“The founder of the software codebase program apparently lifted by Donald Trump’s new “Truth Social” media venture is seeking “legal counsel” to make certain the operation complies with licensing requirements to keep the program free and accessible to the public,” reports Apple News. “The Trump site already appears to be violating licensing requirements. Twitter users earlier this week reported that the operation seems to be based on an open-source social networking software called Mastodon.”

AP: “A former politician who called for the overthrow of the French government has been charged with terrorism in connection with what authorities have said was an extreme-right plot to attack vaccination centers, a masonic lodge and other targets. Rémy Daillet-Wiedemann was already accused of masterminding the international QAnon-style kidnapping of a girl on behalf of the child’s mother, who had lost custody. He was jailed in eastern France in that case when the new allegations emerged involving many in the same extreme-right circle of his supporters.”

“During the search for the girl, who was eventually recovered safely in Switzerland, anti-terrorism investigators realized that the abduction involved many people they had placed under surveillance for unrelated far-right extremism. Daillet was in self-imposed exile in Malaysia at the time but was ultimately forced back to France and was arrested immediately on his return. Daillet’s lawyer described his client as a political prisoner. He said Daillet called only for the peaceful end to the political system and retained his faith in French justice despite the charges against him. He has vowed to run for president in France’s upcoming elections. Daillet was charged on Friday”

“In May of this year, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen left her position as a product manager at the social media giant and took tens of thousands of internal documents with her. The documents have triggered a maelstrom of allegations, including that Facebook knew its products were damaging teenagers’ mental health, were fomenting ethnic violence in countries such as Ethiopia and were failing to curb misinformation before the 6 January Washington riots. On Monday, Haugen will take her damning views of the company to Westminster when she testifies before MPs and peers. Meanwhile, Facebook spirals deeper into crisis,” reports The Guardian.

“Her concerns over an apparent lack of safety controls in non-English language markets, such as Africa and the Middle East, where the Facebook platform was being used by human traffickers and armed groups in Ethiopia, were a key factor in her decision to act. ‘I did what I thought was necessary to save the lives of people, especially in the global south, who I think are being endangered by Facebook’s prioritisation of profits over people. If I hadn’t brought those documents forward that was never going to come to light.’ Haugen said.”

“The number of coronavirus infections recorded so far in eastern Europe surpassed 20 million on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally, as the region grapples with its worst outbreak since the pandemic started and inoculation efforts lag. Countries in the region have the lowest vaccination rates in Europe, with less than half of the population having received a single dose,” reports Reuters.

“Hungary tops the region’s vaccination rates with 62% of its population having gotten at least one shot, whereas Ukraine has given just 19% of its residents a single dose, according to Our World in Data. New infections in the region have steadily risen and now average over 83,700 new cases per day, the highest level since November last year, Reuters data through Friday showed. Although it has just 4% of the world’s population, eastern Europe accounts for roughly 20% of all new cases reported globally.” Eastern European countries are rapidly becoming “the Florida of the EU”.

Peter Wehner, The Atlantic: “The election of the elders of an evangelical church is usually an uncontroversial, even unifying event. But this summer, at an influential megachurch in Northern Virginia, something went badly wrong. A trio of elders didn’t receive 75 percent of the vote, the threshold necessary to be installed. David Platt, a 43-year-old minister at McLean Bible Church said church members had been misled, having been told, among other things, that the three individuals nominated to be elders would advocate selling the church building to Muslims, who would convert it into a mosque. In a second vote on July 18, all three nominees cleared the threshold. But that hardly resolved the conflict. Platt, who is theologically conservative, had been accused in the months before the vote by a small but zealous group within his church of ‘wokeness’ and being ‘left of center,’ of pushing a ‘social justice’ agenda and promoting critical race theory, and of attempting to ‘purge conservative members.’ A Facebook page and a right-wing website have targeted Platt and his leadership. For his part, Platt, speaking to his congregation, described an email that was circulated claiming, ‘MBC is no longer McLean Bible Church, that it’s now Melanin Bible Church.'”

“What happened at McLean Bible Church is happening all over the evangelical world. Political conflicts are hardly the whole reason for the turmoil, but according to news accounts, they played a significant role, particularly on matters having to do with race. ‘Nearly everyone tells me there is at the very least a small group in nearly every evangelical church complaining and agitating against teaching or policies that aren’t sufficiently conservative or anti-woke,’ a pastor and prominent figure within the evangelical world told me. (Like others with whom I spoke about this topic, he requested anonymity in order to speak candidly.) ‘It’s everywhere.'”

“Our Country is being poisoned with the millions of people that are illegally flowing through our Borders, in most cases not even questioned or stopped. Many are criminals from the emptied prisons of other countries, most of these are very dangerous people. Our Country is dying from within and nobody is doing anything to stop it. The first thing that should be done, and it can be done quickly, is FINISH THE WALL. A deal must be made with Mexico, where Mexico serves as a 2,000 mile barrier, not a launching pad for the illegals that are coming in. Also, 97 percent of the people that came in from Afghanistan rushed the planes and should not be here.”

“Those people must be checked very carefully because many of them will turn out to be strongly related to high-level terrorism. How stupid our Country has become, so sad to watch when just 10 months ago we had none of these problems, and none either with bad economy, inflation, fuel prices going through the roof, and so much else. And never forget, because the Fake News will not talk about it any longer, those needlessly killed in Afghanistan and the thousands of people and the $85 Billion worth of Military equipment left behind in the complete and total surrender by the United States of America. We would have been out but we would have been out with dignity and strength. Our Country is now a laughingstock all over the world!” screeches Trump in a statement.

Following the Atlanta Braves’ Saturday night win over the Los Angeles Dodgers to clinch the NLCS to take on the Houston Astros in the World Series, it’s clear now that Republican Governors Brian Kemp of Georgia and Greg Abbott of Texas are headed to a bit of an awkward position given their angry meltdowns at Major League Baseball for relocating the 2021 All Star Game from Atlanta to Denver in protest over Georgia’s new voter suppression laws. Kemp’s rage over the move in April is well documented, but even Low Energy Greg got in on the action with his angry cancelation of a first pitch appearance at the Texas Rangers’ home opener in protest of the MLB’s protest.

So what does this mean for the long tradition of mayors and governors getting into good-natured bets with each other over the outcome of pro sports championship battles between their respective cities’ teams? For Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner it’ll probably be something normal and anodyne, like the loser mayor has to wear a jersey of the other city’s team at a press conference. But Kemp and Abbott’s bet ought to be more interesting. Like maybe the loser has to write an even more excessive voter suppression bill and send it to the winner’s state, or show up at a predominantly Black church in their state – without any security accompanying them – and tell the congregation that they should be able to show ID when they vote if they also have to show it when they get on a plane. They probably won’t agree that the loser has to publicly apologize for they threw in April. That’s too harsh of a punishment.

Associated Press:  “About 40 shipping containers tumbled into the Pacific Ocean in rough seas west of the Strait of Juan de Fuca entrance on Friday, authorities said.  The U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Northwest said on Twitter Friday afternoon that the ship lost the containers when it listed to its side.

“A Coast Guard helicopter from Port Angeles was sent to the area and the crew was monitoring 35 floating containers as they move north. The ship was headed to Canada when the incident happened, officials said.

“Photos from the helicopter captured containers, with one group of three linked together, floating in the water, a Coast Guard Twitter post showed.  The Strait of Juan de Fuca is located northwest of Seattle.”

Associated Press:  “A driver lost control during a Texas drag racing event and slammed into a crowd of spectators, killing two and injuring at least five others Saturday, authorities said.  The crash occurred Saturday afternoon at an event called ‘Airport Race Wars 2’ at the Kerrville-Kerr County Airport, police said in a news release. The organized event involved drivers speeding down a runway as they competed for cash.

“The driver ‘lost control and left the runway, crashing into parked vehicles and striking spectators who were observing the races,’ Kerville police said.  Four people were airlifted to hospitals in San Antonio, while at least one person was receiving treatment at a local Kerville facility, police said. Kerville is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of San Antonio.

“Authorities did not immediately release information about the two people who died or give details about those who were injured.  The Kerrville Convention and Visitors Bureau’s website promoted the event as an “action packed, family-friendly day” in which fans could watch the ‘fastest drag cars compete for over $8000 in total prizes.'”

“… and when that doesn’t work, they start makin’ up stuff, like the one about how they didn’t lose the last election,” President Barack Obama said during a New Jersey rally.  “Let me tell you something.  I have been blessed in my political career, but I lost an election.  I lost a congressional election back in Chicago.  I didn’t know I could just like after I got beat, I could just get up and say, no, I didn’t get beat. No no no, the machines were broken. What?!? No.

“You know what I did, was I said, let me think about how I can be better so that I can win the next time.  That’s what I did.”

Associated Press:  “Striking workers at one of the world’s largest bourbon producers voted to a ratify a new contract Saturday, a day after announcing a tentative agreement with Heaven Hill.  About 420 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23D went on strike about six weeks ago, forming picket lines at the company’s operations in Bardstown, Kentucky, after rejecting a previous contract proposal.

“The tentative agreement came just days after the company signaled it intended to start hiring permanent replacement employees for bottling and warehouse operations. The workers then voted to ratify the five-year agreement Saturday, according to a statement from Heaven Hill.  ‘We look forward to welcoming our team members as we transition back to normal operations,’ company spokesperson Josh Hafer said in the statement.”

“The dispute revolved around health care and scheduling, the latter a sign of the bourbon industry’s growing pains as it tries to keep up with global demand.  Family-owned and operated Heaven Hill produces Evan Williams, one of the world’s top-selling bourbons. The spirits company’s other brands include Elijah Craig, Henry McKenna, Old Fitzgerald, Larceny and Parker’s Heritage Collection.”

“As high as 85% of Republicans want Joe Biden impeached,” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-GA) claims without citing the pollster, “but guess what?  Forty percent, as high as 40% have been polled saying he should be impeached.”

My upcoming book Leveraging Populism will effectively be a criminal profile and statement of probable cause describing how Russian Intelligence agencies were able to infiltrate the Republican Party of the United States, effectively turning most of the modern GOP into a Russian asset, and exerting a frightening amount of control over American political discourse.

That influence was leveraged using a four part approach that involved the study of “pseudo-conservative” movements in the United States and the Paranoid Style of rhetoric (this was the topic of my first book, the Perpetual Hamster Wheel of Stupidity), the other three parts of that approach involved the infiltration of the Council for National Policy – a prominent conservative activist group that is connected to a network of “astroturfing” operations, use of social media targeting technologies executed with the cooperation of Facebook executives, and the demagoguery of Donald J. Trump.

The Guardian: “A Minnesota politician has promoted a fundraiser for several constituents who are charged with participation in the deadly 6 January attack on the US Capitol, saying they come from a ‘good family’. The Republican state senator Mark Koran, who represents the town of Lindström, made this entreaty for the Westbury family in a Facebook post on Friday. Four members of the Westbury family are accused of participating in the insurrection, comprising half of all Minnesotans charged for alleged involvement. ‘Here’s a local family in Lindström who can use some help. They attended the Jan 6th Rally and have been accused and charged with a variety of crimes. Some very serious and some which seem to be just to punish opposing views,’ Koran wrote.”

“‘All I’m asking is that they need assistance to mount a fair defense from an over bearing Dept of Justice. They are a good family!’ It’s not clear whether Koran is calling the storming of Congress, when thousands broke in, attempting to stop lawmakers certifying Joe Biden’s victory over Trump, simply a ‘rally’ or whether he is conflating the riot with the rally held prior near the White House, at which Trump urged his supporters to march on the Capitol and try to overturn the election result. More than 50 police officers were injured as they tried to stop the riot, some beaten and seriously hurt. Five people died during the storming, including a police officer. About 500 people have been charged in connection with the events. Donald Trump was impeached for a historic second time, charged with inciting the insurrection, although he was acquitted by the Senate.”

“Redlining is alive and well, and it has had a lasting negative impact. For American families, homeownership remains the principal means of building wealth. Deprivation of investment in and denial of access to mortgage lending services have contributed to families of color persistently lagging behind in homeownership rates and net worth compared to white families,” announced Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark in her announcement on the Department of Justice’s new Anti-Redlining initiative.

“Redlining” is a practice typically engaged in by realtors and lenders, when they conspire to prevent Black and Hispanic families from moving into “white” neighborhoods. The practice has been observed in cities all over the United States, and is most prominent in upper middle class communities. Redlining is the reason that there are still many high-schools in the United States that are over 90% white.

“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan moved to expel the ambassadors of 10 Western countries who appealed for the release of a jailed civil society leader. ‘I have ordered our foreign minister to declare these 10 ambassadors as persona non grata as soon as possible,’ he said on Saturday, referring to a term used in diplomacy that signifies the first step before expulsion. He did not set a firm date,” reports Al Jazeera.

“The envoys issued a highly unusual joint statement on Monday saying the continued detention of Parisian-born philanthropist and activist Osman Kavala ‘cast a shadow’ over Turkey.”

“Twitter amplifies tweets from right-leaning political parties and news outlets more than from the left, its own research suggests. The social-media giant said it made the discovery while exploring how its algorithm recommends political content to users. But it admitted it did not know why, saying that was a ‘more difficult question to answer’. Twitter has previously faced claims of anti-conservative bias on its platform. Twitter’s study examined tweets from political parties and users sharing content from news outlets in seven countries: Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, the UK, and the US, analyzing millions of tweets sent between April and August 2020.”

“Researchers then used the data to see which tweets were being amplified more on an algorithmically ordered feed compared with a reverse-chronological feed, both of which users have an option of using. They found that mainstream parties and outlets on the political right enjoyed higher levels of ‘algorithmic amplification’ compared with their counterparts on the left” – BBC.

Tweet posted by MAGA asshole Indiana Congressman Jim Banks on Tuesday. Apparently this was one of those “you can Tweet again when you delete the offensive one” situations which did not get on Twitter moderators’ radar until Saturday morning, but it appears Banks has since complied.

Calling someone that was born and lived as a man for 54 years the first "female" four-star officer is an insult to every little girl who dreams of breaking glass ceilings one day. https://t.co/bHKmJbE6cA

— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) October 19, 2021

..and yet his profile shows he tweeted basically exact same shit immediately after that on Tuesday.