Poetic Justice
Buck Banks | Sep. 1, 2026
Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario has created a litmus test —
Yield, and rename it Lake America, at Donald Trump’s behest,
Like Google and Apple, which already capitulated,
Changing the name just like Dear Leader stipulated,
But there’s one defiant holdout — the original mapping site, Mapquest.
Verbatim
“They’ve invested heavily in AI labs. They’ve invested heavily in data centers. So, the first family has a financial stake in this industry, and as a result, the president of the United States is compromised.”
— “Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) on Monday said President Trump will likely not heed calls from technology leaders to implement guardrails on the development of artificial intelligence because of his family’s investments in the industry,” NewsNation reports.
“Young Americans today have never witnessed Congress authorize a war, they’ve never seen a U.S. administration balance its books, they’ve never watched a well-funded and empowered state department operate, and they see only mistrust between allies. They assume the situation is normal. It is not. … The real cost of forgetting the pre-9/11 world is not a country that has changed, but one that no longer knows it could be different.”
— Jane Haman
“We’re working through some political issues in Israel. I think we agree with them on the end state. They just have a crazy election, and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards.”
— Jared Kushner, quoted by CBS News, on the lack of progress in Gaza.
Numerati
470
Reuters has documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.
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$184 million
“Iranian strikes have damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures at bases across the Middle East, and caused about $184 million worth of damage at U.S. diplomatic facilities, according to a Pentagon watchdog report,” the Washington Post reports. “The inspector general’s report to Congress on Operation Epic Fury — the Trump administration’s name for the war with Iran — also details the extent of U.S. munitions shortages, in the first comprehensive public accounting of the war, which is now in its seventh month.”
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50%
Half (50%) of U.S. adults say they are either very concerned (23%) or somewhat concerned (27%) about the possibility that AI will cause the end of humanity, a new YouGov survey finds. Another 39% of Americans say they’re not very concerned (21%) or not at all concerned (17%) about an AI apocalypse, while 11% aren’t sure.
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38%
A majority of Americans ages 55 and up and a majority of Republicans of all ages support the use of Flock technologies in their communities, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from August 28 to 31. Split by age, party, education level and gender, no other demographic group had a majority of support for the cameras. Among age groups, younger Americans were the least likely to support Flock, with only 21% of respondents aged 18 to 34 in favor of the technology.
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31%
About one-third (31%) of Americans strongly or somewhat approve of how the U.S. Supreme Court is handling its job, according to the latest Economist/YouGov Survey, while 53% disapprove. Almost all Democrats disapprove of the Supreme Court’s job handling (12% approve and 79% disapprove), while most Republicans approve (63% vs. 26%). Republicans who say they’re MAGA supporters overwhelmingly approve of the Supreme Court’s job handling (73% vs. 19%), while non-MAGA Republicans are more closely divided (49% vs. 36%).
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Considering that American business continues to shed employees in large numbers, Rick Scott is actually living up to his statement. I just wish that Florida could fire him as he deserves before he does even more damage to their economy.
I’m curious: nationwide, the economy has bottomed out and is on the upswing (though certainly not “good”)… the private sector is adding jobs at roughly the same pace as the public sector is shedding them… what’s going on worse than average in Florida? I mean, there’s the obvious: public employee layoffs (like teachers, firefighters, etc.) and the Space Center, but what else? Are companies skittish about the state’s punitive, exclusionary social policies (the gay adoption thing, for example)? I mean, Florida has no personal income tax, and the overall tax burden in the state is far lower than the national average… why do companies shy away from doing business there, wonder?
Nik, Florida is still a tourist economy in many ways. In addition, we were hit very hard by the real estate crash.
What about Sick Rott’s promise to create 700,000 in Florida, a refrain he repeated daily during the campaign? Not only has he not created ONE job–he is going backwards by thousands!
This man is a liar and a bigot and much worse, a zealot! He literally bought the governorship with campaign lies and is wholly unfit to serve as governor of any state, much less Florida! He must go–we cannot survive four years of this grifter!
The people of Florida were very foolish to vote in a Republican. It’s not as if they didn’t know what Republican ideology can do to the economy, for Heaven’s sake, President Bush just about destroyed the US and his maebrian brother was no supporter of democracy while governor of Florida so the people deserve what they get.
all dems know scott is a liar and cheat. JEB, and his partner in crime, katherine harris, were only thieves of the democratic process. but MAEBRIAN ? HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT ?
i can’t even find that one in the OED
The Dems have been studiously ignoring the broken election system that allowed shrub to be selected in the first place. One of Jeb’s poison pills in FL was ordering that the position of County Supervisor of Elections become a POLITICAL position rather than a professional one. There is now NO OVERSIGHT, since the rethuglican political machine rubber stamps whatever result tan method they use to steal an election – no chance for an independent audit and firing/discipline. Alex Sink was expected to win the governor’s race, but – SURPRISE! – Sick Rott came out ahead, and the media had their orders to go along with it. The Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections, Kathy Dent, overriding many objections, ordered millions of dollars in voting machines from Diebold that were scrapped two years later, to be replaced with hackable machines from her buddies at ES&S. To start getting back to a reliable election system we have to get rid of the crop of “republican activist” Election Supervisors moles that Jeb Bush enabled. This same Kathy Dent is the one who “lost” 18,000 votes from a Dem area so that Vern Buchanan could squeak into office, and then gave him (and herself) 67% of the votes next time around. This is just CORRUPT.
Wake up Dems!