call on the Republican Party of Arkansas to take immediate action to remove this dysfunctional leadership and abolish the group that has betrayed our conservative principles, and portrayed our county a deeply unfavorable light. Saline County deserves better - A Republican Committee that truly reflects strength, unity, and a commitment to the advancement of conservative values without selfish motives or agendas.”

The dysfunction has been ongoing, though, for quite a while:

The Arkansas Times reports:

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Payroll startup Warp disavows ‘affiliate’ who posted about white superiority

Warp is under the spotlight following controversial posts from an account tied to the company. On Thursday, an account posting under the name Vittorio wrote on X, “i like White people more, they do more, they are better for the roles i need to climb the kardashev scale i’ll let blacks run and play basketball.” […]

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Friday, 6 September 2024

Trump's Plan For Childcare: Word Salads And Tariffs On China

Trump was asked at the Economic Club of New York what he plans to do about making childcare more affordable if he wins in November and outside of repeating the term childcare over and over, he veered off into how much money his tariffs on other countries are going to bring in.

When will the media look at this guy's mental acuity on policy proposals and questions? On everything, really.

Dump knows nothing and refuses to learn anything outside of repeating nonsensical gobbledygook over and over again that has nothing to do to actual policy.

QUESTION: If you win in November, can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make child care affordable And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance?

"Specific legislation" was the key phrase used to try and get Trump to say something of significance. Let's see how that worked out.

TRUMP: Well, I would do that, and we're sitting down, you know, I was somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It's a very important issue.

But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about, that because child care is child care, it's couldn't, you know, there's something you have to have it.

In this country, you have to have it.

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Thursday, 5 September 2024

Garland Indicts Russians For Manipulating Public Opinion In 2024 Election

The Departments of Justice, State and Treasury announced yesterday a joint effort to use sanctions and criminal charges against what the Biden administration says are Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate U.S. public opinion ahead of the November election. Via NBC News:

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced charges against two employees of the Russian-backed media network RT accused of conspiring to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act in an indictment unsealed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York.

"The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power is attempting to exploit our country's free exchange of ideas in order to send around its own propaganda," Garland said.

While the indictment redacted the names of political parties and candidates, it was clear through the documents that the Russians sought to bolster Republican former President Donald Trump and to harm Democratic efforts — who likely would have been Joe Biden at the time.

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US charges five Russian military hackers with targeting Ukraine’s government with destructive malware

The U.S. government indictment demonstrated deep knowledge of the Russian spies' activities, including their real-world meetings at a cafe in Moscow.

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Wednesday, 4 September 2024

Short series app My Drama takes on Character.AI with its new AI companions

Maybe a lack of AI characters is what Quibi got wrong. At least, that’s what one startup appears to believe. My Drama is a new short series app with over 30 shows, with a majority of them following a soap opera format in order to hook viewers. The app is now launching an AI-powered chatbot […]

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X is hiring staff for security and safety after two years of layoffs

The hiring effort comes after X, formerly known as Twitter, laid off 80% of its trust and safety staff since Musk's takeover.

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Judge Repeats Ruling: Bribing A Porn Star Is Not Official Act

Common sense shows its face again! Associated Press (via Daily Kos) reporting:

A federal judge on Tuesday swiftly rejected request to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, spurning the former ppresident'sattempt at an end-run around the state court where he was convicted and is set to be sentenced in two weeks.

—just hours after TTrump'slawyers asked him to weigh the move—upends the Republican presidential nominee's plan to move the case to federal court so that he could seek to have his conviction overturned in the wake of the U.S. Supreme CCourt's.

Andrew Weissmann spoke to Lawrence O'Donnell Tuesday night, and kudos to both of them for not laughing the whole way through.

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: Andrew, let's begin with Judge Hellerstein today, the federal judge in New York, who's the first one to actually issue a ruling based on the Supreme Court's immunity decision, and he said has absolutely nothing to do with Stormy Daniels.

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Tuesday, 3 September 2024

Elmo's Post Of Harris In Commie Garb Backfires Immediately

Elon Musk, the owner of the Bad App, has gone full MAGA, and I'm sure it has nothing to do with the tax breaks that would be afforded to him if Donald Trump were to win the election. Musk, who is also known as "that stupid fuck," (many people are saying that, believe me), posted a manipulated AI image of Vice President Kamala Harris dressed in red military garb with the communist symbol of the hammer and sickle, thus breaking the rules on the site he's pretty much destroyed.

Well, it's a good place if you want to play footsie with white nationalists, but for decent people, it's broken. Elon responded to a post with an image of Donald that Harris posted, saying, "Donald Trump vows to be a dictator on day one," adding, "We won't let him."

Musk wrote, "You are lying," even though it's on video, then he separately posted the image of Kamala in communist gear, writing, "Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit!??"

That backfired spectacularly.

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Volkswagen is rolling out its ChatGPT assistant to the US

Volkswagen is taking its ChatGPT voice assistant experiment on the road. Or more, specifically to vehicles it sells in the United States. The German automaker announced in January at CES 2024 plans to add an AI-powered chatbot into all Volkswagen models equipped with its IDA voice assistant. But the U.S. was excluded in that initial […]

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Monday, 2 September 2024

‘Hospital at home’ startup Doccla raises $46 million for its European expansion

Hospitals around the world regularly face bed shortages — an issue that can get exacerbated to breaking point when a health scare or other large-scale disaster occurs. A startup called Doccla is bringing technology to bear address the issue: it’s building “virtual bed” tech to help doctors remotely manage patients who have either been discharged […]

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BigEndian founders hope to use their deep chip experience to help establish India in semiconductors

India's fabless semiconductor startup BigEndian has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Vertex Ventures SEA and India.

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SparkLabs closes $50M fund to back AI startups

SparkLabs — an early-stage venture capital firm that has made a name for itself for backing OpenAI as well as a host of other AI startups such as Vectara, Allganize, Kneron, Anthropic, xAI, Glade (YC S23) and Lucidya AI — is gearing up to double down more startups in the space. The VC firm announced […]

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Mike's Blog Roundup

Earthbound Misfit - Elon sets another $24 billion on fire;

Jabberwocking - don't send the Afghanistan withdrawal down the Trump memory hole;

Mock Paper Scissors - the future is female;

Rick Perlstein - the election story no one wants to talk about;

The Mahablog - Trump finds no refuge from abortion.

Wonder whether you should keep or toss that Italian sausage at the back of your freezer? Check out Still Tasty - I use it all the time.

send tips to MBRU (AT) crooksandliars (DOT) com

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Sunday, 1 September 2024

Apple may ditch those old familiar USB-A ports in the new Mac mini

The Mac mini will be the next Apple device to say goodbye to USB-A, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple customers have probably gotten used to seeing the familiar, rectangular USB-A ports replaced with their thinner USB-C siblings. And while USB-C has its advantages, the transition can sometimes leave users confused and scrambling for adapters. […]

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'Trump Is Losing': Lindsey Graham Gripes Over Harris Lead

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) acknowledged Sunday that former President Donald Trump was losing to Vice President Kamala Harris in recent polls.

During an interview on ABC, host Jonathan Karl asked Graham how Trump could lose the 2024 election.

"I think the way that they're running the campaign is to draw him into insult debates, get all off script, get off the issues," Graham explained. "Now, in a head-to-head race, Trump is losing slightly, but on the issues, Trump economy plus eight, inflation plus eight, border plus nine."

"My God, that's a blowout," he continued. "Focus on the issues, Mr. President."

Karl pointed out that Trump seemed more interested in insulting Harris than talking about issues.

"And if you look at what the former president has said just in the last week or so about Kamala Harris as he looks ahead to this debate, he has called her, quote, low IQ, dumb, someone who, quote, can't put two sentences together," Karl observed. "Now, those sound a little bit more like schoolyard taunts than the stuff of a presidential campaign, but it's also a strange way to set expectations before a debate."

Graham argued that Harris "has some talent" but had been a "wrecking ball" on foreign policy.

"That's what I would talk about," he insisted. "Not her IQ."

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Trump's Meme Stock DJT Hits Lowest Level Ever

All those still holding the bag on September 20 when Trump can start selling this make-believe stock are going to get crushed. And they deserve it.

Source: CNBC

The monthslong Trump Media stock slide continued Wednesday, as shares of the company majority-owned by former President Donald Trump fell below $20 for the first time since the Truth Social maker went public more than five months ago.

The stock price of DJT touched a low of $19.38 per share around midday, marking a drop of more than 75% from its intraday high on March 26, the day the company debuted on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Trump Media ended Wednesday’s trading session down more than 4% at $20.10 per share.

Trump Media has also lost more than half its value since its recent surge on July 15, the first trading day after the Republican presidential nominee narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Ok, but so what? Why does this even matter? Well, on September 20 Donald Trump gets to cash out with his make-believe stock and take home some very real money. More than $2.2 billion as of last Wednesday's stock price.

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