Behold, the Ugly Palace (il Palazzaccio, aka The Palace of Justice in Rome).
It’s nice to know we aren’t the only country that throws away money on hideous, grandiose buildings with terrible cost overruns and rumors of corruption. Of course, if it were built here, it would be excessively gilded, and would be a deathtrap.
Talk among yourselves about construction projects. Or whatever.
PopularInfo
NYT – Trump’s new press secretary: not-quite attorney at law
Rando:
Abortion, Every Day – Abortion ‘abolitionist’ joins the White House
Axios – TikTok, Newsmax say they won’t air possible public execution (Oct 13)
JoeMyGod – Newsmax host: Broadcast execution during Super Bowl
Gillian Brockell (TAP, Flight tracker) on Oct 2:
TheAmericanProspect – The city that brought down an ICE airline
CNN – Trump debates calling off livestream of firing squad execution after learning Fort Hood shooter was paralyzed (Oct 13)
Chris Geidner (Law Dork) on Oct 15:
Ron Deibert (Polisci prof, CitizenLab):
Rando 1: “Remember when Bibi said ‘Remember the beepers’ as a threat at the UN? That looks a whole lot worse knowing this.”
Rando 2: “Zero-click: As soon as you see the ad, you are infected. Thanks Google.”
Rando 3: “Am I correct that no one seems to know (or admit to knowing) what vulnerabilities are being exploited in these 0-click attacks, and there’s no fix except installing ad blockers?”
Zack Whittaker (TechCrunch): “That’s pretty much it; ad block all the things in any and every way possible”
Follow-up to Christopher Rufo stoking “Indian Question” incitement.
Matthew Gertz (MediaMatters):
[Illinois] Taco Bell workers prevented a possible mass shooting at an Aurora temple
Rando: “I’m sure the Vice President who has four Indian American children is going to condemn all of this stuff right?”
New White House press secretary is SoCal traffic scofflaw
The Hill – Vance announces plan to use wartime authority to boost fuel production
* Does not require a war to invoke. Still fun to rub the Iran not-war in their faces.
United24 – France opens its arsenal to Ukraine
Looks like Freethoughtblogs is having DNS problems again. I am able to connect and comment because I still have the IP addresses in my hosts file on this machine.
104.21.234.50 freethoughtblogs.com
104.21.234.51 freethoughtblogs.com
Had those entries in my /etc/hosts too, it didn’t even cross my mind that people were having trouble resolving. I figured it was an exceptionally unusual slow day.
Is Deathlord at it again? Does Ed Brayton require tribute? I hope we find out soon…
Follow-up on the Starlink speed cap.
Telegraph – Musk approached Trump to slow down Starlink in Ukraine (Oct 16)
Mark Chadbourn – Who Betrayed Ukraine? (Oct 15)
Wonkette – Hi and bye to Katie Zacharia
Yahoo Finance: “‘Flying cars are real!’ Elon Musk and Tesla showcase the new Roadster. [Video clip]”
Wired – Here’s exactly how Tesla made its new 230-mph car ‘fly’
Commentary
Teslas have been going airborne, in a bad way, for years.
Kyiv Independent – Zelensky confirms Ukraine’s Starlink access not fully restored
* Previously Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and a former advisor to the defense minister had said the cap was gone on Oct 15. A source in Ukraine’s drone industry that day had said, “in some cases, it works perfectly, in some places it does not.”
Wierd – Elon Musk is almost single-handedly funding the Republican midterms push
* Prior stories about America PAC. Yep, the abusive Blitz contractor is still at it.
https://freethought.online/@hjhornbeck
Haaretz – Kamala Harris says Biden should have done more to stop Israel’s ‘horrific conduct’ in Gaza (Oct 14)
From the previously linked Harris’ 2025 book tour:
Atlantic – Excerpt from Kamala Harris book, 107 Days (2025)
WSJ – Why U.S. airstrikes are failing to stop the global cocaine boom
Rando: “lol. The only price coming down during Trump’s presidency is cocaine. You can’t make this up.”
The Handbasket – ‘Tommy’ from viral El-Sayed video is former Sen. Hawley staffer with Christian nationalist ties
* [Video] JFK – Address on religion (At 12:53)
* Wikipedia – Do you condemn Hamas?
Commentary
Adjacent to the gotcha question @20.
Jan Crawford (CBS chief legal correspondent) tweeted:
Commentary
Justin Baragona (Zeteo):
Rando: “The key is she’s apologizing to CBS News for violating company policy, not apologizing to Abdul for baselessly calling him a terrorist sympathizer.”
Justin Baragona: “On the same day […] she also tweeted her thanks to Andrew Fox—who doesn’t believe Palestinians exist—for all of his efforts. [Screenshots]”
TheNewRepublic – CBS’s head of standards quits as Bari Weiss expands her influence (Oct 16, two days earlier)
Crossover between the former press secretary and the DC public golf course.
WaPo – Zacharia posts altered photos of Trump’s Oval Office desk (Oct 17)
WaPo – Trump shares plan to overhaul East Potomac golf course (Oct 18)
Dan Diamond (WaPo):
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “This design appears to completely eliminate the much-beloved loop road and public park at Hains Point, and cut down the cherry trees which line the road. The park is a public space used by tens of thousands of Washingtonians and heavily visited by tourists. [Photos]”
Rando 1: “This will completely ruin the courses of the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, DC Half, and the Marine Corps Marathon—the nation’s largest amateur-only marathon—specifically the Blue Mile part of the course that honors military members who have given their lives in service. Ruining a military memorial in order to build a golf course is uhhh a choice.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick:
Bluesky thread of humorous disavowals (and sometimes avowals) of brotherhoods (and/or sisterhoods). And also serious comments on the topic (Ted Cruz just lies and tweeted that the disavowal did not occur).
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:qrz3lhbyuxbeilrc6nekdqme/feed/3017fd05f112
Jesus fell one more time.
Priest in Ecuador killed by falling crucifix during live streamed Mass
Wikipedia – Christ Carrying the Cross
Wikipedia – Stations of the Cross, Scriptural form
Follow-up on the French protests.
TheConversation – School protests focus attention on the chequered history of public order policing in France (Oct 8)
France24 – France faces reckoning after violent protest weekend (Oct 19)
The Guardian – ‘If we burn, you burn’: Protests across France—in pictures (Oct 17)
ProPublica – A few months into his second term, Trump DHS appointees asked their cybersecurity agency to secretly acquire a voting machine—and hack it
Eiynah Mohammed-Smith (Polite Conversations):
Commentary
Owen Barcala (NM civil litigator):
Rando 1: “the Mexicans calling themselves Americans before the Americans called themselves Americans”
Rando 2: “technically Mexico is also the United States.”
Mediaite – Trump sparks fury by reviving antisemitic trope at rally
Eric Columbus: “In 2014 Biden said ‘Shylock.’ The difference, of course, is that he apologized and didn’t do it again. [Politico article]”
CNN: ‘You Can See Everything’ becomes one of the biggest documentary releases in decades
The descriptions I have seen is that on one level it’s a straightforward documentary of Holmes, her instance she is innocent and what she goes through preparing for prison. The movie portraying her in a more human light while not buying into her innocence. On another level it’s a meta commentary on the documentary process and how Holmes is trying to generate sympathy with it. Parts are also a view of the personal connection and grift business in Silicon Valley. It’s apparently very good if you can stand the 3 hour running time.