Flotsam and Jetsam - Talarico Campaign Caught Buying Votes

But first, Dave Strom at Hat Hair is here to remind us Just Because the AI Doomerism Is Overhyped Doesn't Mean That It Can't Be Dangerous. ZitoSalena @ZitoSalena, "The building of AI data centers is not landing in a neutral country. It is landing in one where the debate over artificial intelligence has turned political, cultural, and increasingly fearful. That opposition is not theoretical. In Archbald, in Conshohocken, in Wilkes-Barre, in Hampden Township outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvanians have packed municipal meeting rooms to fight data-center proposals over noise, water, air quality, property values, and the fear that their power bills will subsidize somebody else’s chatbot. .... And people — actual complicated people and not the caricatures that the loudest voices on either side reduce them to — are perfectly capable of holding both views at once." Francis Turner on AI and the security/regulation shell game, "Regulation is not security and vice versa." At PJM Tim O'Brien says AI Regulation: If Bill Gates Is for It, I’m Against It. But Is It That Simple? and VodkaPundit has a Thursday Essay: They Want to Save Us From AI. Who Saves Us From Them? Catturd ™ @catturd2, "Always remember, the climate hoax cult has never been right about a single doom prediction ever." Quote Gunther Eagleman™ @GuntherEagleman, " WOW: Laura Ingraham just marked 20 YEARS since Al Gore tried to scare the living daylights out of America. Florida underwater. Shanghai gone. Calcutta wiped. Manhattan’s World Trade Center memorial submerged. Hundreds of thousands of refugees. ..." TheLastRefuge @TheLastRefuge2, "It's a tale of two viruses. One created in 2020 (Wuhan Labs), the other created in 2026 (Frontier Labs). One was molecular (covid), the other digital (AI). Both man made. Both promoted by media. Both escape a lab. Both create fear/panic. Both require experts to inform. Both introduce mitigation measures. Both end with govt control rules. Both timed to coincide w/ critical elections. COVID Passport / Digital ID Trust the medical scientists Trust the computer scientists There's a pattern here folks. Stop me when you can see it." Dave Rubin @RubinReport, "Six years ago Bernie told us that we had six years left because of climate change. That grift is over and now he’s onto the robots. Mock this miserable goon into oblivion." Spencer Pratt @spencerpratt, "As you get older, you become allergic to this doomer bullshit, because you’ve seen a million doomsday prophecies fail to ever materialize, and you realize…they’re just constantly lying." Quote Dr. Eli David @DrEliDavid, "The cover of Time magazine in 2006 and 2026. From "climate change will destroy humanity" to "AI will destroy humanity"." and Spencer Pratt @spencerpratt, "You know a movement is totally grassroots and organic when they spontaneously have coordinated signs with logos and corporate level branding. What an op." Quote PauseAI @PauseAI, "The world is waking up to extinction risk in the wake of Jacob Coxon's resignation. We need to rise up to the occasion now." DC_Draino @DC_Draino, "These look like the people who used to run Twitter and would ban you for saying men can’t be women." Quote New York Post @nypost, "Meet Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s handpicked super-woke globalists he thinks will save us from an AI apocalypse. Read today's cover here: https://trib.al/lNmAVwg." Breitbart Bus, AI Wizards Want to Govern the Muggles "A cabal comprised of some of the biggest players in the artificial intelligence industry has discovered a potentially lucrative application for human intelligence: persuading Washington to regulate the sector and hold down potential competitors." Driscoll at Insty, SKYNET PONDERS WHO WILL PAY ITS CRIPPLING STUDENT LOANS: Cody Fenwick @codytfenwick, "My favorite AI joke: Current models are getting close to PhD-level intelligence. After that, they're expected to achieve the intelligence of someone who decided not to do a PhD."

Rick Moran at PJM sees Iranian Security Forces Prepare for Anniversary of Anti-Hijab Protests. Saudi pipeline closure is a brief interruption that will last days, U.S. Energy secretary tells CNBC. Hat Hair's Duane Patterson looks at Houthis and the Media Blowhards. PJM's Sarah Anderson reports Rubio Redirects Millions in Military Money Away From Europe and the Middle East. 

Hat Hair's Beege Welborn, Said the Spider to the Fly: EU Issues Invitation to Canada to Be Its First 'Associate'. The Great Victor Davis Hanson at Da Signal thinks Mark Carney Is Leading Canada ‘Right Over the Cliff’. 

Mickey Kaus @kausmickey, "I dunno, but if I were President and the poverty rate dropped to the LOWEST RATE ON RECORD I might make a big deal out of it -- a lot bigger deal than the Trump White House is making." Quote Reuters @Reuters, "US poverty rate dips to lowest on record, Census Bureau says https://reut.rs/4j68xR9 https://reut.rs/4j68xR9." From Commonplace, What Low Interest Rates Hath Wrought. "Suppressing rates steers the U.S. economy away from real economic activity and toward financialization." Amy Curtis at TownHall catches Gavin Newsom Tries Blaming President Trump for Home Prices, but Data Shows Who's Really to Blame. Matt Margolis at PJM notes Democrats Still Don’t Know How to Read Charts. Oh, they know, they just choose to misread them. 

Hat Hair's Dave Strom expounds on how Socialism Is the Ideology of the Failure. Mark Ross at Am Think thinks he is Getting used to tyranny, "Sometimes I feel like a frog that’s getting boiled." Insty at his NYPo gig says Leftists’ masks are coming all the way off — revealing the ugly truth.

David Marcus @BlueBoxDave, "It was clear last week that Talarico was trying to get ahead of some bad things coming, now they are arriving." Quote Townhall.com @townhallcom, "EXCLUSIVE: TALARICO SUPER PAC CAUGHT PAYING VOTERS! "We are paying people $25...a roundabout way of paying people for their votes." At Hat Hair, Larry has a vid, Hidden Camera Footage Catches Talarico SuperPAC Paying For Votes and Capt. Ed calls it 'Shady As F***': Team Talarico Buying Votes in Texas, $25 a Pop. Shipwreckedcrew @shipwreckedcrew, "The intent to violate the statute is there. THis is no different than the use of straw donors in making contributions. I think this guy and his group have a bigger problem than he imagines. Creating "evading" of federal law is just another word for "conspiracy." This might get interesting." Amy Curtis at TownHall sees an Explosive Judiciary Committee Report Accuses ActBlue of Major Fraudulent Donation Cover-Up. Ace has another Report: ActBlue Raised Illegal Foreign Money for Democrats and Then Covered It Up. "In before the guy who says "nothing will happen" says "nothing will happen." Alas, I agree. We've been watching this story for years and like all other stories about Democrat Party corruption and treasonous partnership with hostile foreign actors, nothing ever happens." Vicky Taft at PJM thinks Karen Bass Feels Heat From Feds Over Millions in Stolen and Laundered ‘Homeless’ Funds. Christopher Rufo @christopherrufo, "EXCLUSIVE: Chinese criminal gangs with links to the CCP have built an illegal cannabis empire in Siskiyou County, California. They're generating $2 billion a year in revenues and criminal growers are now 20% of the entire population. Gavin Newsom is doing nothing to stop them."

Matt Margolis at PJM sees James Talarico's Lesbian Minister Just Outed Him, no, not a gay, which we assume, but as misleading us on his true views. Capt. Ed, Talarico's Question for Texans: Who's Your Favey-Fave Drag Queen? From Ace, New Zohran Mamdani Top Advisor Literally Wrote the Book on "Gay Communism" "Okay, it wasn't a book, it was a magazine, and she didn't write it, she edited it. So, more accurately: She literally edited the magazine by and for Gay Communists."

Matt Vespa at TownHall is amused that Chuck Grassley Couldn't Handle Cory Booker's Theatrics Over Kash Patel Yesterday. From FIRE, VICTORY: Federal court says ICE threatened critic by serving him with 'Warning Notice' over an email. From Shooting Newsweek, Federal Judge Blocks Maryland From Enforcing Prohibition On Concealed Carry in Silver Spring Synagogue. 

DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican, "This is a big announcement. Leftists have had their own free legal representation for decades. Conservatives haven’t. This is because traditionally, conservatives have thought of politics as winning the debate. It’s comfortable. It’s institutional. They don’t have to be “mean” to anyone. Until, enter Oversight Project (@ItsYourGov ). Think of them as an actiontank instead of thinktank. The first such organization for conservatives to meet leftists on their own terms. Creating the first-ever home for conservatives affected by lawfare is just the start." Quote Jeff Clark @JeffClarkUS, " Alert -- Critical announcement: Under the banner of The Oversight Project, I am opening a new law firm that I am opening a new law firm that I will lead to combat government weaponization of all types, but especially abuses of congressional and state legislative branch oversight, perversion of bar discipline processes, and securing the dismissal of bogus criminal indictments...." DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican, "I would like to introduce you to Rosa-Luxemberg-Stiftung NYC (EIN 45-3658022), which is registered as a 501(c)(3) and also is a straight-up German-funded soft money passthrough for Die Linke, the German Communist party. I couldn't find any FARA records for any of their employees." Quote DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican, " MAJOR BREAKING: German government has been grooming DSA leaders for over a decade, and nobody noticed? Last night, Darializa Avila Chevalier — endorsed by NYC-DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) — beat a five-term incumbent to win New York's 13th."

Still more in my digital frig, and more at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 09.16.26, but I have places to go.