Attention to the Unseen

U.S. and Israel draw up plans for renewed strikes on Iran after elections

From elsewhere — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:36:56 +0000

The New York Times reports: The U.S. and Israeli militaries have developed specific plans for renewed strikes against Iran after the American midterm elections, according to U.S. officials and other people briefed on the deliberations. As planning for a short but intensive operation progresses, the U.S. and Israeli militaries have stepped up exercises, flying planes over Iraq to practice strike maneuvers. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel this week to discuss new strikes, U.S....

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Billionaires want to buy this election. But it isn’t working

From elsewhere — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:36:41 +0000

David Wallace-Wells writes: Two weeks from now, the midterm elections will deliver an explosion of narrative meaning: about the country and its future, the president and his movement and his legacy. But the election cycle has already taught us a couple of very important things about money’s place in our democracy. One, after about a decade of national confusion on this point, the Republicans have shown themselves to be the unmistakable party of wealth, particularly the smash-and-grab kleptocratic variety. And...

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Trump wants to punish Ilhan Omar for exercising her right to free speech

From elsewhere — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:36:27 +0000

Jamelle Bouie writes: You can understand the Trump administration as, in its essence, a cargo cult devoted to the illiberal tradition in American politics. At every turn, it seeks to instantiate a society where, as the historian Steven Hahn writes, “rights-bearing may be defined or limited by specific rulers or be based on communities of race, ethnicity, religion, and gender” and where “civil and political standing tend to be marked by social and cultural exclusions.” To this end, it uses...

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Military heat ray weapon considered for use at border and also against citizens protesting

From elsewhere — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:36:06 +0000

CNN reports: The Pentagon has given the Department of Homeland Security permission to test a military-grade heat ray and develop tactics to potentially use it in operations at the southern US border, according to a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month and obtained by CNN. The heat ray, officially known as the Active Denial System, is a nonlethal weapon that shoots an invisible beam of electromagnetic waves that can reach a little more than half a mile...

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How ex-cops gained access to a massive surveillance network

From elsewhere — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:35:50 +0000

The Washington Post reports: When Andrae Wright left his job as an investigator at the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office in 2021, he handed in his gun and badge. But he kept something powerful: his log-in credentials for Flock, a police tool he used to search a vast network of roadside cameras tracking the locations of passing cars. In the five years after leaving the force, Wright searched the system more than 60 times without being stopped by anyone at the...

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Meta ordered to pay $25 billion penalty in New Mexico Cambridge Analytica case

From elsewhere — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:35:34 +0000

CNBC reports: Meta was ordered to pay $25 billion in penalties by a New Mexico court on Wednesday as part of a data privacy case that stemmed from the company’s Cambridge Analytica scandal from nearly a decade ago. The penalty, revealed in a court filing, comes after a jury in a Santa Fe courthouse found in September the social media giant liable for misleading state citizens about how it safeguards and collects user data and prevents harmful information from flourishing...

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Artificial intelligence is capitalism’s final destination

From elsewhere — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:35:18 +0000

Arundhati Roy writes: The auguries are raining down hard. Think or Sink. Comply or Die. Look Up or be Left Out. And so, with these not-so-gentle threats, it has come to pass that the Age of AI – Actual Idiocy, Actual Super Idiocy, Recursive Snowballing-Idiocy – is upon us. Heck, I’ve already used two dashes in this opening paragraph. That, as they say, is a tell. So, perhaps I haven’t written this essay at all. You’d have to use an...

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Music: Adam Bałdych — ‘Shine’

From elsewhere — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:34:56 +0000

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Hegseth meets with Netanyahu in Israel ahead of elections and possible escalation of Iran war

From elsewhere — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:06:03 +0000

CBS News reports: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth quietly visited Israel on Monday and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a senior U.S. military official who spoke to CBS News under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. A second source involved in the matter in Israel confirmed Tuesday morning that Netanyahu met Hegseth. The unannounced visit came just over a week before Netanyahu’s party faces elections. It also comes after President Trump floated resuming...

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Palestinian citizens face a painful choice in Israel’s election: To vote or not

From elsewhere — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:05:48 +0000

Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court of Israel to protest attempts to disqualify Palestinian citizen candidates from running in the upcoming elections. Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images By Tamir Sorek, Penn State Elections are typically framed as a choice for voters. For Palestinian citizens of Israel, however, the country’s national ballots pose more of a dilemma. Constituting about one-sixth of eligible voters in Israel, Palestinian citizens could hold the difference in a race expected to be close. But voting involves...

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