Trick Or Treat ONT

Happy Halloween!

Election Thoughts

Swing State Voters Make Me Wanna Party Like It's Time for Cautious Optimism

"I'm out of clever things to say about Nevada, Pruser tweeted on Monday. "Ten days in, and Republicans will not stop." Twelve days in, and they're still going strong. Pruser also noted that both parties are running out of their most reliable, 3/3 voters — people who voted in three of the last three elections. Meanwhile, "Republicans expand their gains in low and no-frequency voters."

Silver has Nevada at 50/50, but the betting sites both have him at 66% odds.
It would be foolish to put Nevada in the bank for Trump, but the trends are good.
Nobody knows what effect Democrat shenanigans will have on the final totals, but looking at these early numbers, you'd much rather be in Trump's position than Harris's. 

Follow the link for news about the trends in Pa and NC too.

You Don't Hate The Press Enough

This is what passes for news these days.

‘It’s power at any cost’: JD Vance’s favorite Magic: The Gathering deck tells us all we need to know

In the Magic community there are always memes going around about what your deck says about you. Red is for all or nothing gamblers. Blue is for conceited Rick and Morty fans. Black is "either an edgelord or was an edgelord".
Almost all of this is light-hearted, and most players who spoke to The Independent said you can’t really tell much about a person’s deeper psychology by what cards they choose.
Still, people didn’t mince words about Yawgmoth’s Bargain. "Annoying and shitty to play against" was one Reddit user’s verdict. "You know the concept of a ‘power gamer’? Bargain players were power gamers," said another.
Some noted the philosophical implications of a black mana themed deck – the type you’d build around Yawgmoth’s Bargain – which is traditionally associated with "greed, ambition, dominance, wickedness, the dead and undead, vampires, demons, blood magic".
Kunce argues that there is a thematic resonance for his fellow former Marine as well. "The idea of it is a deal with the devil, right? You’re selling your soul for power. And it’s very fitting for the man whose favorite card it is,” he said. “It’s power at any cost, and that seems to be what he’s into."

Kunceis the same guy who hosted a photo op at a shooting range and wound up wounding a reporter. He was hit by fragments from a steel target. I mean, just look at this dog's breakfast of idiocy:

(Nurse Ratched is having a stroke right about now)

The idiot with Kunceis is Adam Kinzinger, the former “Republican” who the media loves to trot out as as supposed “Conservative”. They're shooting at steel targets. With long guns. At less than 10 feet. Kinzinger has his eye pro on to of his head, and his rifle has a gigantic scope. To make a shot at less than 10 feet. There's Tannerite on the table between the shooters and the targets! The longer you look, the worse it gets.

Open Borders

Inside America’s Fastest-Growing Criminal Enterprise: Sex Trafficking

At the barbecue joint off Route 75 in Dallas, Lisa pulls out her phone to show me the dozen or so online platforms that traffickers and pimps use to sell girls for sex. The platforms—which include apps like TikTok, OnlyFans, and Facebook—are chockablock with ads of women, usually wearing lingerie, their faces covered to prevent anyone guessing their age. The sheer number of ads is astonishing. “Each week, we track over 12,000 ads for women in Houston, 2,600 in San Antonio, 3,500 in Austin, and 14,000 in Dallas,” says Lisa.

I ask her if the sex trafficking of migrant girls had increased since the Biden administration threw open the border, leading to 8 million migrants crossing the southern border since 2021. “Yes,” she says. “Nearly all of my sex-trafficking rings now are migrant girls. The ads exploded within the first three months of the border being open. We started noticing new sites and ads in Spanish. That was very few before. Then sites dedicated to Latino girls popped up everywhere.” Since the border opened, Lisa added, over 90 percent of the ads are for migrant girls.
“If I wanted to, I could order a girl within 15 minutes,” Lisa says. “It’s that easy.”

If you've got a strong stomach, read the whole thing. It's horrific.

Halloween Feels

NOOOOOOOOO! ARTAX!!!!!!

AI In The News

AI Detects Mysterious Detail Hidden in a Famous Raphael Masterpiece

"Using deep feature analysis, we used pictures of authenticated Raphael paintings to train the computer to recognize his style to a very detailed degree, from the brushstrokes, the color palette, the shading and every aspect of the work," mathematician and computer scientist Hassan Ugail from the University of Bradford in the UK explained in December, when the researchers' findings were published.

"The computer sees far more deeply than the human eye, to microscopic level. "

Machine learning processes typically need to be trained on a vast pool of examples, something which isn't always available when it comes to a sole artist's life work. In this case, the team modified pre-trained architecture developed by Microscoft called ResNet50, coupled with a traditional machine learning technique called a Support Vector Machine.

The method has previously been shown to have a 98 percent accuracy level when it comes to identifying Raphael paintings. Usually, it's trained on whole pictures, but here the team also asked it to look at individual faces.

While the Madonna, the Child, and St John all show up as being created from the hand of Raphael, that's not the case of St Joseph. The researchers note that in previous debates over the painting's authenticity, St Joseph's face has been thought to be less well done than the others in the frame.

Fascinating.

How Do You Do, Fellow Football Fans?

Tim Walz Deletes Tweet Where He Badly Fumbles Football Terminology — Gets Roasted By Conservatives

On Sunday afternoon, Walz and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez played the football video game Madden NFL 25 live on Twitch. To promote the stream, both of them had clips posted on their respective social media accounts.

While playing the game against one another, the two discussed a variety of social issues while urging viewers to vote. The two also reacted live to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s controversial comments at Donald Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden.
In one now-deleted tweet, however, Walz appeared to badly flub a football term.
“@AOC can run a mean pick 6 — and I can call an audible on a play,” Walz said. “And we both know when you take the time to draw up a playbook, you’re gonna use it.”

This moron would climb a glass wall to see what's on the other side. “Run a pick 6”, good gawd. The Democrats claim he used to coach football too.

Fear Mongering?

Is the Left Preparing for War If Trump Wins?

By vilifying Trump as a despotic madman who must be stopped before he can commence his reign of terror, the regime’s propaganda apparatus not only slanders Trump but also pre-emptively threatens the reputation, as well as the livelihood and perhaps the liberty, of current military personnel. The point is to push the military against Trump: When the time comes to act, will you stand for democracy or side with a tyrant who sees the military only as an instrument to advance his personal interests? 

For instance, last week the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, quoted former Trump administration officials claiming that the Republican candidate is contemptuous of America’s armed forces and, according to Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, wishes he could command the same respect that Hitler commanded from his general officers. 

This is not the first time that Trump has been compared to Hitler or that Kelly, a retired Marine general, turned on his former commander-in-chief. Kelly was the key source for a story published before the 2020 election, also in the Atlantic and also by Jeffrey Goldberg, that alleged Trump had called American WWII soldiers buried in French cemeteries “suckers and losers.” 

Well, maybe. But I also note that the author is trying to sell a book, so...

All That Is Necessary For The Triumph Of Evil Is For Good Men To Do Nothing

Getting Past the "That's political-we can't talk about it!" Syndrome

It happens in wards and branches all over the world. A member will begin to talk about some doctrine in The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and a fellow member will shut them down with “Oh, that’s political. We can’t talk about it!”
Each time I hear that, I say, “Well! Hasn’t Satan been effective?! All he had to do was attach the word “political” to that doctrine, and he has effectively silenced the members of Christ’s church!”
In our work with Latter-day Saints for Life, a worldwide organization for Latter-day Saints who support the doctrine of the sanctity of life, we have heard from members who have had these experiences of being told to be quiet across the entire United States and in countries around the world. This seems to be a global issue that affects members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – and often members of other faiths as well.
Want to discuss the sanctity of life? Nope, that’s political.
Want to discuss the doctrine that gender is an essential characteristic of premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose? Not allowed, that’s political.
Want to discuss the doctrine of marriage as ordained of God between a man and a woman? Can’t do that, way too political to talk about.
Even, want to discuss the roles of fathers and mothers? No way, that is a touchy subject.
Tragically, I think Satan takes great delight in silencing the Saints of God with a giant “mute” button.

The article is from a LDS publication, but I see the same thing happening among more traditional denominations.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by the bonds of family:

posted by WeirdDave at 10:00 PM

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