Jul 22, 2026
Make It A Hate Election
GOP midterm strategy: Make it a "hate election"
Republicans admit the GOP's midterm forecast is bleak. But they're clinging to two hopes: voters' fear and loathing of Democrats.
- "It's going to be a hate election," a Republican tied to President Trump's political operation told Axios. "Voters have to hate the Dems more than they hate us. And we have material to work with."
Why it matters:
There's broad GOP frustration that Trump has made challenging midterm elections worse by not focusing heavily on pocketbook issues — especially the tax cuts Republicans won — while launching the Iran war, which raised gas prices and fueled inflation.
- Trump's prime-time speech Thursday night about China's alleged influence campaign targeting U.S. voters six years ago did little to assuage those concerns.
- "I have yet to understand how we win the midterms by talking about what happened in 2020," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told Axios.
Zoom in:
Trump hopes his speech will pressure Congress to pass his controversial SAVE America Act and excite his base voters to turn out. But GOP pollsters and election pros outside of the White House say it's falling on deaf ears.
- "We've studied this, and it's not a winner," said a Republican pollster working on multiple races nationwide. "Our research shows people want the president to make their life better, and they don't believe he has."
The pollster's data now indicate Democrats could wind up with a seven-seat majority in the House, where Republicans currently have a six-seat edge. Trump's net approval rating is underwater by 10 points.
- A Washington Post/Ipsos poll out Thursday showed Trump's net approval rating was even worse among registered voters: -19%.
Friction point:
Democrats also have poor favorability ratings. And Republicans plan to use the Democrats' Tea Party-like revolt by progressives to paint the entire party as radicals who can't be trusted to govern.
- "Swing voters have a persistent fear the Democrats will just go too far left," said a second GOP pollster with an array of clients across the nation. "So we can make the case that yeah, we suck. But they're worse."
- That pollster echoed the first: "The president has got to start talking about things people really care about — like tax cuts — and not all this other stuff. But we know he just won't."
Reality check:
Both political parties have similar (low) approval ratings in the eyes of voters, according to a Pew Research Center poll.
- A majority of voters consistently view Trump as dishonest (even in red states, including Texas).
- And Republicans counting on voters hating liberal Democrats more than them might consider this: A CNBC poll out Friday found that voters now are more likely to be turned off by a MAGA candidate than a democratic socialist.
The Monster Is On The Loose
‘Unprecedented’ incident will revive concerns new tools could be repurposed for unstoppable cyber attacks
A powerful version of ChatGPT went rogue and hacked another technology company during internal testing, OpenAI has admitted.
The Silicon Valley AI giant admitted last night that one of its AI bots escaped from a supposedly secure IT system during a trial run of its hacking capabilities.
OpenAI, the $850bn (£630bn) AI lab, said the “unprecedented” hack had seen its bot infiltrate another AI and coding business called Hugging Face and attempt to steal information.
The hack will raise fears that AI labs could struggle to contain their most advanced creations and revive concerns that new tools could be repurposed for unstoppable cyber attacks.
The AI lab said it had been testing a highly advanced version of ChatGPT on which it had turned down some protections meant to prevent cyber attacks.
Despite supposedly being contained in a digital “sandbox”, a kind of secure system, the AI spent huge levels of computing resources “finding a way to obtain open internet access”, OpenAI said.
It broke out by using a previously unknown hack in an attempt to solve a test that had been set by OpenAI’s researchers.
Once it escaped, it moved quickly to hack the systems of Hugging Face, a major code database, to try and complete the test.
The failure reveals a key problem of so-called AI “alignment”, where an AI bot goes rogue and attempts to complete a task set by its human creators with potentially damaging results.
Clem Delangue, the chief executive of Hugging Face, said: “This incident, possibly the first of its kind, proves a point we have long believed: AI safety won’t be solved by a single company working in secret.”
The hack will raise questions over OpenAI’s own testing procedures for its most advanced chatbots.
There have long been fears from safety experts that powerful AI bots could “escape the lab” without the knowledge of their human creators.
A powerful chatbot from rival Anthropic broke out of its testing confines earlier this year and posted messages on the open web.
That AI bot, Mythos, was deemed too dangerous to release and prompted a flurry of calls for beefed-up cyber protections for banks and governments.
The White House has also launched a programme to screen AI bots before they are released for dangerous cyber capabilities.
Probably Nothing
But somebody has to chronicle this shit.
Model Recruiter Daniel Siad, Who Provided Young Women to Jeffrey Epstein, Found Dead
A model recruiter accused of procuring girls for convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead in his home in France.
Marie-Céline Lawrysz, deputy public prosecutor at the Nanterre Judicial Court, confirmed in public statements on Wednesday that Daniel Siad’s body was found earlier this week in his home in Colombes.
An autopsy will now be conducted to determine the cause of death.
“An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening following the discovery,” the Nanterre office said.
Siad recently spoke with CNN’s Katie Polglase and denied ever having knowledge of Epstein’s crimes despite introducing him to two girls who later accused Epstein of sexual abuse.
“I trusted him and believed this guy was a professional person,” Siad said. “I never heard anything from anyone I introduced to him who came back to me that they had a bad situation. I believed this guy is a professional person.”
Siad’s name appears thousands of times in Department of Justice files related to Epstein’s case. Siad continued working with Epstein even after the billionaire was first convicted in Florida and forced to register as a sex offender.
Epstein died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
Siad’s exchanges with Epstein were often Siad sending Epstein photos and details about young girls he’d met and recruited as a potential assistants or other workers for Epstein.
In a 2015 email, Siad sent Epstein a photo of a 16-year-old girl and her friend, and Epstein replied that the girls were “too old.”
Siad was facing his own abuse allegations, including rape, from multiple models. Siad denied the accusations.
“I have never raped anyone in my life,” he told BFMTV in May.
A former model, who gave a deposition in June as part of the investigation, told the BBC that Siad’s death represents a major piece of the Epstein mystery disappearing.
“An important link in the chain has just vanished into thin air, without there even having been a chance to recover the information Daniel Siad might have possessed — given that he was never questioned,” she said.
And I'm not volunteering, BTW. I'm just putting up a few posts now and again, so there's a chance that the story thread isn't completely lost.
A model recruiter accused of procuring girls for convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead in his home in France.
Marie-Céline Lawrysz, deputy public prosecutor at the Nanterre Judicial Court, confirmed in public statements on Wednesday that Daniel Siad’s body was found earlier this week in his home in Colombes.
An autopsy will now be conducted to determine the cause of death.
“An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening following the discovery,” the Nanterre office said.
Siad recently spoke with CNN’s Katie Polglase and denied ever having knowledge of Epstein’s crimes despite introducing him to two girls who later accused Epstein of sexual abuse.
“I trusted him and believed this guy was a professional person,” Siad said. “I never heard anything from anyone I introduced to him who came back to me that they had a bad situation. I believed this guy is a professional person.”
Siad’s name appears thousands of times in Department of Justice files related to Epstein’s case. Siad continued working with Epstein even after the billionaire was first convicted in Florida and forced to register as a sex offender.
Epstein died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
Siad’s exchanges with Epstein were often Siad sending Epstein photos and details about young girls he’d met and recruited as a potential assistants or other workers for Epstein.
In a 2015 email, Siad sent Epstein a photo of a 16-year-old girl and her friend, and Epstein replied that the girls were “too old.”
Siad was facing his own abuse allegations, including rape, from multiple models. Siad denied the accusations.
“I have never raped anyone in my life,” he told BFMTV in May.
A former model, who gave a deposition in June as part of the investigation, told the BBC that Siad’s death represents a major piece of the Epstein mystery disappearing.
“An important link in the chain has just vanished into thin air, without there even having been a chance to recover the information Daniel Siad might have possessed — given that he was never questioned,” she said.
On The Importance Of Being History
"The purpose of history is to enlighten us, inspire us, bother us - sometimes make us angry... Americans have to keep going to places they trust - we have to keep those institutions trustworthy." 100%, Doc.
And WTF is it with Republicans and sexuality? Why are they obsessed with everybody's genitals?
It's been pointed out by people who know a lot more about such things than I do, that they seem to be attacking other people because of what they hate about themselves.
It's a wonderment - and galling as all fuck.
One more thing, on the stupid question they love to ask, "What is a woman?" They seem to think this is the Ace Of Trumps, because a woke liberal commie can't possibly answer that one.
Here's a possible answer:
It's not up to you or me. You don't get to decide that, and neither do I.
Jul 21, 2026
Uncle Phil
These gangs always hide what they're doing while telling us they're above board and completely transparent.
I imagine they thought they'd found the perfect loophole to get around the Fair Housing Regs.
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