One of the first pro-Paxton ads from MAGA Inc. casts the Republican as confronting the rising costs Texans face with proposals to reduce their tax bills.
“High Tax Talarico wants to take money out of Texans’ pockets,” MAGA, Inc. spokesman Alex Pfeiffer said in a statement on Saturday. “MAGA Inc. is going to ensure Texas knows about Talarico’s radical policies and elects Ken Paxton to the U.S. Senate.”
Talarico’s campaign shot back, [...] “Billionaire-backed dark money groups are lying about James Talarico because they’re scared of the people-powered movement we’re building to fix this broken, corrupt political system,” campaign spokesperson JT Ennis said in a statement later on Saturday. “James was proud to vote for the largest property tax cut in Texas history and has consistently voted to cut taxes for working Texans.”
Together with new spending from a super PAC aligned with billionaire Elon Musk, a wave of Republican cash to aid Paxton could change the contours of a race critical to the GOP’s hopes of retaining control of the chamber after November’s midterm elections. Democrats need to net just four seats to win the Senate majority.
[...] Trump’s decision earlier this year to back Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the primary election had raised concerns about the high price of making the controversial Paxton more appealing to voters in the general election.
[...] CNN previously reported that the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Senate Leadership Fund, both of which strongly backed Cornyn in the primary, had looked to MAGA Inc. to take the lead in backing Paxton in the general election.
Trump backed Paxton because Cornyb bucked Trump. JD and the rest of the Cabinant each owns a share.
And that CNN story did say Elon Musk. Can't wait for the chance to buy a BYD in the USofA. No hard feelings, mind you. Just more car, less price. Hell, hard feelings too, actually.
I will be doing that. Not that the pretense will be active in Texas, but in Minnesota where I vote my Dem ballot will echo the man's pretense wish. Just, not really on the ballot will mean a cleaner ballot. Smelling better. And JD and Hegseth will own their share of the pretense. Cornyn was a zero, but superior to Paxton, who's trash. If I may repeat.
Within their own group, thereby diversifying their collective genome less than others. That being quintessential non-assimilation behavior. What might you suppose Emmer might say, to them?
They are a people that have been wrongly treated historically, in mean and even grotesquely inhuman ways over time, including mid 20th Century, for being "different" and somehow "lesser" than majority mood might want or favor.
"Untermenschen" people who have been postured as an existent threat to "our own preeminent ways."
Emmer, simply stated, knows better.
But he gets into it anyway. Counterproductiveness possibilities do not matter to Emmer. He talks his own line, not as any apparent matter of conscience, but more apparently to attune his stated views to maximize approval impact among the mood of his currently propagandized audience
(Again, he knows better.)
Do watch the second, linked genome research video. It is intriguing in its own right. Apart from politicians and politics. It is one part of current scientific genomic research of ancient peoples fossil DNA world and how over time our own current genomic makeup worldwide has shifted, and come to be.
DNA evidence of population moves and stresses over history supplementing recorded history's story, apart from politics, is an imaginative perspective.
Israel’s far-right national security minister has set out a plan for the illegal forced expulsion of all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, with the intention of sending them abroad.
Speaking in the run-up to close-fought Israeli elections, Itamar Ben-Gvir said the plan aimed to remove 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza in the first year, followed by the rest of its population of roughly 2 million over the next six years.
“It’s realistic,” Ben-Gvir said, claiming there were countries that were “ready” to take in Palestinians from Gaza, without naming which ones.
While the forced displacement of civilians in occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva conventions, Israeli political figures have competed over the harshness of their visions for Gaza, rebuffing efforts by the US president, Donald Trump, to advance a half-baked and largely moribund ceasefire deal that has been marked by continuing Israeli attacks.
Ben-Gvir said the far-right Jewish Power party would demand “a ministry in charge of emigration” during the formation of the next government, adding that his plan was “the result of a year and a half of work and … is concrete”.
The proposal is contained in a 20-page document with the euphemistic title of “National Work Plan for Voluntary Emigration from the Gaza Strip”.
Despite the use of the word “voluntary”, the plan will be seen as coercive by the international community because of the dire conditions imposed on Gaza’s population by Israel and because of Ben-Gvir’s explicit intention: to remove Gaza’s Palestinian population.
Earlier this year, an independent UN inquiry found that Israel continued to commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza.
Ben-Gvir’s comments follow hard on the heels of comments by Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, who said Israel was seeking the approval of the Trump administration to displace Palestinians from Gaza, which he claimed was still under discussion after being “frozen” by Trump.
The item continues from there, but shifting gears, AJ reports -
In a rare public display of disagreement with Israel, the United States has rejected calls by top Israeli officials that the Palestinian population should be removed from Gaza.
Asked about Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s call for de-populating Gaza as the only “solution” to the crisis, the US State Department reiterated Washington’s commitment to President Donald Trump’s 20-point “peace plan” that established the “ceasefire” last year.
“As explicitly stated in Point 12 of the President’s plan: ‘No one will be forced to leave Gaza and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza’,” a State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera in a statement on Friday.
“The United States does not support any plan or proposal for the forced displacement, expulsion, or mandatory transfer of the population of Gaza,” the spokesperson said.
Katz had said that Trump had only “frozen” – not cancelled – his support for removing Palestinians from the territory, a proposal that rights advocates say would amount to ethnic cleansing.
“In the end, there is no real solution for Gaza without this migration,” Katz said on Wednesday.
Israeli officials have been using “migration” as a euphemism for de-populating Gaza.
Katz said the Israeli government is ready to get Palestinians out of Gaza “by sea, by air and by any means to do it” and the idea is still “being discussed all the time”.
They are explicit. No sugar coating. War Crime, fuck that, we want to force Gazans out and we do not care to be gentle about it.
What else does their position mean, than that? It it comes down to simply pushing them into the Mediterranean ro drown, that also seems okay with Ben-Givr.
[short video omitted - technical embedding difficulty - go to original, it is worth viewing]
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir echoed Katz’s statements the following day.
“Instead of illusions of peace now, we need actions of emigration now,” Ben-Gvir said. “Instead of [Palestinians] digging tunnels, it’s time to pack suitcases.”
Cute. He has a way with words. Continuing -
Arab states, including some close allies of the US, have forcefully rejected any effort to remove Palestinians from their land.
The White House referred Al Jazeera to a social media post by Trump in August celebrating an agreement to disarm Hamas.
The deal would include gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the almost daily deadly attacks on the territory.
But Israel rejected the proposal, saying that it would not make any concessions until Gaza is fully demilitarised.
Last year, Trump stirred international outrage when he first floated ethnically cleansing Gaza – home to around two million people – and turning the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.
He appeared to drop the proposal later in 2025 as he put forward his 20-point plan to end the conflict.
Riviera of the Middle East BS lives and says something about how close things are to ethnic cleansing being effectuated. Whatever else they call it, they what it. With the US and Israel on the verge of elections, the Israeli government is whipping up zeal for the deal; the Trumpians in fear of a greater defeat at the polls are for now posturing against any "Riviera" forced exit.
We'll see how things sort out after the votes are in and counted. For now, bellowing racist rhetoric from Israel's spokesperson. Restraint posed as current US policy.
Crabgrass, long term, has no trust in the bona fides of it's own government. Trump's term, in balance, has its majority days coming next, and from what we've seen, things are bleak however the voting turns
United States investigators have subjected about 50 members of the US military’s Joint Staff to lie detector tests following a series of unauthorised media leaks, according to a report by The New York Times (NYT).
The inquiry focused on whether civilian and military personnel leaked classified details to reporters, particularly concerning dwindling US ammunition reserves, the newspaper reported on Friday.
The polygraph examinations took place last month after news outlets published several reports highlighting severe drops in key weapons supplies, including long-range missiles and Patriot air defence interceptors. US officials had pushed back on these reports, insisting their weapons stockpiles were more than sufficient.
In a statement to the NYT, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell declined to address internal administrative or investigative actions directly, but emphasised that the department takes leaks of national security information “extremely seriously and investigates accordingly”.
Now, note this after all is the Trump administration. The dare-you-trust-a-thing-they-say administration.
Consider a scenario, the Pentagon sits atop a massive stockpile of war munitions, but wants more and different goodies. So, claim a shortage. In line with that, minimizing the situation as "not a war" is an inept attempt to dodge the need of Congressional authorization for a war. So call it less. And scale down - drag out the airstrikes, since oil cronies have had a bonanza from six months of non-war, so don't turn the burner off.
That scenario is as likely as any other since the Big Lie is the daily order of Trumpian business dealing.
You cannot trust a thing they say. They could deliberately leak stuff, so they could bloviate about stuff being leaked. Untrustworthy is as untrustworthy does.
That post opens with a Trump truth-social blurb saying we've armed to the teeth and not deficient in the stockpiles. Some commentators there question if it is a breach of law to give untrue information on a classified matter (leaks say stockpiles depleted, Trump says stockpiles fine, and somebody is correct).
It seems Trump's position is armed to the teeth, but it's not a war, so not much is happening except how much oil gets out of the Persian Gulf and how that affects oil prices (with diesel now at a record high pump price on average, nationwide).
Polygraph question, "Did you release accurate or false statements to the press about our weapon stockpiles whch either are deficient or just fine, and if you leaked, which is it?"
There are piles of weapons, but jet fuel is diesel grade, and it costs so much we decided to not fly sorties, except when we do? It's NOT a war. It's a joke. But Chevron is booming and all is okay.
FURTHER: Comment on a bluesky post about the polygraph tests:
Maybe they can do their new, mandatory, testosterone tests at the same time.
Which puts the entire stockpile yikes! [yes/no] problem in perspective. Along with the it's a war [yes/no] question. How did this bunch get hands on the levers of power? Tell me that.
United States President Donald Trump says Washington may strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain “very soon”, in just the latest in a series of threats he has made against the heavily fortified underground site located next to the bombed-out Natanz enrichment complex.
Later in the item
On Friday, Trump sought to downplay the war in Iran, calling it “small potatoes”, while a day earlier, at a White House news briefing, Vice President JD Vance appeared to suggest the conflict had cooled and to shrug off an alleged US strike on a wedding in southern Iran with “sometimes things happen“.
At a White House briefing this week, Vance said of the conflict with Iran that he “wouldn’t call it a war” and claimed there was “no active shooting right now”.
Since Congressional approval is needed for a war, call it less? That's dishonest. But it is what they are doing. There is more content, where readers can access the link and read.
