Kalshi bans George Santos for life over State of the Union bets

The disciplinary action comes two months after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission settled charges against Santos.

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Grindr wants to be the everything app for gay men; investors are still deciding whether it can pull it off

George Arison is done letting Wall Street's "Grindr discount" go unchallenged — in a wide-ranging Q&A, the CEO walks us through how AI, a controversial $350-plus EDGE tier, and a bet on healthcare and long-distance matchmaking are turning Grindr into the "gayborhood in your pocket" he's been promising since 2022.

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Trump 'Lake America' Lampooned As Insane Distraction

The United States is locked in another Middle East quagmire, the American economy is shedding jobs, wage growth is decelerating, and the costs of essentials are rising, but President Donald Trump on Thursday took time to hold an Oval Office event for the signing of an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” as his damaging trade war with Canada intensifies.

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Trump To Welker: Report The Truth, I'll Report You To The FCC

On Sunday Donald Trump vowed to report Meet the Press host Kristen Welker to the FCC because she rightly reported that Trump has had mixed results on his endorsements leading up to 2026 midterm elections.

This is another blatant attempt to bully the media and undermine the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Welker did a pre-MTP interview on NBC and made these statements.

Politico recently reported that his picks for governor in four states failed to win the nomination." While House backed candidates in Tennessee and Michigan failed as well, while Lindsey Graham's sister was forced into a runoff in Georgia.

WELKER: Well, he's going to loom large over these midterms, there's no doubt about that.

He of course has endorsed a slate of candidates in the primaries.

He's had some mixed results, but most recently his pick of Senator Darline Graham, of course the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, was successful in her primary battle, so now she takes on Dr. Annie Andrews in South Carolina.

Maybe Demented Donald thought she said he was of "mixed" race?

Vonshitzhispants is having sh*t fits over the slightest thing.

He continues to dissemble right before our eyes. His threat is empty, just a way to make sure we all know he's still the boss. Here's what he wrote:

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Why Doesn't Fox News Call Out Trump's Other Horrific Lies?

On Thursday, Fox News host Bret Baier took umbrage when Trump attacked Fox News' Jonathan Hunt as a "flunky" over his report on the Iran war.

Oh, the horror.

Trump responded, "Jonathan Hunt of Fox News did a particularly inaccurate report on the Failing Islamic Republic of Iran. I don’t want to meet; they do. In fact, they are begging to make a deal. Bret Baier should straighten out his flunkies, for a change! President DJT.”

Bret Baier would not have it.

BAIER: First of all, Jonathan Hunt's not a flunky.

He's a great reporter.

Second of all, Mr. President, we didn't say you wanted to meet.

In fact, we played a soundbite that you didn't want to meet, and there are no negotiations.

We said that Treasury Secretary BesSent is hoping to meet with G20 countries to increase the pressure on Iran and that Gulf state allies, including Qatar, are inside Tehran trying to get Iran to agree to concessions.

That was what it said.

Too bad Baier and every other Fox News host refused to call out Trump when he repeatedly lies and makes sh*t up against anyone that disagrees with him or caused him consternation in the past or present.

Ron has it right.

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Is Scott Bessent Trying To Blow Up The Global Financial System?

“Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a press conference earlier this week, while discussing Iran. In our history, no president or White House would deliberately hurt the global economy, right?

However, some believe Treasury Secretary Bessent and President Trump have harmed both our economy and the global economy through self-inflicted errors. The U.S. Bond Market is making headlines this week.

Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller blasted Bessent in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. Druckenmiller’s column, “Let the Bond Market Speak,” set off alarms.

The respected billionaire said that Bessent’s bond market maneuvers are not the way to fix bond yields, that his efforts will fail, and that it will give allies another reason to lose trust in America.

Stephanie Ruhle tried to explain why Druckenmiller’s op-ed was a big deal:

Self-Inflicted Errors

According to reports from MSNow, the Trump administration has made multiple self-inflicted errors:

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Trump Sneakily Working To Give Away Part Of Yosemite To Private Developer

The Trump administration has been “secretly plotting” to give away a portion of America's public land in Yosemite National Park to a private developer with ties to Trump cronies. The developer wants to build a road into the park and develop two 40-acre parcels near the park, according to The New York Times.

The road “would give the land exceptionally rare private access to a park that is otherwise almost entirely buffered by national forests,” NOTUS said.

In other words, the road would almost certainly give a tremendous boost to the value of the developer’s real estate, at the expense of the public. The developer is supposed to buy and donate back to the government some other piece of land for public use. I think it's a safe bet it will be nowhere as valuable or meaningful as the piece of historic Yosemite being taken away.

The portion of Yosemite Trump wants to give away “is near one of its most iconic sights, the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, which President Abraham Lincoln signed a grant to protect during the American Civil War,” The Daily Beast noted.

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Federal Judge Blocks Trump's Attempt To Restrict Mail-In Voting

A federal judge has temporarily blocked Trump's attempt to derail the midterm election by restricting mail-in voting.

Judge blocks rule implementing Trump plan to restrict mail-in voting:

A federal judge on Thursday blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing core parts of a new rule it adopted at President Donald Trump's direction that would tighten mail-in voting requirements ahead of the November congressional elections.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston issued a temporary restraining order at the behest of Democratic-led states and voting rights groups after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday issued a ruling that led to the lifting of earlier injunctions blocking Trump's plans to restrict mail-in voting.

That decision led to a frantic effort by dozens of Democratic state attorneys general and voting rights groups including the League of Women Voters to renew their legal fight and secure an order that would prevent the USPS from enforcing a rule that was allowed to take effect on Wednesday.

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Neocloud Lambda secures $1B in debt to buy more chips

Neocloud Lambda has raised $1B in private debt to buy Nvidia AI chips and lease them to Microsoft. It's the latest in a string of loans, underscoring the high cost of the AI boom.

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Brave’s browser one-ups Chrome with its new support for email aliases

The feature, announced this week, allows Brave's users to sign up for websites and other online services without having to share their personal email addresses.

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Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines co-founder who defected to OpenAI, is now at Google

Zoph, who co-founded Thinking Machines Lab alongside Mira Murati and also served as the startup's CTO, led a brief stint at OpenAI and is now at Google.

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It's August 2001 Again, And We're Watching Sharks

Julie Roginsky came on Tequila Talk with a story almost nobody in U.S. media would touch: for most of the week, NATO's been massing serious force near Kaliningrad, and no one will explain why. CIA Director Ratcliffe has suddenly flown to Moscow for an emergency meeting. What's going on? We may be the closest to a hot war with Russia we've been in a long time.

NATO just flew a U.S.-led air exercise on Russia's doorstep—AWACS, electronic warfare, dozens of aircraft over Poland and the Baltic—as Russian drones cross NATO lines and a frigate with hypersonic missiles prowls the Baltic Sea. Cliff and Joe Walsh pour one out and ask a question most are avoiding: what happens if testing stops being a test?

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CIA Director Takes Covert Trip To Moscow: What Are They Hiding?

The CIA Director from the United States made a secret trip to Russia. This morning, a military plane landed just outside Moscow, and a diplomatic motorcade was seen driving through the city center. According to CBS News, CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Russia on a military transport plane for meetings in Moscow today.

Sources shared the following information about Trump’s CIA Chief with CBS News:

"It appears to be Ratcliffe's first known trip to Russia as CIA director, though he has maintained contact with Russian intelligence counterparts."

Totally normal, nothing to worry about, right?

The media outlet pointed out that it is unusual for a CIA chief to visit Moscow:

“Former CIA Director William Burns traveled to Moscow in November 2021, when he met with senior Russian officials and spoke directly with President Vladimir Putin to warn him against invading Ukraine.”

Why Did CIA Director Go to Moscow?

News came out this morning about a C-17 military cargo plane landing in Russia. The Kremlin said it had "no knowledge" of the plane. The plane America's CIA Director used is unusual.

The UK media outlet iNews reported:

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X sends cease-and-desist to open-source project Nitter over alleged scraping

X has sent cease-and-desist letters to Nitter, the open source project behind privacy-friendly X frontends, demanding its instances and code repository be taken down over alleged scraping.

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Stability AI, maker of image generator Stable Diffusion, raises $76 million in fresh funding

The company's new fundraising total now stands at $232 million.

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'I've Had Enough': Trump And Melania's Heated Clash At Indy Race Decoded By Lip Reader

A professional lip reader decoded a heated exchange between President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at Sunday's race, capturing the president reportedly saying he had "had enough."

The exchange took place at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, the first IndyCar street race ever held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Professional lip reader Nicola Hickling, speaking to Metro, described the conversation as "intense."

The first lady was seen leaning over to speak in the president's ear before the two began talking over each other and she raised her hand, according to Metro.

"That is private and valuable text," Melania Trump reportedly told her husband.

"Was it enough?" Donald Trump replied, according to the lip reader.

Melania Trump answered: "I don't know."

"Then I need to see it," Donald Trump continued.

"Donald, listen, I'm gonna go," Melania Trump said, the lip reader determined.

"It's bad news, but it's a bad timing Melania," Donald Trump said as the exchange grew more pointed, according to Hickling.

"That's crazy," Melania Trump was said to have replied.

Melania Trump then whispered in the president's ear, according to Hickling.

"I've had enough of her," Donald Trump shot back, Hickling reported

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Sen. Bernie Sanders Tells Trump To Put His Money Where His Mouth Is

Sen. Bernie Sanders whacked Trump on social media for his ridiculous statement that everyone should be willing to have one of these massive data centers in their backyard.

The issue of data centers is one that's been crossing partisan lines for some time now, but apparently Trump hasn't gotten the memo yet on stories like this one: Republicans Are Learning the Hard Way That Many Americans Don’t Want Data Centers:

A surge in public opposition to artificial intelligence infrastructure is transforming localized land-use disputes into major national political liabilities.

The rapid nationwide expansion of artificial intelligence facilities has encountered an unexpected wave of voter resistance across traditional party lines. Once promoted as clean economic drivers, modern hyperscale data centers face mounting criticism over rising residential utility bills, severe water usage, and industrial noise pollution.

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Who’s behind the new ‘stealth model’ Ox Alpha?

A mysterious new AI model called Ox Alpha has driven certain corners of the internet into a frenzy of speculation.

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Uber faces fine of nearly $1B over automated driver suspensions

The Dutch Data Protection Authority is fining Uber €825 million in the second largest penalty issued under Europe’s GDPR.

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Blackburn Blames Gas Prices And Inflation On Biden

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who's hoping to become the next Governor of Tennessee, served up a big heaping helping of Biden Tourette syndrome when she was asked by Hannity guest host Kellyanne Conway about her party's message to voters for the midterms.

Never mind that Dear Leader just told everyone last week that he'll never apologize for the high prices he caused; Blackburn just straight up lied that he cares one iota about the economic damage he's causing with his tariffs and the illegal war with Iran and then tried blaming what's going on now on Biden and COVID.

CONWAY: And of course, it's not enough, Senator Blackburn, just to scream socialist, communist. We need to explain what we're for.

I think that you and President Trump and so many others in your party have given us that agenda. Make the case for all Republicans coming up in this midterm. How can we tell Americans about the security, the safety, the, certainly the prosperity, the opportunity for all? What's the message for the midterms?

BLACKBURN: Yes, and President Trump is delivering for the American people every day, working to get the price of a gallon of gas down, working to get the pound of ground beef down, working to make certain that inflation is reduced.

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Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructors

In the HBS Foundry program, AI avatars provide feedback during practice pitches and board meetings.

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Will the DOJ’s investigation into a16z spook other VCs?

On the latest episode of Equity, we wonder why the DOJ is investigating startup board seats.

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Inherent, founded by DeepMind alumni, says its AI ‘teammate’ just outperformed Anthropic and OpenAI at replicating research

Built by DeepMind alumni, British AI lab Inherent released Faraday, an AI agent whose ability to replicate scientific papers could be a stepping stone for innovation.

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Nvidia just showed that the harness, not the AI model, is now the real hero

Nvidia research shows that AI agents can perform well, and not go off the deep end, through fine-tuning, even if the AI model isn't that great at the task.

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Why Did Trump Allow Kim Jong Un To Grow His Nuclear Arsenal Substantially?

Donald Trump claimed former US presidents let North Korea develop nuclear warheads, but while exchanging love letters with Kim Jong-un, under his leadership North Korea increased its nuclear stockpiles twofold in his first term.

One of Demented Donald's favorite slogans is, 'under his watch he would never let it happen,' no matter the situation.

So, for instance, Trump routinely says the Russia-Ukraine war should have never happened, and under his presidency he would have stopped it?

How? Nobody knows.

Here, if he had been President for the last thirty years, he would have never allowed North Korea to develop any nuclear materials.

During yesterday's gaggle, a reporter asked if he's still writing letters to Kim Jong-un. Trump refused to say he had, but then blew kisses to the North Korean leader.

"The fact that I get along with him, that's a good thing, not a bad thing," Trump said.
Trump then launched into his customary revisionist history.

"He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons," Trump stated. "Should have never allowed it to happen. They should have never allowed it."

He continued, "If I were President, I wouldn't have allowed it. But he's got them."

Not one person cares how well he gets on with Kim Jong-un.

If we take Trump's claims as fact. Yeah, I know, that's crazy, but bear with me.

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Castelion hits $13B valuation to mass-produce hypersonic missiles

Founded in 2022, Castelion set out to manufacture hypersonic weapon systems at a lower cost and at faster speeds than traditional defense primes.

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Trump Slated For Podcast With Star Hush Money Witness Who Helped Convict Him

According to new reporting from MS Now, citing a Trump White House official, Donald Trump is slated to sit down for a podcast interview with none other than Michael Cohen -- his former personal attorney who served as the prosecution's star witness in the President's infamous Hush Money trial, playing a large role in convicting Trump on 34 felony counts.

According to the official, who spoke with the publication on condition of anonymity about plans not yet made public, the interview will air on Cohen's show today.

Trump and his former attorney had an infamous, public falling out over FBI raids, guilty pleas, congressional testimony, and a bombshell tell-all book, making this newfound "thaw" between the pair particularly interesting, as Donald Trump has never been known to let go of a grudge easily.

Cohen spent more than a decade serving as Donald Trump's closest personal "fixer," which culminated in the now-former attorney personally cutting the hush money check for Stormy Daniels. However, his loyalty to Trump wavered when the FBI began to seize his devices and records in 2018. Eventually, he admitted to tax evasion, campaign finance crimes, and cutting fat checks to women who claimed to have had affairs with Donald Trump.

Under oath, Cohen stated, "I regret doing things for him that I should not have. To keep the loyalty and to do the things that he asked me to do, I violated my moral compass."

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Judge Threatens Trump DOJ W/ JAIL TIME Over Epstein Files

Today we had our usual roundtable for The Epstein Update--myself, Ellie Leonard & Kait Justice, but the main topic, gleefully, was unusual. Judge Emmet Sullivan, 41-year veteran of the bench, told Trump's DOJ its lawyers would face jail time if they keep stonewalling on releasing all the horrors of the Epstein files.

Ellie was actually in the courtroom for it. When Trump DOJ lawyer/hack Andrew Block said he couldn't commit to a time frame--in his attempt to continue the cover-up--but it would be “forthcoming,” Sullivan quipped: “Christmas is forthcoming." He followed up with: "You want me to issue another order and say, I really mean it this time?”

Finally, Sullivan was clear the attorneys be forewarned he's a judge who'll “enforce legitimate judicial orders” with whatever means available, including prison. He closed with, “I’m not in a habit of blindsiding people," and have "absolutely no desire to go down that road again,” But he also said that they had better be prepared that prison time for contempt was "not a threat. That's a promise."

Watch the video for more on this story!

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Google packs Search and Gemini with new AI study tools

The launch of the new study features marks Google's latest effort to make Gemini the AI assistant that students turn to when learning and studying, as it continues to compete with companies like OpenAI.

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The Trump Kids Are Dodging Process Servers In Their Daddy's Lawsuit

The BBC wholeheartedly believes that Donald Trump's children -- namely his eldest daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared and his eldest son Don Jr. -- have "personal knowledge" about the President that's relevant to fighting the lawsuit the President has lodged against the British network. Still, the Trump kids are making it clear they won't do things the easy way.

The sitting President of the United States is currently embroiled in a defamation lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation in connection with the network's 2024 documentary on the January 6th Capitol insurrection that aired in the UK. Trump claims defamation, arguing that the BBC spliced together parts of his infamous J6 speech.

The broadcaster did, in fact, combine two parts of Trump's speech.

In one segment of his speech, Trump told the crowd, "I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down."

He added just a few minutes later, "We're going to walk down to the Capitol."

In their documentary, the BBC edited the footage of Trump's speech to say, "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and I'll be there with you." They then included the line from the end of Trump's 55-minute speech, where he told the mob of supporters to "fight like hell."

"We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore," Trump said in his J6 speech.

The BBC has apologized for its editing but maintains that the edits are far from defamatory.

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Cursor capitalizes on GitHub frustration, launches rival hosting platform

Cursor, known for its AI Code Editor, is launching a new code-hosting platform to rival developers' long preferred favorite, GitHub.

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TikTok explores peer-to-peer payments via DMs, report says

If rolled out, the feature would use the social media service’s TikTok Pay offering, which is already available in Southeast Asia for TikTok Shop purchases.

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‘Unprecedented’ number of Apple users received recent spyware alert, say investigators

Cybersecurity experts who investigate spyware attacks say the number of people who received a recent threat notification from Apple is unusually high.

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Spotify’s new Playlist Notes let users and editors explain their song picks

Spotify launches a new feature that gives users a chance to explain the stories and reasoning behind their favorite music. Editors will be using the feature, too, on top playlists like RapCaviar and others.

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Higgsfield raises $400M Series B, quadrupling its valuation in 8 months to $5.4B

Higgsfield, founded by former Snap exec Alex Mashrabov, lets users create AI images and videos.

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Stripe will reportedly acquire AI gateway startup OpenRouter for $7B+

OpenRouter's CEO recently described the startup as Stripe for AI.

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Why people aren’t buying Mark Zuckerberg’s AI future

On the latest episode of Equity podcast, we discuss why not everyone is buying Zuckerberg’s vision.

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How Trump Officials Used The Pretti Shooting To Target The Left

“These are the actions of an authoritarian state,” said US Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Thursday regarding new reports of a broad investigation by the Department of Homeland Security into numerous left-wing groups in Minnesota earlier this year, in the wake of Border Patrol agents’ fatal shooting of Alex Pretti at a protest against the agency’s anti-immigration crackdown.

As The New York Times reported, days after Pretti was killed in the street as he tried to help a woman who had been violently pushed by the agents, the DHS office in St. Paul opened an investigation into groups including the climate-focused Sunrise Movement, major labor groups like the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Democratic Socialists of America, and a collective called Direct Action Minnesota (DAMN).

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Woman claims her stepfather used Grok to transform childhood photo into explicit imagery

The woman claimed that AI tools are "taking everyday life and turning it into child sexual abuse."

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Fox Flacks Roll Lamest Attack Yet To Defend Trump Mistreatment Of Troops

The liars on Fox not "news" resorted to tired attacks on Sen. Richard Blumenthal to pretend the horrid conditions the service members on the USS Lincoln are experiencing aren't really happening.

As we've already discussed here, things are going so badly with Trump's Iran war that we've seen multiple troops throwing themselves overboard in a desperate effort to end their horrific deployment. And it's not just the USS Lincoln.

As The Meidas Touch Network just reported: Not Just the Lincoln: Families Describe Human Waste, No Food, No End in Sight Across Multiple Ships:

Since MeidasTouch began reporting on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, messages have poured in to MeidasTouch from military families and service members across multiple ships and even multiple branches. Taken together, they paint a picture of a crisis that extends well beyond a single carrier. All sources below are being kept anonymous to protect them and their loved ones from retaliation.

Go read the rest of their report, which details the conditions our service members are dealing with that they've documented.

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Anthropic shares more details about how Claude’s new watermarks will work

How will the watermarking actually work? Can it be hidden with editing? And how does this affect code?

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Wife Of Service Member Trapped On USS Lincoln Shreds Trump

The wife of a US service member responded to Trump's callous statement this weekend, where he basically told everyone trapped on that ship to pound sand.

After playing a clip of Trump, when asked if the deployment was too long, saying, “No, no, no. Not nearly long enough,” CNN's Jake Tapper asked the wife to respond. Tapper told the audience that they were keeping her and her husband's identity a secret, which is good, because you know Trump and Whiskey Pete will be trying to retaliate against anyone they can identify that is brave enough to speak out about what's going on.

Here's the exchange via CNN, where she rightfully ripped Trump:

TAPPER: Thank you so much for joining us. What is your husband saying about conditions on the ship?

USS LINCOLN SERVICE MEMBER'S WIFE: My husband is appalled at the conditions on this ship. This is not his first appointment. This is not his first time being out there. And he is saying that it is the worst deployment that he's ever been on. And he also says that his shipmates say the same.

The food is appalling, but the food's been appalling the whole time. I think that the food on these ships are always pretty bad, but it's more -- it's not just the quality, it's the quantity, it's the rationing. The portions are awful. So it's really—it's really not good.

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Self-driving trucks are officially testing on California highways

Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, two companies developing self-driving trucks, have received permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

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Read-it-later app Pocket shut down — here are the best alternatives

Pocket users have until October 8, 2025, to export their saved articles and other items, including lists, archives, favorites, notes, and highlights.

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Everyone Predicted Blanche Would Protect Trump's IRS Deal; He Didn't Wait A Week

Attorney General Todd Blanche wasted no time. The day after his swearing-in, his Justice Department filed a brief backing Trump's private lawyers in their effort to overturn a federal judge's sanctions order — an order that had put Trump's IRS settlement in serious jeopardy.

That settlement, struck in May, gave Trump, his family members, and his businesses protection from IRS audits in exchange for dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the agency. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams threw the deal into question in July, sanctioning Trump's legal team for fraud on the court and issuing a gag order barring any reference to the settlement in official proceedings.

The move tracks almost exactly what Democrats predicted during Blanche's contentious confirmation fight. Sen. Cory Booker warned from the floor that Blanche would become Trump's sword against his adversaries and protection against scrutiny, while Sen. Adam Schiff argued Blanche would serve Trump's interests rather than the public's.

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Databricks wanted to raise $1B, investors wanted $15B. It settled on $5B at a $190B valuation.

AI is expensive, Ali Ghodsi tells TechCrunch. With so many investors wanting into his latest round, he said yes to more than planned.

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IBM partners with OpenAI to bolster enterprise AI push

IBM plans to train and certify tens of thousands of consultants on OpenAI's technologies as part of this deal.

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Northrop’s robot space mechanic is a new way to keep satellites at work longer

The Mission Robotic Vehicle is making the first attempt to attach a new thruster to an aging satellite.

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Amazon will train on Twitch streamers’ content by default, unless they opt out

"If this was opt-in, nobody would opt in," Twitch CPO Mike Minton said on a livestream responding to user feedback. "That's honestly the answer."

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Jeanine Pirro Is Up To Something Weird Amid Drama With Donald Trump

It hasn't even been two weeks since Jeanine Pirro effectively spit directly in Donald Trump's eyeball by dropping the federal vandalism charges he was championing against former Olympian David Hearn for picking up a chunk of paint out of his ridiculous Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, leaving the President positively enraged and her job hanging in Limbo.

Now, Jeanine Pirro is up to something weird.

According to a new report from the Washington Post, the former Fox News talking head turned United States attorney for the District of Columbia has suddenly begun to impanel a special grand jury in Washington, D.C., leading people to wonder just what in the Hell she's up to now.

Special grand juries are particularly rare and differ from a typical grand jury in that they can release a report that could potentially reveal critical information about the subject of an investigation, even if no one is actually brought to trial in the case they're overseeing.

The fact that she's pulling a special grand jury together at all is enough to raise eyebrows in and of itself. But to make matters even more bizarre, no one seems to know who Jeanine Pirro is targeting here.

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NIH Director Spanked For Blaming Biden For COVID Vax Misinformation

During a lengthy interview on Face the Nation, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was continually fact checked when he lied and said President Biden was at fault for eroding public trust on vaccines by the public at large during the COVID pandemic.

The debate took off when Bhattacharya discussed honoring Officer Rose, who was killed by a vaccine denier during a shooting at the CDC.

FTN host Margaret Brennan brought up the shooter's father, who said "he was brainwashed about the COVID vaccine and thought it was making him suicidal."

Bhattacharya wanted no part of that discussion. He started blaming Biden when Brennan jumped in.

BRENNAN: The Trump administration officials.

BHATTACHARYA: No, I mean, I mean like Biden. So Biden, uh, for instance,

BRENNAN: It began under the Trump administration.

BHATTACHARYA: The Biden administration censored me, right? They censored, they've sent out, uh, uh, direct attacks on people who disagreed on, on, on the COVID on, on sort of whether the COVID vaccine, uh, stopped him,

BRENNAN: RFK Jr called the COVID vaccine the deadliest vaccine ever made. That is misinformation and we're not being clear about that. And I think that is dangerous.

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Google’s Gemini app surges to one billion users

Gemini is keeping pace with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which hit 1 billion monthly active users back in June. 

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Tech industry is buzzing after a Claude agent hacked into a gym

An OpenClaw agent hacked into a gym's reservation system to bump its human boss higher on a class' waitlist. And the tech industry took notice.

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Insurrectionists Sue The Federal Government For Entrapment

Twelve J6 insurrectionists, including Oath Keeper Roberto Minuto, have filed a lawsuit against the federal government for one million dollars each, claiming that the whole insurrection was "a trap" to give it "the appearance of a riot."

According to the Ticktin Law Group, the law firm representing the dirty dozen, the government was hatching the plan to entrap people for months:

"Long before January 6th, in fact, going back at least to September of 2020," the filing says, conspirators held Zoom meetings and plotted "to turn a peaceful protest of the conservative J6ers...into the appearance of a riot."

"Those seditionists...actually plotted to break some of the windows of the Capitol Building so that their compatriots and foreign participants would enter the Capitol Building to unlock and open the doors of the Capitol so that the anticipated protestors outside would be herded into the Capitol Building," the complaint says.

The complaint also states that an unidentified "instigator," described only as wearing a red MAGA cap with the tag still attached, was the person who broke the first window to gain entrance into the Capitol.

The complaint cites Trump's pardons and commutations throughout as the basis for their demand. However, the report does not indicate whether they acknowledge that Trump was President at the time that this alleged plot was concocted and executed.

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Mike Rogers Releases Hostage Video Calling El-Sayed The Other

Mike Rogers released this creepy video of him and his wife, looking like an angry HOA MAGA Karen, both of them seemingly offended that Michigan could soon choose Dr Abdul El-Sayed instead of these two rich, entitled Floridians. The obligatory Islamophobia and racism seem to be Rogers' only campaign strategy at this point.

"They look like Lifetime movie villains," quipped one internet user.

Source: Washington Examiner

Former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers released a campaign message on Friday appealing directly to Democratic voters after Michigan Democrats nominated Abdul El-Sayed for Senate earlier this week.

El-Sayed, a former public health official, narrowly defeated establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. Backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), El-Sayed will now face Rogers in November for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI).

Rogers sought to capitalize on divisions within the Democratic Party, arguing that voters dissatisfied with the primary outcome should consider supporting his campaign.

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Embattled hedge fund Situational Awareness invests $400M in chip startup Source Foundry

The AI-focused hedge fund is still making some big bets.

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Anthropic is turning Claude Code’s auto mode on by default

Programming with Claude Code will soon require even less human oversight.

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'We Actually Like Each Other': El-Sayed Whacks Trump After Lame Attack On His Wife

Michigan nominee for the US Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, hit back at Trump after he posted a nasty Islamophobic dog-whistle on Truth Social this weekend:

President Donald Trump’s latest attack on a Democratic Senate nominee and his wife spurred a wave of rebuke on Sunday by critics who called him a racist and a convicted felon.

Trump took to Truth Social the night before to share an image comparing himself and First Lady Melania Trump to Abdul El-Sayed and his wife, Sarah Jukaku.

The image includes the caption complete with misspelling, "Two VERY DIFFERENT America's," and shows Trump and his wife in formal attire alongside El-Sayed and Jukaku, who wears a traditional Islamic headscarf.

The image also uses El-Sayed’s full name – Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed – similar to how Trump often refers to former President Barack Obama as Barack Hussein Obama.

AES was asked about Trump's post during an appearance on this Sunday's State of the Union on CNN, and hit Trump and his loveless marriage, along with the fact that both of them could care less about the working class in America in response.

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Planned Amazon data center could become the biggest climate polluter in the U.S.

As part of a planned Texas data center, Amazon is investing in an on-site power plant that could reportedly become the largest source of climate pollution in the United States.

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OpenAI acquires presentation startup NextSlide

NextSlide says its team members are now working on ChatGPT.

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GOP Senator Promotes Crypto Bill Which Possibly Benefits Human Traffickers

Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott took to Fox News on Thursday to push a cryptocurrency bill opposed by a host of organizations opposed to human trafficking. Scott argued that the legislation should be passed by the Senate because it would help mothers.

The Senate, where Scott currently chairs the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, is currently considering the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which is meant to accelerate the use of cryptocurrency like bitcoin. Concerns have been raised that the Clarity Act would allow crypto companies and those who use cryptocurrencies to evade traditional government oversight, including people involved in human trafficking and illicit arms sales.

The law is backed by the crypto industry, who have been lavishing the Trump administration and other elected officials, from both parties, with campaign donations and support.

Appearing on Fox Business, Scott positioned the bill as a boon to mothers instead of big business and illegal industries.

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Security researchers scanned the Polish web and found courts, hospitals, and airports at risk of hacks

Researchers found common points of failure, like software used to organize and display web content, could have allowed hackers to run riot through government websites.

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Trump Blames GOP Wipeout On Everyone Except The Guy Polling At 35%

There is a blue wave, hopefully a f*cking tsunami, about to hit the midterms, which are right around the corner. Republicans know it's coming, but the leader of their party isn't so sure. According to Punchbowl News, the President still believes that Republicans will keep control of the House and Senate after the 2026 midterms.

Still, if there is a wipeout, Trump said it's not his fault. Nothing ever is his fault; ask him!

Trump insists the upcoming midterm bloodbath for Republicans has nothing to do with him — despite polling at 35 percent approval. In a Punchbowl interview released Friday, he told Jake Sherman that voters are furious with the GOP, just not with him personally: "They're angry at Republicans, but they're not angry at me."

His logic: since he's not on the ballot in November, why would his numbers matter? "If I am not running, will those people go out and vote?" he asked, conceding plenty of MAGA voters are "very angry at Republicans."

He also had notes on his own party's temperament, complaining that Republicans are too polite for their own good — "much more gentle than the Democrats," as he put it.

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Creepy Republican Drops House Re-Election Bid

After “much prayer and reflection," the 65-year-old married Congressman decided that being censured for pestering young staffers for sex wasn't worth it anymore and has decided to call it a day. About 30 Republican leaders in NC-11 will pick their new nominee.

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Embattled North Carolina Republican congressman Chuck Edwards withdrew from his reelection campaign on Wednesday, two days after the House Ethics Committee recommended he be censured for unprofessional and inappropriate conduct toward two young female aides in his office.

The 65-year-old Edwards, who is serving his second term, said that he made the decision to drop his reelection bid after “much prayer and reflection” and that he would complete the current term.

The Ethics Committee recommended the censure, an act registering its deep disapproval of a lawmaker’s conduct that does not meet the threshold for expulsion, on Monday. The panel highlighted numerous examples of actions it considered improper, including Edwards providing the young women with lavish and recurrent gifts, making comments regarding their appearance and dress, inviting them to intimate dinners and vacations, and sending notes regarding his affection.

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Defense tech Hadrian raises $1.37B at $8B valuation

Hadrian is building automated factories to mass-produce parts for defense vehicles like submarines. It's backed by a long list of well-known investors.

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Fetterman Had To Be Reminded Where He Lives Again

It seems Senator John Fetterman has not only forgotten what party he belongs to, but what country he lives in, as well.

But don't fret; Jon Stewart was happy to remind him.

In a teaser that was released ahead of an upcoming episode of Stewart's The Weekly Show, we got a sobering glimpse into exactly where John Fetterman's loyalties lie, in case that was somehow still questionable for anyone, anywhere, ever.

Over the last few months, the highly controversial Pennsylvania Democrat has made repeated threats to leave the Democratic Party over its lack of support for Israel. To that, we say, what are you waiting for? Don't threaten us with a good time.

But I digress.

Back in mid-July, Fetterman made an appearance on Fox News where he made it crystal clear that Israel is his "red line," telling the host at the time, "Look at the people who are winning these primaries right now. They are not just, ‘I’m just pro-Palestinian. I’m deeply anti, anti-Israel.’"

Stewart took it upon himself to prod Fetterman a little deeper about his fellow Democrats, asking, "You could agree with them 90%, but Israel is the red line?"

"Absolutely," Fetterman answered. "I can’t ever turn my back to Israel after where it’s at."

And that's when Stewart locked in for a quick lil geography lesson:

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Klaviyo acquires Elias Torres’ Agency in full-circle reunion for tech founders

The serial entrepreneur joins the e-commerce company as CPO to lead its AI agents.

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Jeff Dean and other top AI researchers are leaving Google to launch their own startup

The legendary Google executive is joined by other outgoing Google execs in a joint mission to use AI to push forward the process of scientific discovery.

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Anthropic signs $10B deal with AI cloud startup Volta

Anthropic has been on a cloud partnership spree in recent months, and its latest move is reportedly a $10 billion deal with AI cloud startup Volta.

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Nvidia doesn’t mess around: A week after open AI industry group formed, it’s already showing progress

The week-old Open Secure AI Alliance, spearheaded by Nvidia and grown to over 120 companies, already has proposals out for defending against AI agents.

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Apple challenges UK government’s latest demand for iCloud backdoor: report

Apple has appealed a new legal demand by the U.K. government, which critics say could threaten the privacy rights of users all over the world.

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US Troops Hit With BIZARRE Request As Trump Fails To Find A Way Out Of His War

Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran is now well into its sixth month, with no conceivable end in sight, and it appears that US Central Command has grown desperate for ideas, now calling on American troops to brainstorm "creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran."

CNN broke reporting on the truly bizarre and unsettling request that was sent out to US military analysts last week.

According to a source familiar with the message, a CENTCOM intelligence branch officer pushed out a message reading, "We are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran," to United States troops.

This unsettling news breaks just one day after Donald Trump stood aboard Air Force One and told reporters and the American public that an end to the war was underway, claiming that negotiations with Iran would begin "tomorrow afternoon," with a specific focus on ensuring that the Strait of Hormuz was reopened expeditiously.

Trump further claimed that he had scrapped his plans for what he personally described as "the biggest attack since World War II" after desperate appeals from Iran as well as regional allies.

"Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation," Trump told reporters over the weekend. "It begins tomorrow afternoon."

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Sam Altman and AI’s decel debate

On the latest episode of Equity, we discuss why Sam Altman has calling on the industry to "pace the rate of AI development."

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Kevin Hassett Praises The Miracle Of The Orange Clown Economy

Grinning idiot Kevin Hasset says, “I don’t think any of us think” and then some other stuff, so he gets it partially correct:

Hassett: "I don't think that any of us think there's any reason at all why US debt should be downgraded"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-07-29T18:18:26.163Z

Good lord, the man is innumerate.

We’ve been in Reagan’s voodoo economics for like, 50 years and have always had a deficit (except for when Bubba, er, Bill was prznint and raised taxes on rich people) and every time that a Republican is running the joint they make the deficit worse by a) cutting rich people’s taxes and b) going on a Pentagon shopping spree.

This administration is different because The Orange Clown is also running a smash-and-grab operation.

So of course the debt should be downgraded: they keep grabbing more Ameros for themselves and bringing-in less to the treasury.

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YouTuber Hank Green says his AI usage is ‘not healthy’

Green offered a remarkable apology, saying that "the level of dopamine that I've been getting from interacting with LLMs ... is not healthy for me or good for the world."

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Elon Musk Plans To Buy Susan Collins

Nazi-enthusiast Elon Musk has decided to throw in $100 – 120 million to help Republican candidates in the upcoming midterms, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins.

“The precise spending amounts could reportedly change,” the Portland Press Herald says, but Musk’s America PAC “is planning a field operation revolving around knocking on doors to reach voters.”

You have to wonder how glad the Collins campaign is about the world’s richest man inserting himself into a close race in which affordability and income inequality are front and center. Collins probably has some concerns – which she will probably ignore. The Herald also reported that she “had friendly meetings with Musk in the past while also saying last year she was “very concerned” about some of DOGE’s moves.” I'll bet she's gotten over those concerns by now.

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