@mark What a sweetie. Tibetan terrier, right?
W
wtg
@wtg
Posts
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So, how weird are you?? -
Please pass the popcornJared Kushner is pushing back on a report involving a hacked iPhone, international spies and billion-dollar transfers from foreign governments.
An upcoming book by journalist Matthew Cole claims Kushner, who is President Trump's son-in-law, had access to more than $2 billion in "slush money funds" from Middle Eastern leaders in an attempt to influence U.S. foreign policy.
An excerpt of the book released Thursday details allegations encompassing Kushner's time as a senior White House adviser during the first Trump administration, which included a lead role in U.S. policy in the Middle East. Kushner had a major hand in negotiating key foreign policy deals that involved Israel, the Gulf states, China and Russia during that period.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/kushner-pushes-back-report-involving-133251393.html
Here's the Vanity Fair excerpt from the book. Subscription required.
https://www.vanityfair.com/story/jared-kushner-hacked-phone-secret-negotiations
Link to video -
Election integrityI expect the fight to begin November 4.
Maybe earlier.
President Donald Trump on Friday said he personally directed the Department of Justice to file a lawsuit seeking to prevent Alaska from certifying its Senate election results if Republicans lose.
“I’m the one that said do it,” the president told reporters shortly after landing in Florida.
The president’s admission comes a day after DOJ sued Alaska election officials, arguing that the presence of an independent candidate named Dan Sullivan in addition to the incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan on the ballot could confuse voters and cost the party the race against Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola. It’s one of a handful of races seen as key to maintaining GOP control of the Senate.
The lawsuit marks an extraordinary intervention by the federal government in a state election, with the administration seeking to delay certification of results if the incumbent loses by a margin small enough that votes cast for the independent Sullivan could have changed the outcome.
“Given the substantial likelihood that the inclusion of Daniel J. Sullivan will confuse or mislead voters looking to cast a vote for Senator Sullivan, and thus distort the will of Alaskan voters, there is a substantial likelihood that a certification of the election will reflect an electoral process that lacked integrity,” DOJ wrote in its complaint.
The Alaska Supreme Court in June ruled that the independent Sullivan could remain on the ballot, but Trump continued to rail against his candidacy and the state’s election rules.
No wonder he referred to them as "my DOJ" a couple of days ago....
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Agrotourism.Sweet!
Better hurry, @steve-miller ... says it's almost sold out....
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Iceland StopoverOh, wow! Stunning! Gorgeous! Magnificent!
I bet you bought some yarn....
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Governor's race in OhioDeWine has always been a decent guy.
Sadly, Vance and Trump are piling up the disgusting points....
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/22/ramaswamy-attack-ad-ohio-dewine
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Gas clothes dryer -
Gas clothes dryerAnd the diagnoses are in....the freezer is a seized compressor, so it's a goner.
Dryer is suffering from arthritis of the rollers and an ancient belt. Worth repairing; he has those parts on the truck. We don't want one of those newfangled electronic wifi dryers....
edit: He didn't charge for diagnosing the dead freezer; it only took him five minutes.
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What is PHP and why did it spark a global cyber-security scramble?For more than a decade, serious flaws had gone undetected in the technology underpinning much of the internet.
It took AI to bring them to light and caused a global cyber-security alert.
The vulnerabilities lie within a programming language called PHP, which has been used internationally since the 2000s to build websites.
Governments and cyber-security agencies around the world are scrambling to contain the fallout of the discovery on Wednesday, and have urged website operators to install a new emergency fix or consider taking their platforms offline.
Cyber-security firm Wiz - one of the companies whose researchers uncovered the vulnerabilities - described the flaws as the "most severe" ever detected by AI.
OpenAI, whose technology was used to find the flaws, called the discovery "one of the most impactful security issues in recent memory".
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When do you turn on your heatI find the same thing. I used to love going on cold winter hikes. Janet was always cold and I was always hot. We've completely reversed.
Same here. In his much younger youth Mr wtg wore a t-shirt and shorts in the middle of winter and I was bundled in wool sweaters. As reverse puberty hit me I shed the sweaters and he switched to sweat pants. There was a point when we were in our late 40s/early 50s when a single thermostat setting met both our needs. Our winter setting is 70; summer setting is 76. We used to let the nighttime setting for the furnace drop to 68, but since his stroke Mr wtg tends to get cold at night so we just leave it at 70.
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Something to round out your charcuterie boardPIcked up this variety pack of olives a couple of weeks ago at my third place.
Tried one of them (the olives and pickled vegetables) and it got the wtg seal of approval. Looking forward to trying the rest. Mr wtg isn't a fan of truffles or blue cheese, so I'll get to eat all of those....
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For Steve
Stealing that to share with some doodle-owning friends...
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Governor's race in OhioOh man, the AP story is even worse. Ramaswamy, swimming with the scum.
High-profile Republicans who back Ramaswamy — including Donald Trump Jr. and influencer Laura Loomer — elevated the video in online posts.
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Meta-thread: Word association thread -
Governor's race in OhioThe ad.
Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign for Ohio governor is pouring $4 million into a bombshell ad in which his opponent's estranged mother attacks her daughter — doubling down on the message despite fierce bipartisan backlash, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Ramaswamy is gambling that the deeply personal attack by Amy Acton's mother — who Acton has said sided with her stepfather after he sexually assaulted Acton when she was 12 — will resonate with voters.
After the ad began appearing Tuesday on social media, many fellow Republicans urged Ramaswamy to distance his campaign from it.
They warned it could backfire at a time when the controversy over the Epstein files has elevated the sexual abuse of children as a national campaign issue.
Driving the news: Ramaswamy's campaign confirmed to Axios that it produced the ad, which began circulating on social media late Monday without language identifying its sponsor.
https://www.axios.com/2026/10/21/ramaswamy-ad-acton-mother-ohio
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Chicago, Toy TownWTTW (Chicago PBS station) has a series called Chicago Stories. This episode is about how Chicago was the center for toy design.
Beanie Babies, Tinkertoys, Radio Flyer Wagons, Operation, Lite-Brite, and Lincoln Logs. These beloved children’s toys have one thing in common: They were all invented in Chicago. Toys revolutionized playtime for children around the world and ballooned into a billion-dollar business. Chicago’s own Marvin Glass and Associates created such classics as Lite-Brite, Operation, and Simon. And then there’s Beanie Babies, which became a cultural phenomenon. Explore how Chicago became the global epicenter of toy design for a time, sparking innovation, business battles, and a cultural legacy that reached around the world.
https://www.wttw.com/chicago-stories/toy-town
Check out the other episodes of Chicago Stories; the one on skyscrapers is pretty cool.
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Major Buang-Ly’s Great EscapeI totally missed this story when it originally happened.
As South Vietnam collapsed under the onslaught of communist forces, one South Vietnamese pilot made a brave and daring escape in a tiny aircraft, miraculously finding a place to land it out at sea, saving himself and his family.
https://theaviationist.com/2025/03/14/major-buang-lys-great-escape/
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Germany is "wrong" to finance UkraineFor me, everything to this point hasn't been an argument at all, simply an exchange of information and opinions.
You did say that you were unconvinced by the AI answer after you said you'd reconsider, so I provided additional background on what its answer was based on. As I said, you're welcome to investigate those links if you have the time and inclination. If you don't, no prob.
Later, gator.
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Germany is "wrong" to finance UkraineThese are the sources that AI used in composing its answer; the links didn't copy when I pasted its response earlier. At least you'll know, if you have the time and desire to do so, upon what it based its response.
From the Brookings Institute, this bit is especially interesting:
Former Soviet President Gorbachev’s View
We now have a very authoritative voice from Moscow confirming this understanding. Russia behind the Headlines has published an interview with Gorbachev, who was Soviet president during the discussions and treaty negotiations concerning German reunification. The interviewer asked why Gorbachev did not “insist that the promises made to you [Gorbachev]—particularly U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s promise that NATO would not expand into the East—be legally encoded?” Gorbachev replied: “The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years. … Another issue we brought up was discussed: making sure that NATO’s military structures would not advance and that additional armed forces would not be deployed on the territory of the then-GDR after German reunification. Baker’s statement was made in that context… Everything that could have been and needed to be done to solidify that political obligation was done. And fulfilled.”
Gorbachev continued that “The agreement on a final settlement with Germany said that no new military structures would be created in the eastern part of the country; no additional troops would be deployed; no weapons of mass destruction would be placed there. It has been obeyed all these years.” To be sure, the former Soviet president criticized NATO enlargement and called it a violation of the spirit of the assurances given Moscow in 1990, but he made clear there was no promise regarding broader enlargement.
The entire Brookings link is here:
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/did-nato-promise-not-to-enlarge-gorbachev-says-no/
Not sure the Wiki link you posted is the treaty we are looking for. This is the one that AI references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Final_Settlement_with_Respect_to_Germany
This last one discusses (now-declassified) communications that happened at the time.
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Germany is "wrong" to finance Ukrainewtg said:
There was a treaty signed by the US with Gorbachev
Could you post a link to that actual document? I have searched and am unable to find it.
Thanks.
I did a quick query to AI.
Did the US ever sign a treaty with Russia that specifically stated that NATO would not expand eastward? Or were there merely discussions with/assurances to Gorbachev from Western Europe and the US about limiting NATO expansion?
Here is the answer;
No. The United States did not sign a treaty with Russia—or the Soviet Union—prohibiting NATO from expanding eastward.
The treaty people often mean is the 1990 Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, signed by the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the two German states. It set limits on military deployments in the former East Germany; it did not bar NATO from admitting countries elsewhere in Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union, not the Russian Federation, was the signatory on the Soviet side. <citation src="6,7"></citation>
There were, however, conversations and verbal assurances during German reunification negotiations. James Baker’s “not one inch eastward” phrase and similar remarks by other Western officials are documented. Their meaning and scope remain disputed: some argue they encouraged Gorbachev to expect NATO would not expand more broadly; others argue they concerned NATO’s military role in a reunified Germany, and were never a binding promise about future membership. <citation src="2,4,8"></citation>
So the most precise summary is: no treaty barring broader eastward expansion; yes, there were diplomatic discussions and assurances, but no written, legally binding commitment covering Eastern Europe as a whole. <citation src="4,6,8"></citation>