> Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), on Monday said there's a "big difference" between Republicans and Democrats: "No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris."

Note that earlier in the day, Elon Musk wrote and deleted a similar post. From NY Times: > In response to a user who asked, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Mr. Musk, who has endorsed the former president and comments frequently on the U.S. presidential campaign, wrote: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” His post, which was captured by X users, included a thinking-face emoji. > >Mr. Musk took down the post after it immediately drew outrage.

------

For Vance comments, see also NY Times, Vance says the left is to blame for the attempts on Trump’s life., and/or CNN, Vance blames liberal rhetoric for apparent assassination attempt against Trump :

> “I know it’s popular on a lot of corners of the left to say that we have a both sides problem. And I’m not going to say we’re always perfect. I’m not going to say that conservatives always get things exactly right. But you know, the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that we have — no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months,” the Republican vice presidential candidate said at the Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner in Atlanta. > > “I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric, and needs to cut this crap out,” he continued. > > Vance vowed to “do my part” to tone down the rhetoric and said he was speaking particularly to those who say that Trump needs to be “eliminated.” > > “Somebody’s gonna get hurt by it, and it’s gonna destroy this country. Somebody is gonna get hurt. And you think about what an incredible wound it would open up in the United States of America, all of us, and I promise I will do my part to tone down the rhetoric,” Vance said. “But in particular, the people telling you that Donald Trump needs to be eliminated. You guys need to cut it out, or you’re gonna get somebody hurt.”

-----

Thankfully, both Democrats and Republicans came together to disavow the New Hampshire Libertarian Party for this from Deadline:

> Republican and Democratic Party leaders have condemned New Hampshire’s Libertarian Party for sharing a post saying that anyone who assassinated Vice President Kamala Harris would be “an American hero.” > >The party later deleted the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, but appeared unrepentant about the message, saying it was removed because of the platform’s rules and complaining about restrictions on free speech.

This series started last week, but it continues tonight Friday the 13th through November 1st.

> The films are drawn from a list compiled by The New Republic last year of the 100 most impactful political movies. > >The films encompass both documentaries and dramatized works; most are American, while a few are from other countries. Their release dates range from 1915 (The Birth of a Nation) to 2016 (I Am Not Your Negro). Many will have celebrity presenters introducing them, along with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.

From Hollywood Reporter: > The series runs Sept. 6 to Nov. 1 — four days before America votes for its next president — and features TCM host Ben Mankiewicz in conversation with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Lee Grant, Sally Field, Andy Garcia, Melissa Etheridge, John Turturro, Bill Maher, Alexander Payne, Diane Lane, Josh Mankiewicz, Barry Levinson, Maureen Dowd, Stacey Abrams and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

More from the Advocate: >LGBTQ+ issues won’t be neglected. I Am Not Your Negro, for instance, is a documentary based onan unfinished manuscript by Black gay writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin, reflecting on the lives of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Baldwin himself. The Times of Harvey Milk(1984) will be featured, presented by Sally Field, the proud mother of a gay son. Also scheduled are 1964’s The Best Man, scripted by gay writer Gore Vidal, in which a same-sex liaison threatens to derail a politician’s career, and Born in Flames, director Lizzie Borden’s 1983 vision of a dystopian future in which women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color are oppressed. > >Borden will be among the celebrity presenters, introducing Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akerman’s 1975 feminist feature about a widow engaged in sex work. Melissa Etheridge will be a presenter as well, discussing the 1928 silent classic The Passion of Joan of Arc.

Times listed are for Eastern Time. I've skipped last week and bolded titles ranked in the top 20.

Friday, September 13 - Night Two

• 8:00 PM Reds (1981) (Bill Maher - #41)
• 11:30 PM The Parallax View (1974) (Kyle Smith - #47)
• 1:30 AM Germany, Year Zero (1948) (Alexander Payne - #97)
• 3:00 AM Gabriel Over the White House (1933) (#30)
• 4:30 AM The Battleship Potemkin (1925) (#7)
• 6:00 AM The Fog of War (2003) (#56)

Friday, September 20 - Night Three

• 8:00 PM Dr. Strangelove (1964) (Spike Lee - #3)
• 9:45 PM Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) (Stacey Abrams - #11)
• 12:15 AM Hearts and Minds (1974) (Phil Mattingly - #39)
• 2:15 AM The Lives of Others (2006) (#19)
• 4:45 AM Born in Flames (1983) (#43)
• 6:15 AM Bicycle Thieves (1948) (#52)

Friday, September 27 - Night Four

• 8:00 PM Three Days of the Condor (1975) (Maureen Dowd - #72)
• 10:15 PM I Am Not Your Negro (2016) (Sara Sidner - #58)
• 12:00 AM The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) (Melissa Etheridge - #88)
• 1:30 AM The Last Hurrah (1958) (#57)
• 3:45 AM Night of the Living Dead (1968) (#35)
• 5:15 AM The Tin Drum (1979) (#92)

Friday, October 4 - Night Five

• 8:00 PM The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) (Sally Field - #81)
• 10:00 PM The Best Man (1964) (Josh Mankiewicz - #69)
• 12:00 AM I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) (Sec. Lonnie Bunch III - #95)
• 1:45 AM City Hall (1996) (#80)
• 3:45 AM Strike (1924) (#25)
• 5:15 AM High and Low (1963) (#84)

Friday, October 11 - Night Six

• 8:00 PM A Face in the Crowd (1957) (Barry Levinson - #10)
• 10:15 PM Wag the Dog (1997) (Diane Lane - #54)
• 12:00 AM The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971) (Abby Phillip - #37)
• 1:45 AM JFK (1991) (#34)
• 5:00 AM Z (1969) (#15)
• 7:15 AM Night and Fog (1956) (#21)

Friday, October 18 - Night Seven

• 8:00 PM The Birth of a Nation (1915) (Jamelle Bouie - #5)
• 11:30 PM Lincoln (2012) (Hon. Robert M. Gates - #24)
• 2:15 AM Malcolm X (1992) (#22)
• 6:00 AM Primary (1960) (#38)

Friday, October 25 - Night Eight

• 8:00 PM All the President’s Men (1976) (Steven Spielberg - #4)
• 10:30 PM Citizen Kane (1941) (Frank Luntz - #33)
• 12:45 AM Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) (Lizzie Borden - #36)
• 4:15 AM Olympia Part One: Festival of Nations (1938) (#86)
• 6:15 AM Olympia Part Two: Beauty of the Festival (1938) (#86)

Friday, November 1 - Night Nine

• 8:00 PM Being There (1979) (Andy Garcia - #71)
• 10:30 PM The Candidate (1972) (Kaitlan Collins - #20)
• 12:30 AM Harlan County USA (1976) (Lee Grant - #12)
• 2:15 AM The Manchurian Candidate (1962) (#2)
• 4:00 AM Weekend (1967) (#94)

> "In the end, we all knew what we knew before, that ABC's goal tonight was to help Kamala Harris, and ABC did help Kamala Harris," Laura Ingraham said on Fox News. That's one way of putting it. Van Jones on CNN found another. > >"She whupped him," Jone said. "She just whupped him. ... Kamala Harris did something great for every parent in America. She put the bully in his place." > >A certain super gigantic galactic pop star seemed to agree. Moments after the debate, Taylor Swift endorsed Harris, signing her Instagram post "Childless Cat Lady," a reference to a comment made by Trump's running mate, JD Vance.

For more details on the 4chan nature, head over to the Daily Beast for pieces like these:

• "...they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
• meandering rant on abortion rights also included multiple false claims
• recap of daily beast debate tweet/commentary

Debate Transcript: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/harris-trump-presidential-debate-transcript/story?id=113560542

PBS (no longer live) updates: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/live-updates-trump-and-harris-debate-in-philadelphia

> “Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” she said of her father, who served as vice president under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. “If you think about the moment we’re in, and you think about how serious this moment is, my dad believes — and he said publicly — there has never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is.”

-----------

> “One of the most important things we need to do as a country as we begin to rebuild our politics is we need to elect serious people,” Liz Cheney said. “Here in Texas, you guys do have a tremendous, serious candidate running for U.S. Senate.” > >The audience erupted in applause cutting Liz Cheney off. > >“It’s not Ted Cruz," she said. > >She blamed Cruz for leading the effort in the Senate for trying to overturn the election. > >"That is not somebody to put in a position to be able to do that again," Cheney said.

TL;DR: Democrats are united against Trump and will continue to be that way, but if Trump loses so overwhelmingly that he stops running, then a Harris administration will be stuck with a largely Republican government that will keep it from getting much done, thus making it easier for a new brand of Republicans to emerge in two years for for the mid-terms and beyond.

> Harris is effectively an emergency nominee, has few policy proposals, scant governing history in Washington and a history of churning through staff. Oh, and she would be the first Democrat to enter the presidency since 1884 without majorities in both chambers, should Republicans flip the Senate. > > That adds up to a recipe for gridlock — and perhaps some deal-making to fund the government and avoid across-the-board tax hikes — but not a Scandinavian social welfare state. ----- > The day after Trump leaves the scene, Democrats will lose their best force for unity, fundraising and enthusiasm. But they’ll have the same challenges they do today with the Electoral College, the Senate and the House and the distribution of voters therein.

> Banksy’s hope, it is understood, is that the uplifting works cheer ­people with a moment of unexpected ­amusement, as well as to ­gently underline the human capacity for ­creative play, rather than for destruction and negativity. > > Some recent theorising about the deeper significance of each new image has been way too involved, Banksy’s support organisation, Pest Control Office, has indicated. ------- > A contractor, who only wanted to give his name as Marc, told PA they were planning to pull the billboard down on Monday and had removed it early in case someone “rips it down and leaves it unsafe”. > > He said: “We’ll store that bit [the artwork] in our yard to see if anyone collects it but if not it’ll go in a skip. I’ve been told to keep it careful in case he wants it.”

See source article for more details and great pics of the current art campaign.

Instead, it was Nate Holden. archive

> “It was Willie Brown,” Mr. Trump, who spent much of the last year hoping to make gains with Black voters, posted. “But now Willie doesn’t remember?” > > Mr. Brown, 90, who was mayor of San Francisco and speaker of the California Assembly, gave several interviews on Thursday and Friday saying such a trip never occurred. > > Turns out, however, that there was a Black politician from California who once made an emergency landing in a helicopter with Mr. Trump. It just wasn’t Mr. Brown. ----------- >Mr. Holden said that he called Mr. Brown to compare notes. Mr. Brown told him he had never been in a helicopter crash with Mr. Trump. > >“I said, ‘Willie, you know what? That’s me!’” Mr. Holden said. “And I told him, “You’re a short Black guy and I’m a tall Black guy — but we all look alike, right?” > >Mr. Holden gave his own height as 6-foot-1. “Willie has to be about 5-foot-6. Maybe 5-foot-5. He comes up to about my shoulders. And he’s bald. And I’m not bald.” > >Mr. Brown, he said, “just laughed and laughed.” > >Mr. Holden, summing up his assessment of Mr. Trump’s recollection, said: “I just think he makes things up. That’s what I think. He never thought anybody’s going to check.”

The news he has Emphysema and is house-bound came out about two days earlier. It was accompanied by rumors that he's retired. He's since said that last part is incorrect ... though perhaps his retirement denial is more for his own sense of self than about the probability of any future work as a director.

>Emphysema is a form of COPD or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

> “I have to say I enjoyed smoking very much” he wrote “but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment”. > >Emphysema is a condition which causes shortness of breath and a persistent cough. > >But despite living with it he says he is “filled with happiness” and has thanked fans for their concern.

Common Dreams article details the response to a CNBC piece about a PAC partially funded by Musk is collecting specific user data. CNBC states (archive):

> [...] users who enter a ZIP code that indicates they live in a battleground state, like Pennsylvania or Georgia, the process is very different. > >Rather than be directed to their state’s voter registration page, they instead are directed to a highly detailed personal information form, prompted to enter their address, cellphone number and age. ---- >So that person who wanted help registering to vote? In the end, they got no help at all registering. But they did hand over priceless personal data to a political operation. ---- >“What makes America PAC more unique: it is a billionaire-backed super PAC focused on door-to-door canvassing, which it can conduct in coordination with a presidential campaign,” Fischer said. “Thanks to a recent FEC advisory opinion, America PAC may legally coordinate its canvassing activities with the Trump campaign — meaning, among other things, that the Trump campaign may provide America PAC with the literature and scripts to make sure their efforts are consistent.”

> The America PAC raised more than $8 million between April 1 and June 30, according to FEC records. It has received donations from veteran investor Doug Leone, cryptocurrency investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and a company run by longtime venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, according to FEC records.

They also quote the NYT in saying Lonsdale is one of Musk's political confidants -- which is interesting because he's at Palantir which was you'd think of as his old buddy Peter Theil's gig. Palantir sells info. More precisely, they know how to intake truthful data and turn it into actionable details. I've no idea how they check for validity, though. Some days it feels like everything on Twitter is a lie and hearing that this 'help you vote' program is also a lie just makes me wonder if anyone is honest over there.

Common Dreams quotes several angry reactions to the CNBC article, such as: > Former Congresswoman Marie Newman (D-Ill.) took aim at Musk, saying, "If you did not believe he was maniacal or evil, before this, well now you know."

They also note that: > Last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) publicly thanked Musk for doing "an exceptional job of demonstrating a point that we have made for years—and that is the fact we live in an oligarchic society in which billionaires dominate not only our economic life and the information we consume, but our politics as well."

Archive is background info via this BBC post from 2023, but that's just one piece. Yeah, a lot of us have seen the photo, and maybe some of us know it was during the Viet Nam War, during Civil Rights protests in the U.S. and not that long after the assassination of MLK. Maybe you even know that Muhammad Ali lost his belt and was banned from boxing in the U.S. for refusing the draft to Viet Nam: > "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?"

I did not know the Black Power Salute got all 3 athletes BANNED from the Olympics and pretty much ruined their lives. From NPR post for 50th anniversary: > Both men received hate mail and death threats. There was discussion of stripping them of their medals. Many Americans shunned them for their silent gesture: For years, they struggled to find good jobs. Their marriages suffered under that strain. Their children were bullied at school. Employers shied away from them. > >And Smith and Carlos were banned from future participation in any Olympics for life. (They were in their early 20s in Mexico City, and this effectively prevented them from competing in other races in Munich and Montreal.) There were no offers of the complimentary stadium tickets usually offered to medaled athletes. > >(Peter Norman suffered many of the same indignities when he returned to Australia. He was ostracized, never allowed on an Australian Olympic team again, despite qualifying in several national trials.[...]

Which gets us to The White Man In That Photo (from 2015 -- long and worthy of a full read):

> Norman was a white man from Australia, a country that had strict apartheid laws, almost as strict as South Africa. There was tension and protests in the streets of Australia following heavy restrictions on non-white immigration and discriminatory laws against aboriginal people, some of which consisted of forced adoptions of native children to white families. > >The two Americans had asked Norman if he believed in human rights. Norman said he did. They asked him if he believed in God, and he, who had been in the Salvation Army, said he believed strongly in God. “We knew that what we were going to do was far greater than any athletic feat, and he said “I’ll stand with you” – remembers John Carlos – “I expected to see fear in Norman’s eyes, but instead we saw love.” > >Smith and Carlos had decided to get up on the stadium wearing the Olympic Project for Human Rights badge, a movement of athletes in support of the battle for equality. > >They would receive their medals barefoot, representing the poverty facing people of color. They would wear the famous black gloves, a symbol of the Black Panthers’ cause. But before going up on the podium they realized they only had one pair of black gloves. “Take one each”, Norman suggested. Smith and Carlos took his advice. > >But then Norman did something else. “I believe in what you believe. Do you have another one of those for me”? he asked, pointing to the Olympic Project for Human Rights badge on the others’ chests. “That way I can show my support for your cause.” Smith admitted to being astonished, ruminating: “Who is this white Australian guy? He won his silver medal, can’t he just take it and that be enough!”.

So they all go to the podium in solidarity and the U.S. winners give the salute and suffer the aftermath. More from 'white guy':

> As John Carlos said, “If we were getting beat up, Peter was facing an entire country and suffering alone.” For years Norman had only one chance to save himself: he was invited to condemn his co-athletes, John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s gesture in exchange for a pardon from the system that ostracized him. > >A pardon that would have allowed him to find a stable job through the Australian Olympic Committee and be part of the organization of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Norman never gave in and never condemned the choice of the two Americans. > >He was the greatest Australian sprinter in history and the holder of the 200 meter record, yet he wasn’t even invited to the Olympics in Sydney. It was the American Olympic Committee, that once they learned of this news asked him to join their group and invited him to Olympic champion Michael Johnson’s birthday party, for whom Peter Norman was a role model and a hero. > >Norman died suddenly from a heart attack in 2006, without his country ever having apologized for their treatment of him. At his funeral Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Norman’s friends since that moment in 1968, were his pallbearers, sending him off as a hero.

Note that the 'white guy' article talks about a commemorative statue built in 2005 of just Smith and Carlos -- no Norman. Norman approved that artistic choice. Transcript from Democracy Now where Carlos himself explains how he called Norman to hear him say so (part 1 and part 2):

> JOHN CARLOS: Yeah, “Blimey, John. You’re calling me with these blimey questions here?” And I said to him, I said, “Pete, I have a concern, man. What’s this about you don’t want to have your statue there? What, are you backing away from me? Are you ashamed of us?” And he laughed, and he said, “No, John.” He said—you know, the deep thing is, he said, “Man, I didn’t do what you guys did.” He said, “But I was there in heart and soul to support what you did. I feel it’s only fair that you guys go on and have your statues built there, and I would like to have a blank spot there and have a commemorative plaque stating that I was in that spot. But anyone that comes thereafter from around the world and going to San Jose State that support the movement, what you guys had in ’68, they could stand in my spot and take the picture.”

!

!

The U.S. (but not just the U.S.) has a woeful history of treating those who protest Injustice horribly. There's always an excuse for it, too. From the above articles, we can see that the Olympic head allowed the Nazi salute for the Munich Berlin games but expelled Smith and Carlos in 1968 with the rational that the first was a national salute and therefore acceptable whereas 'Black Power' was not.

More recently, Kaepernick kneeling got him in trouble with the NFL but they were fine with Butker's speech that, "denounced abortion rights, Pride Month, COVID-19 lockdowns..." and suggested women should be homemakers instead of using their newly earned college diplomas. Supposedly the 'difference' is that Kaepernick's silent protest was on the NFL's time but Butker spoke on his own time so it was fine ... but they can always find a difference and it is never as valid as simply siding against injustice.

EDIT: I inadvertently typed 'Munich' instead of the correct 'Berlin' games for when the Nazi salute was allowed. Fixed now.

archive | I'm NOT interested in the review, but in the complaint about a generalized movie trend. The author, Louis Chilton, goes on a rant using about what he sees as having gone to far in and overly exemplified by the latest Marvel release:

> If we are watching, as some critics have suggested, the death of cinema happen before our eyes, then it’s taken the form of a public execution.

> It is a film that is about absolutely nothing – a film with no discernable purpose or artistic ambitions, beyond the perpetuation of its own corporate myth.

He explains a little:

> Audiences didn’t love Blade because Snipes just showed up, stood there and barked catchphrases – he was part of a story, with a proper character, and stakes, and intentionality. That Marvel cannot see the difference – or, even worse, if it can see the difference but chooses to ignore it – is surely damning.

> We call Deadpool & Wolverine a movie because it is released in cinemas, and is two hours long, but other than these technicalities, it shares almost nothing with a traditional blockbuster, when it comes to intent.

And finally concedes with admonishment: > And of course, people are allowed to enjoy what they like. But freebasing cocaine is surely enjoyable to many people; that doesn’t mean we should all get on board with its production and distribution.

>Yannick Le Gall, a journalist from France 3, the regional television state channel, who was positioned opposite the steps, said: “We were in front of Lady Gaga’s set, and by the time the music started, the staircase was empty.” > >When the singer instead appeared on a giant screen in front of the stands, “spectators booed and regretted having paid €180 to see nothing,” Mr Gall added.

I'm hoping Lina Khan keeps up her good work (and that Harris keeps Khan as the FTC head). | archive

> Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Edward Markey (D-MA) sent a letter [PDF] to the US regulator's boss Lina Khan on Friday after the pair conducted an investigation into General Motors, Honda, and Hyundai.

> Honda buried the disclosures about its business relationship with Verisk, which did not appear on the first page, and were not likely to be seen by many consumers.

> GM and Hyundai allegedly neglected to mention selling data to Verisk at all. > > If GM car owners wanted notifications about things like attempted break-ins and vehicle component health, they needed to sign up for the manufacturer's Smart Driver program, and doing so would quietly opt them into allowing their info to be sold on. > > "The lengthy disclosures presented by GM before the opt-in did not disclose to consumers that as part of enrolling in Smart Driver, their driving data would be shared with data brokers and resold to insurance companies," the senators alleged, adding GM "disclosed customer location data to two other companies, which it refused to name." > > Hyundai apparently enrolled its drivers into a similar Drive Score program without even asking, if they enabled the internet connection on the vehicle.

ghost archive

>In North America, dragonfly migrations occur annually in late summer and early fall. Although it’s not clear what species of dragonfly caused a stir among sunbathers this weekend, Virginia “Ginger” Brown, the leading dragonfly expert in the Ocean State, told NBC 10 WJAR in 2021 that witnessing such an abundance of dragonflies along the coast is a miracle. > >While about 130 species of dragonflies are known in Rhode Island, Brown told WJAR that the Common Green Darner comprise the bulk of those that migrate on a yearly basis, with others accompanying their flights. > >The Common Green Darner is the “best-known migrant dragonfly,” according to the Vermont Center for Ecostudies. The large specimens are found in Rhode Island and are known for being fast travelers and “water-loving” insects striking in appearance, with translucent wings and green coloration, according to InsectionIdentification.org.

>The Venezuelan opposition dismissed the CNE's announcement as fraudulent and promised to challenge the result.

>Over the past 10 years, 7.8 million people have fled Venezuela because of the economic and political crisis into which the country was plunged under the Maduro Administration. > >Polls conducted in the run-up to the election suggest that exodus could now increase, with one poll suggesting a third of the population would emigrate.

• > US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was among those expressing his scepticism after the result was announced by the National Electoral Council, a body which is dominated by government loyalists.
• > The UK Foreign Office also expressed concern over the results
• > The Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, also said he found the result "hard to believe".
• > Uruguay's president said of the Maduro government: "They were going to 'win' regardless of the actual results."

> In a congratulatory message, President Vladimir Putin told Mr Maduro: "Remember, you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil."

!

Laundry drying on the line got a visitor! For some reason, I can't get a thumbnail so here's pic #2:

!

I'm not saying this doctor's suggestion is the only or best solution, but it is nice to see the issue get noticed. Excerpts from the Op/Ed:

> This 30-year-old patient told me that she had struggled with her weight for years. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she had finally lost weight by eating more proteins and vegetables. Her food budget was supplemented by federal food programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as well as the stimulus money she received during the pandemic. > >In recent years, however, as her career grew, so did her income, making her ineligible to qualify for federal assistance programs, such as SNAP. At the same time, the pandemic stimulus money disappeared. As a result of both factors, her supplementary incomes and support for food withered.

> While screening for food insecurity is now a routine part of what we do in primary care, fixing the problem is impossible without also addressing the upstream causes. This patient’s food insecurity stemmed from not only the “cliff effect” of losing her supplemental benefits when her earnings pushed her out of a certain income bracket but also from the rising cost of food prices, including high-protein foods such as eggs and beef, given the rise of bird flu. The incidence of viruses able to spread from one species to another (called “viral spillover”) in the face of climate change is predicted to become more and more common in the coming years — all of which place a higher price tag on food.

> I know that writing a prescription for weight-loss drugs is far easier for me and my colleagues than trying to address the real cost of rising food prices and food insecurity.

> State and federal policy makers must begin by urgently addressing and mitigating the “cliff effect” for those who are making a livable wage.

>After adding operatic vocals to Gojira's rendition of "Ah! Ça Ira," a song popular during the French Revolution, she went on to sing a portion of Georges Bizet's Carmen.

From NME:

>The heavy metallers performed ‘Ah, Ça Ira!’ (which translates to ‘It’ll be fine’), a song that was popular during the French revolution, during a segment titled ‘Liberté’ (in reference to France’s famed motto ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’) that celebrated one of the most famous events in French history, as well as the nation’s emphasis on freedom. > >Gojira appeared on the side of a castle surrounded by fire and bursts of red streamers to represent blood, with Viotti later appearing on a moving prop boat. Their performance followed a portion dedicated to Les Miserables and came just after a beheaded Marie Antoinette was shown singing.

Traditional lyrics translated at wikipedia (linked above) Gojira's lyrics translated via redditors: Oh. It'll be okay, be okay, be okay, Hang the aristocrats from on high! Oh. It'll be okay, be okay, be okay, The aristocrats, we'll hang 'em all. Despotism will breathe its last, Liberty will take the day, Oh. It'll be okay, be okay, be okay, We don't have any more nobles or priests, Oh. It'll be okay, be okay, be okay, Equality will reign everywhere, The Austrian slave will follow him, To the Devil will they fly. Oh. It'll be okay, be okay, be okay, To the Devil will they fly.

!https://metalinjection.net/news/heres-your-first-look-at-gojira-playing-the-paris-olympics-opening-ceremony

> Khan has been at the forefront of the Biden administration's push to use U.S. antitrust law to boost competition and address high prices and low wages. Khan, who oversaw the FTC's ban on noncompete agreements, has drawn the ire of corporate groups, but won fans including Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance, for her skepticism towards big business. > >Now, big money Democratic donors this week publicly said Khan should not be part of a potential Harris administration.

> Prominent Democratic senators have spoken out in support of Khan, including senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Warren said on Friday that Khan should continue her work, calling it "a big reason the economy is growing strong as we saw with yesterday's GDP data."

-- or as Matt Stoller puts it in his 'BIG' (regarding one of the two, Hoffman):

> Ok, so it’s pretty stunning for an oligarch like Hoffman, with a net worth of a couple billion dollars, to publicly make such a demand. So why is he doing it? One reason is that there’s a lot of money involved. As the Lever reported, Hoffman is on the board of Microsoft, which is right now being sued and investigated by the FTC. It’s a pretty good gig, if you get to fire the law enforcer investigating your misdeeds.

and thinks it likely that:

> he’s going to supply the financing for Harris’ campaign if she does what she’s told.

>In other words, democracy really is on the ballot, but not in the way people imagine. An oligarch has explicitly and openly taken over policy because it conflicts with his small faction’s control of American society. And so far, most political leaders are silent. > >The only upside here is that Hoffman is being very public, aggressive, and explicit about his demands. And he’s going to corner Harris until she kisses the ring, or refuses to do so. From his perspective, he’s not donating $10 million, he’s making a purchase. Or so he thinks. Now it’s up to Harris to make the choice.

Given the shutdown/attack today, which targeted stations far from the capital, this, ah... did not go well.

Excerpts from article:

> Security measures in Paris have been turbocharged by a new type of AI, as the city enables controversial algorithms to crawl CCTV footage of transport stations looking for threats.

> After training its algorithms on both open source and synthetic data, Wintics’ systems have been adapted to, for example, count the number of people in a crowd or the number of people falling to the floor—alerting operators once the number exceeds a certain threshold.

>Houllier argues that his algorithms are a privacy-friendly alternative to controversial facial recognition systems used by past global sporting events, such as the 2022 Qatar World Cup. “Here we are trying to find another way,” he says. To him, letting the algorithms crawl CCTV footage is a way to ensure the event is safe without jeopardizing personal freedoms. “We are not analyzing any personal data. We are just looking at shapes, no face, no license plate recognition, no behavioral analytics.”

> Levain is concerned the AI surveillance systems will remain in France long after the athletes leave. To her, these algorithms enable the police and security services to impose surveillance on wider stretches of the city. “This technology will reproduce the stereotypes of the police,” she says. “We know that they discriminate. We know that they always go in the same area. They always go and harass the same people. And this technology, as with every surveillance technology, will help them do that.”