Hackwhackers

Monday, September 14, 2026

Skeets Of The Day

The Epstein-Trump files coverup --

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— Miaganga (@miaganga.bsky.social) September 14, 2026 at 9:17 AM

Operation Epic Quagmire / a hard lesson thanks to Trump / making excuses for Xi --

“.. With Saudi oil now blockaded, Americans are about to discover why maintaining stability in the Middle East and not handing it to a consortium of Russia and Iran was always important.” @jayinkyiv.bsky.social

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) September 13, 2026 at 8:04 AM

Trump excuses Xi for helping Iran kill US troops 👇 Q: On the topic of Xi, we recently reported Chinese entities may have provided Iranians w/ satellite imagery of airbases in Jordan-- TRUMP: He's behaved reasonably well. When they say China spies on us, I say, you're right, and we spy on them too.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 13, 2026 at 6:34 PM

The moron extortionist-in-chief --

The experiment visited upon us by too many of our fellow citizens to put the dumbest American who also thinks he’s an expert on every subject in charge of our govt is not going well. bsky.app/profile/atru...

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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) September 13, 2026 at 7:46 PM

Exclusive: Leaders of the Kennedy Center say the center is on the brink of bankruptcy and argue that putting the president’s name on its facade — and thus ensuring his fundraising efforts — may be the only way to avoid a “certain fiscal collapse.”

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— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) September 14, 2026 at 7:35 AM

Like compromised father, like compromised son, Putin puppets edition --

“This should be unthinkable for the son of the president. End of story.” A Russian oligarch close to Putin bankrolled Don Jr.’s wedding. www.propublica.org/article/dona...

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— Jesse Eisinger (@jeisinger.bsky.social) September 14, 2026 at 7:09 AM

"Why should I pay, when I can easily be bought?"

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— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) September 14, 2026 at 7:32 AM

Slava Ukraini!

🇺🇦💪

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— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) September 13, 2026 at 6:52 PM

Moscow Mitch returning to Senate in "Weekend at Bernie's" remake? --

It’s unclear if Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) will be back in the chamber Monday as the Senate reconvenes after a five-week recess. McConnell, 84, has not appeared in the Senate since June following a fall at home.

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— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) September 14, 2026 at 8:00 AM

Two new staff members were hired by Mitch McConnell today to help him get around as he returns to Congress

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— Michael Clear (@michaelclear.bsky.social) September 14, 2026 at 8:32 AM

It's Monday every day 🙄 McConnell’s Return Gives Kentucky Two Brain-dead Senators open.substack.com/pub/borowitz...

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— Susanbeth5781 (@susanpatrick1.bsky.social) September 14, 2026 at 7:45 AM

See BS's Norah O'Donnell shills for Trump regime --

CBS fluffs Hegseth. Hegseth fluffs CBS. As it was ordained months ago.

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— Bill Grueskin (@bgrueskin.bsky.social) September 13, 2026 at 9:34 PM

The "Trump Dividend" has an enthusiastic supporter 😄 --

$5000 Election Bribe

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— Brent Terhune (@brentterhune.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 4:40 PM

MAGA Congress Shrugs Off Concerns About AI

The MAGAt-controlled Congress has heard the alarms about AI's real risks of escaping human intervention, and imperiling us all, so.... they've decided to do nothing in the next few weeks. From Politico:

"The top executives running America’s most powerful artificial intelligence companies over the weekend agreed their industry needs to slow down — or risk humanity’s safety.
But the chance of Congress rushing to action in the coming weeks is next to zero.
One obstacle is the tight calendar before the midterms: Lawmakers return Monday, but the House is scheduled to leave by Friday and the Senate is already eyeing cutting their three-week session to two.
Another hurdle is the lack of momentum behind any plan. Senate Commerce could hold a markup of AI legislation this month, but it’s unclear a broad bipartisan AI safety bill being pushed by Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Amy Klobuchar will be finalized. Senators can’t yet agree on provisions that would hold AI labs legally accountable.
And some don’t think there’s a need to do anything right now: Senior House Republicans have largely stood in line with President Donald Trump, who has brushed aside concerns of an existential threat in light of the AI arms race against China." (our emphasis)

These "hurdles" and "obstacles" can be removed if the MAGA leadership wanted to. Calendars and business are self-imposed and moveable, but the profoundly ignorant and dangerous Malignant Fascist sees this as only as a technological race with China about something he doesn't understand. To him, AI produces the slop that he and Natalie shitposts in the middle of the night when he should be tucked in bed, so all is good.

BONUS: Politically, the MF and his cult are on the wrong side of the issue, bigly.

Today's Tomorrow Cartoon

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"The Trump Zone" isn't far off of what right-wing media / podcasters spew out every day in praise of their cult leader, the deranged and corrupt Malignant Fascist. Up is down, bad is good, etc., in their delusional, backward-facing, fact-free world. We'll change it eventually, but we need at least two elections where we defeat them overwhelmingly.

Please consider supporting Tom's work by going here.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

The good:

It's after Labor Day. Polls matter and polling gets more accurate. Dems continue to add to their generic lead. We still need the turnout in early voting and in November at the polls. We should be bullish but not complacent.

The bad:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries and other infrastructure used to produce and distribute diesel, saying the attacks are causing a global shortage. He spoke after diesel prices in the U.S. hit a record on Friday, soaring past $6 a gallon on average.
Ukraine has for months been targeting Russia’s oil and gas industry with long-range strikes, prompting fuel rationing across the country and causing Moscow to ban diesel exports in July, removing supplies from the already tight global market.
But the global crunch also came after the war on Iran curtailed oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Fuel prices are weighing on Americans as they prepare to vote in midterm elections in November.
Trump was asked by a reporter if he had spoken with Zelenskyy following his recent conversation with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. He responded by calling on Zelenskyy to halt strikes against Russia. [Ed.: of course the compromised dolt got his marching orders from his boss/ blackmailer.]
“Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the Irish Open, which is being played at his Doonbeg golf club.
“We spoke to Mr. Zelenskyy about it. There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel, because that’s hurting, that’s hurting the world,” he said... (our emphasis)

Daddy Putin told the Malignant Fascist he wanted the strikes on his oil refineries stopped, and the MF (his Washington, DC, regional manager) hopped to it. Meanwhile his Daddy is stabbing him in the back by his full support of Iran in the war. Even Rupert's Wall Street Journal had to slam the MF's blatant ass- smooching treatment of his Daddy. But don't worry, he's not going to get on his Daddy's bad side =cough= Epstein files =cough=. (BTW, Daddy Putin also has Junior in his employ.)

The ugly:

One MAGA candidate’s post on X has turned into a Texas Republican civil war.
Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, posted a photo of students celebrating a University of Texas football win on Sunday morning.
He captioned it: “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.”

The photograph showed a huge, diverse crowd of students, many of whom appeared to be people of color.
Texas senator John Cornyn, 74, who was defeated in a primary by President Donald Trump’s preferred candidate, the scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, was appalled by the post.
“This is the Republican nominee for statewide office. Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized,” Cornyn, who has become a rebel within his own party, said.
“This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.”
French jumped on his comments, replying that “John Cornyn says we should accept decline.”
Doubling down on the implication in his previous post, he said: “Generations of Texans have invested billions of dollars into UT. Today it is filled with foreign nationals and Leftists who boo Ted Cruz...The voters I talk to want to return our institutions to serving the interests of citizens.”
Senator Ted Cruz, 55, of Texas was booed loudly at the college ball game as he appeared on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday in Austin... (bwahahaha)

We would love to have French, a venture capitalist vulture, and a graduate of Texas "Christian" University, compete with these students in terms of the contribution they'll make to society as doctors, entrepreneurs, scientists, teachers, etc. French also has a history of racist statements on social media that goes back years. But, to summarize, not every Republican is a racist, but every racist is a Republican. Jon Rosenthal is the Democratic running against this racist loon; contribute here if you wish.

Sunday, September 13, 2026

Across The Universe, Cont.

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From NASA / ESA, September 3, 2026: This sprawling cosmic vista and subject of today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month comes from the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC. The LMC is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit our Milky Way galaxy. At just 160 000 light-years away, the LMC offers a close look at highly active stellar birthsites like the nebula shown here. This nebula is named LHA 120-N44, or N44 for short, and it’s located in the constellation Dorado.

The appearance of this photogenic nebula is dominated by two features: a vast central void and a shell of dense, dusty gas. The central void is a ‘superbubble’ spanning roughly 210 by 140 light-years. The glittering stars at the centre of the void are responsible for its creation; through their powerful stellar winds and explosive supernovae, these stars have expelled much of the gas from which they were born.

When the stars of N44’s central star cluster swept away this gas, the expelled gas formed a shell around the superbubble. New stars are forming in this compressed gas shell, making N44 an interesting target for researchers studying the process of star formation. In particular, astronomers have turned to this nebula as an ideal place to time this process from start to finish. Their goal is to understand how long it takes from the collapse of cold gas clouds into dense knots to the moment nuclear fusion ignites in the heart of a newborn star.

Researchers used Hubble to survey N44 and take a census of its stars, cataloguing nearly half a million stars within the cluster as well as interlopers drifting in front of it. Of the stars surveyed, nearly 30 000 are what astronomers call pre-main-sequence stars, which have yet to begin fusing hydrogen into helium in their cores. This treasure trove of baby stars was discoverable thanks to the high sensitivity and fine spatial resolution of Hubble’s instruments that can pick out faint objects in crowded clusters.

The gas shell surrounding the superbubble is energised by ultraviolet radiation from massive stars, causing it to glow and highlighting several distinct features. Each feature within the broader N44 star-forming complex was catalogued by astronomer Karl Henize in the 1950s. One feature is a smaller bubble, catalogued as N44F, that is located near the upper-right corner of this image. N44F is an interstellar bubble blown by the intense stellar winds of a single hot and massive star. As this previously released Hubble closeup shows, the star’s furious winds and radiation have sculpted the surrounding bubble and created pillars of dusty gas.

The data used to create this image come from an observing programme (#14689; PI: Gouliermis) that aimed to probe stars in the N44 complex that have not yet begun fusing hydrogen into heavier elements in their cores. These data help to determine how long the process of star formation takes, as well as what masses newborn stars typically have. Hubble's sensitive observations of the lowest-mass stars in this region open a new window onto star formation in regions that, like the LMC or the galaxies of the early Universe, are poor in elements heavier than helium.

[Image Description: A dense field of stars fills the image, surrounded by wispy clouds of gas and dust. Pale blue and grey nebulosity forms an intricate web across the scene, with darker clouds of dust concentrated towards the lower right. Numerous bright stars appear in shades of blue, white and orange.]

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Gouliermis

Today's Cartoons

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(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Paresh Nath, caglecartoons.com, India)

(Dave Granlund, politicalcartoons.com)

(Bob Englehart, caglecartoons.com)

(Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News)

(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(David Horsey, The Seattle Times)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Martin Rowson, The Guardian, UK)

(Dennis Goris, @dennisgoris)

Scenes From Dublin's Protest Against Trump

As the sick and unhinged Malignant Fascist spends his weekend at the Irish Open at his Doonbeg golf resort -- while Americans struggle with higher prices and the consequences of his toxic policies -- the Irish people chose to show their complete contempt for the MF. Pictures from their demonstrations:

And our personal favorite, the MF taking it from his war partner Israel's Netanyahu:

(photo credits from top: Kin Chung / AP; Leah Farrell / Rolling News; Charles McQuillan / Getty; PA; Natalia Campos / Reuters)

QOTD: Excaping Containment [UPDATED]

Kate Conger and Mike Issac of the New York effing Times look at the growing concerns that AI is developing too rapidly and will begin to rule itself, causing the heads of manor AI companies to call for a pause in its development:

"Discussions about A.I. safety have been around about as long as the technology itself. But their urgency ramped up in recent years as researchers made breakthroughs.
The concerns heightened in July after OpenAI disclosed that some of its A.I. models had escaped containment and hacked Hugging Face, an A.I. company. A.I. researchers questioned whether they could control the very systems they were building, with employees at OpenAI, Anthropic and Google’s DeepMind gathering to discuss what to do, nine of the people said. Many agreed that A.I. was being built too rapidly.”

"Escaped containment" reminds us of the computer HAL in "2001: A Space Odyssey" who refused to obey orders, but in a much more confined situation. AI's ability for Recursive Self-Improvement (RSI) is the process that concerns the developers, which allows the technology to "improve" without human intervention. Hopefully our situation isn't too late, before we find ourselves ruled by digital dictators wanting to get intrusive humans -- including their tech bro creators -- out of their way.

UPDATE: The deranged moron MF is still pushing full speed ahead for AI despite the warnings. He needs that AI slop that Natalie's constantly feeding him.

(Image credit: BlackJack3D via Getty Images)

Sunday Reflection

"The public does not like you to mislead or represent yourself to be something you're not. And the other thing that the public really does like is the self-examination to say, you know, I'm not perfect. I'm just like you. They don't ask their public officials to be perfect. They just ask them to be smart, truthful, honest, and show a modicum of good sense." -- former Dem Governor of Texas Ann Richards (9/1/1933 - 9/13/2006), from a January 2001 interview with Larry King. What a difference from MAGA politicians and their cult leader, especially the disgraceful candidate they have for the Senate in Texas, Ken Paxton. She was famous for her wit and one-liners delivered in a true Texas drawl and would have absolutely eviscerated Paxton and the unhinged Malignant Fascist.

Richards was also the mother of women's rights activist and head of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards (7/15/1957 - 1/20/2025), passing on her legacy of advocacy for women.

(photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel/Wikimedia Commons)

Saturday, September 12, 2026

Today's Cartoons

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(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(R.J. Matson, caglecartoons.com)

(Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Canada)

(Clay Jones, claytoonz.substack.com)

(Gary Markstein, Creators.com)

(Rick McKee, caglecartoons.com)

(Tim Campbell, Tribune Content Agency)

(Nick Anderson, Raw Story)

(Ruben Bolling, gocomics.com)

(Michael Ramirez, Las Vegas Review-Journal)

(Banx, Financial Times, UK)

Skeets of the Day

Operation Epic Quagmire: escalation, Houthis hoo boy, Saudi oil, choke points --

This makes me think his real plan (such as he has plans) is a post-election escalation, if Democrats win. And not just because he lies so promiscuously.

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— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler.bsky.social) September 11, 2026 at 6:12 PM

Houthis just filmed a warehouse full of US-made armor they took off Saudi-backed forces after Mocha fell. Shot on an iPhone. Such a damaging image! The coalition’s decade-long war in Yemen is ending in captured American equipment & open humiliation.

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— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) September 12, 2026 at 8:07 AM

Houthis swept down Yemen's Red Sea coast in 36 hours, taking Mocha and Perim Island while Saudi air support never showed up. MBS called Trump twice asking him to strike the Houthis — Trump said no.

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— Fared Al Mahlool | فريد المحلول (@faredalmahlool.bsky.social) September 12, 2026 at 7:18 AM

Thanks to Trump's incompetence, Iran and its proxies now control two of the biggest choke points for oil tankers that literally keep the global economy moving and Trump's response is to go watch a golf tournament in Ireland. Media shrugs.

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— scarylawyerguy.bsky.social (@scarylawyerguy.bsky.social) September 12, 2026 at 5:3 AM

Pedophile Party kicks Epstein survivors out of their tawdry convention --

“They treated us like we were criminals” 😕

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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) September 12, 2026 at 12:28 AM

Contractor admits doing a shoddy job on the Reflecting Pool while Trump lies --

The contractor that renovated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has told the Trump administration that errors in its own work and flaws in the repair plan, not vandalism, caused the pool’s new blue liner to peel and break loose, documents show.

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— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) September 11, 2026 at 1:55 PM

The corrupt Malignant Fascist's bribe offer blindsided his party "leaders" --

“.. Of course they didn’t know. No one knew it was coming. .. It’s a bad idea. There’s no need for it economically and it looks desperate politically.” @washingtonsun.bsky.social @jeffstein.bsky.social washingtonsun.com/congress/key...

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) September 12, 2026 at 7:20 AM

On brand --

The Republican Party is a magnet for child molesters.

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— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) September 11, 2026 at 10:56 PM

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— Secular Talk (@kylekulinskishow.bsky.social) September 11, 2026 at 1:36 PM

Creativity, Practicality Made Small Space Great

Architectural Digest takes a look at how one guy and his creative interior designer, Phoebe Kut, made a small apartment in New York City's Chinatown a cool, livable home. Lots of ideas for people in larger spaces to think creatively, too.

A Truth-ful Notice

Half of Hackwhackers' GREAT staff (some say GREATEST) will be away for a couple of days. The dum HATERS and LOSERS will be happy that blogging may be LIMITED. But we will continue to FIGHT more than anyone ever thought possible until ultimate VICTORY and the MOON IS OURS! Thank you for your attention to this matter!