Notices by Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org), page 3

BREAKING: Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses Harris for president.

Actress Teri Garr dies at 79 after a battle with multiple sclerosis. Her film and TV appearances were many, including "Young Frankenstein" and a famous episode of the original "Star Trek" series. Famously, she walked off the set during filming of the episode when Roddenberry wanted her already short skirt to be even shorter. A wonderful actress. Peace.

Tonight on my usual Monday evening national network radio tech segment, I'll be briefly discussing the unconfirmed #Google project to let their Gemini AI read and control your computer screen, make purchases (and posts?) on your behalf, and an array of other incredibly dangerous actions that you can bet Google wouldn't take responsibility for when things go wrong. This with an AI that gives wrong answers (and then glosses over them) about something as simple and static as classic films. Talk about a Big NO!

Trump campaign tries distancing from racist rally jokes, but reportedly they were in the teleprompter.

Cleopatra [Elizabeth Taylor]: You will kneel.

Antony [Richard Burton]: I will what?

Cleopatra: On your knees.

Antony: You dare ask the Proconsul of Rome ...

Cleopatra: I asked it of Julius Caesar. I demand it of you!

"Cleopatra" (1963)

BREAKING: Report: Billionaire L.A. Times owner who blocked Harris endorsement also killed multi-part series with tentative title "The Case Against Trump".

I am fervently hoping that the women of this country will save us all from the votes of we men and the catastrophe of Trump. Though men don't really deserve to be saved.

Satan is a construct of the human imagination. On the other hand, Trump is real.

Trump judges rule ballots mailed but not received by election day are void

They're trying to get it to the Supreme Court to favor the GOP. -L

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/10/trump-judges-election-day-voting-disaster.html?via=rss

Billionaires have often had fascist tendencies. The difference is that now they aren't even trying to hide them.

I've been posting on social media since long before the term "social media" even existed. But back at the beginning, we called social media by the term ARPANET. Seriously.

The way things are going, we're going to end up with #Mastodon as the only social media platform left standing that not only isn't controlled by billionaires, but by its very nature cannot be effectively controlled by billionaires. In this respect we've come full circle to the days before widespread public access to the Internet, when individual sites used the public telephone network and low speed modems to create ad hoc data networks for email and public discussions.

Everything old is new again.

The billionaires are no longer satisfied with merely being so insanely wealthy that the rest of us can't even imagine what their lifestyles are really like, but now they want absolute power over all of us as well in every aspect of our lives, and they'll happily join forces with the deepest evils of fascism to achieve this.

The Big Tech Billionaires' Plan for Fascism

1) Make you dependent on cloud services, or AI, or ...

2) To please fascist politicians, refuse to endorse or promote democracy

3) Watch as the country descends into a fascist horror

4) Profit. And laugh at the dependent serfs you've created.

5) More laughing. More profit. Life is good if you're a fascist billionaire.

Joining other unethical newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post management decides not to endorse in the presidential race for first time in 36 years.

They're terrified that if Trump wins he'll come after them. They are spineless cowards who would have felt comfortable in 1930s Germany.

Disgusting beyond measure. Fascist enablers.

I'm just fine with being here on a social media platform controlled by cats rather than billionaires. #Mastodon

This weekend Trump will rally in Madison Square Garden in NYC -- where pro-Nazi Americans once rallied (in the original Madison Square Garden). Harris will rally on the National Mall on Tuesday, where Trump called forth the hordes to storm the capital, whom he pledges to pardon if he wins.

ProTip: No need to inform me if you are about to Unfollow or Block me. Informing me will not ruin my day, because I really don't care.

No matter what else you hear, this election is now pretty much all about turnout. The number of genuinely "undecided" voters is tiny, and most of them probably won't even vote. There is a tremendous amount of smoke being blown, almost entirely from the GOP. It is telling how the GOP in particular is gearing up to battle in court, suggesting that their own internal polls do not give them confidence about winning the actual election at the electoral college.

To paraphrase what Obama just said at a Harris rally in Wisconsin: If Democrats started just playing music for more than half an hour and standing there swaying like Trump did at a Town Hall a few days ago, people would think it was pretty strange. But our playlist WOULD be better!