“Do not underestimate your abilities. That is your boss’s job.”
– Francis Young, Author
Trump telling Bolton “I’ll show you who’s the boss.” as weak petty men do.
Putin’s dislike of Zelensky is holding up meeting, Trump says
Trump's Plan To Conquer Heaven
Powell Tap Dances on Interest Rate Outlook as Stagflation Starts to Kick In
Powell threw Mr. Market and Trump a bone by hinting the Fed might cut rates in Sept. But the Fed lacks good options with stagflation looming
Jail risk as judge rules on tax office whistleblower
The New Status Quo For IRS Leadership Roles
Five more journalists were killed covering the war in Gaza
Media workers linked to AP, Reuters and Al Jazeera were among 20 killed in Gaza hospital strikes that drew a rare statement of regret from Netanyahu
In New Letters, DOJ Escalates Hunt For State Voter Data, Threatens Legal Action
Democracy Docket: “The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is escalating its effort to pressure states to hand over sensitive voter data, including by threatening legal action, according to letters from a top department official obtained by Democracy Docket
…Watch out for this one. If you’re not familiar with the term “smishing,” it’s a portmanteau of “SMS phishing.” It just describes attacks like this one, reported by IT Security Guru, where you get a text message purportedly from Amazon, claiming that your order has been either damaged, delayed, or returned, and you should tap the link in the text message for a full refund. Of course, tapping the link takes you to a convincing-looking login page that is definitely not Amazon. Once you’ve given the site your credentials, the scammers make off with your Amazon account, potentially racking up huge charges under your name and using your stored payment methods before you can do anything about it. And no, the refund never shows up, because it was never real…”
What do intelligence analysts do?
The people who are really good understand sourcing and how important it is for critical thinking. The education should be focused on helping people recognize and refute bullshit. Step one is the critical thinking necessary to say, “This makes no sense,” or “This is just fluff.” The people who are professionally trained to be really good at understanding the quality and history of a source, and to understand the source’s access to information or lack of, are librarians. We should probably steal shamelessly from librarians. Data journalism, same thing. There are lots of parallel professions where we could be learning more to improve our own performance.
The folks that I’ve seen who crush it, they’re like a dog with a bone. They will not let go. They’ve got a question, they’re going to answer the question if it kills them and everybody else around them. It’s a kamikaze thing. Those people, the tenacious ones who care about sources and have critical thinking skills, or at least tools to help them think critically, seem the highest performers to me. As a rule, they all keep score. It’s part of their process.
That is from Santi Ruiz interviewing Rob Johnston, interesting throughout
SFPD surveillance unit’s close ties to crypto billionaire 48 Hills
Ring of Fire The Baffler
Mail-In Voting Is Not Only in America
NewsGuard Reality Check: Debunk: U.S. is One of 33 Countries That Uses Mail-in Ballots, Contrary to Trump and Pro-Kremlin Claims. What happened: Donald Trump and pro-Russian and conservative sources are falsely claiming that the United States is the only country that permits voting by mail, advancing the argument that the method leads to widespread corruption and should be eliminated.
A closer look: Trump said in an Aug. 18 Truth Social post that he planned to sign an executive order banning all mail-in ballots to “help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”
- In the post, which garnered 68,000 likes and 19,200 reposts, Trump stated: “We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.”
- Trump’s claim was subsequently advanced by Russian news organizations, popular Russian Telegram channels, and conservative social media users in the U.S.
- Russian-language news site Rumafia.news published a screenshot of Trump’s post under the headline, “Trump pushes for mail-in voting ban, criticizes electronic election systems.” A screenshot of Trump’s post was also published in the Russian Telegram channel Sheyhtamir1974, attracting 101,000 views and 1,780 likes.
Pro-Kremlin sites often promote false claims that can generate political instability in the U.S., including by reducing trust in the democratic election process.
Actually: Many other countries allow voting by mail, and there is no evidence that mail-in voting leads to widespread voter fraud.
- Thirty-three countries allow voters to use mail-in ballots in some capacity, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance(IDEA), an intergovernmental organization with 35 member states, including the U.S. The organization’s stated mission is “to promote trust in electoral processes and outcomes.”
- In a 2021 study examining mail-in voting laws, IDEA reported that 12 nations allow all voters to mail-in ballots and another 21 allow at least some voters to cast ballots by mail. The other vote-by-mail countries include Canada, the U.K., Germany, and Switzerland, according to the IDEA report.
While voter fraud has occurred with mail-in ballots, evidence indicates that it is rare.. The conservative Heritage Foundation maintains a voter fraud database documenting all known voting fraud cases, including those related to mail-in ballots, dating to 1982.
As of Aug. 21, 2025, the database listed a total of 1,600 cases of voter fraud, 378 of which resulted from a fraudulent use of mail-in absentee ballots. For context, in the 2024 U.S. general election, 46.8 million ballots, or 30.3 percent of votes, were cast by mail, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission…”
