I don't know, just include something that uses the word "memes" or "cat." It's not like anyone's going to read this anyway.

August 18, 2026 Frank Beard, ZZ Top drummer, age 77
Idaho Café Owner Kicks Pro-Life Conservatives Out of His Establishment, Compares Them to KKK
August 18, 2026

□ [“St. Louis TV Station in a Fight to Retrieve Its Archive After Cloud Company Went Bust"]

In the near-future, this is going to be a big issue for a lot of companies.  This PBS station had a contract with a cloud storage unit but something interfered so now they've lost everything.  Now they've lost their history and needed to work out who to sue to regain access to the storage.  This is a major problem and we're going to see how many companies have to face this.

This is why physical units are so important and, at least anecdotally, appears to be growing in popularity these days.  It's most notable for movies and tv shows, probably music and I'm sure other mediums are following.  You pay the company for a copy of their product, it does not mean renting it on your computer until they turn it off for whatever reason, or modify it to promote the current *woke* agenda.  It's why I don't consider my books complete until I have received physical copies.

This does create extra problems with storage, finding a place to maintain everything and making back-up copies.  Things can still go wrong but at least there's less of a chance.  I was always pleased at keeping my vhs tapes just in case they were needed, I even bought a spare vcr when I realized that dvds would be taking over soon.  Even without a television to play them on,  I was glad to store them and still feel bad that all of it was lost for personal reason a couple years ago.  But at least I did the work and maybe someone somewhere can still use those tapes.

I think the current cloud storage system is going to collapse soon, either from something going on in the World War or the companies and government behind it will just shut it off to prove they can.  Over the years there's also been any number of anecdotes about companies upgrading their files to the new version which then stopped working somehow so they were screwed.  By the same token, I wasn't surprised to learn many years ago that the Army still maintains and uses those ancient media systems precisely so they can still access original old material.  The government will be able to do this, they don't want the rest of us to have that opportunity.  This new technology helps them erase the past.

Minnesota “Outstanding Refugee” Award Recipient Defrauded Medicaid for $1 Million+ with Help From Sex-Trafficking Ring
August 18, 2026

□ [“DOJ to Deploy Record 1,000 Federal Monitors to Polling Places Nationwide for Midterms"]

On the one hand, that doesn't sound too big, that only averages 20 monitors per state and there are probably more than a thousand polling places in the US.  But it also says they only monitored 86 jurisdictions in 2024 so this is obviously a large increase.  They're probably aimed at the most likely tampering suspects so this is covering more targets.  As always, I'll be negative but we'll have to see.

We will also see how it goes without illegal immigrants voting.  Trump has announced that over 24000 have been found in the 2020 election with many millions of votes left to count and has declared that he actually won.  I assume we can all agree that's what happened but it's one of the down-sides of such big leftist schemes is that it takes so long to verify and then there's nothing to be done about it.  Some of us demand payback, where do we get that?

As much as I continue to insist the left will successfully steal the midterms, I will also point out how much work the Trump 2.0 administration has put into keeping that from happening.  There's all the defunding of NGOs, there's kicking out illegal immigrants and exposing as much of the fraud as possible.  Then there's the way the left has just delusionally insisted they'll win everything next time and aren't shy about the tyranny they want to impose on us.  The stereotype about 'mid-terms' shouldn't be happening this time around, both sides should be wanting the enemy crushed as badly as possible.

If there's any justice, it's the left that should be hit the hardest.  You can see that with their members suddenly trying to pretend they're patriotic in the most-idiotic ways, or just plain admitting their side is nuts.  And that's just those who are speaking out, a lot more would be quietly vanishing.  Only the most dedicated blue spots should easily win the election and even they might be facing more problems than they're used to.

Anoka County, MN, Prosecutor Charged in Sex Trafficking Ring — Used Shell Companies to Hide Profits
August 18, 2026

□ [“Disney Sues FCC to Protect ABC’s Public Airwaves After Leftist Network Faces License Audit"]

There's a number of legal issues going on these days.  I'm not sure if it's becaues we're getting close to the mid-terms or if it's just the way things work but there's judges ruling that illegal immigrants can hide in churches because of course leftists support that.  20 states are suing DC to protect illegals as truck drivers.  Minnesota is suing Texas over sending back a member of ICE because apparently that's who federal agents work for or something.  All of this is relevant, possibly even more relevant than Disney, but my perspective is focusing on these producers of illusion and propaganda with their IPs.

Disney owns several tv stations - I think studios own a few but are limited to that for some reason - and these are being hit by the FCC for their pro-DEI hiring practices, i.e. blatant discrimination.  Disney supports that so they're fighting back but this also connects to some of the programs they produce.  The daily The View show, late-night talk shows, there's an issue on whether or not these qualify as "news shows."  Every time I look in to the specifics I immediately stop giving a f*ck so I don't know how that issue applies to these shows, but Disney and the FCC do know and are very concerned about what is being broadcast in compliance with the law.

I am focused on Disney, not because I care about their tv shows or networks but because I think they are a major part of modern leftism and the *woke* agenda.  The enormous reach they have in pop culture is astounding, and if it's not still growing, it's only because they've created their own failures.  It's not clear when they became a leftist icon but they have been one for a long time.  Star Wars and Marvel are the franchises I pay attention to but it's easy to find others that are owned by the mouse.  My favorite band for the last 35 years has been Queen and after years of bouncing from one record company to another, they signed with a Disney sub-company and have stayed there.

So they are a peak source of modern leftism and as such are on the front-lines as pushing this onto the rest of us.  They've always assumed that their way is the only way to go and government must comply with their wishes.  Here they are fighting to decide what benefits their tv shows get and protect their ABC stations, ABC having always been part of Disney's plans even before they purchased the network.  They've always been close so that's why I think this particular legal fight is very important to them.  Do they have to submit to the government or vice-versa?

Key Architect of Trump Impeachment/Ukraine Hoax Alex Vindman Loses to Socialist in Florida Primary
August 18, 2026

□ [“Russia Expands Strikes on Ukraine’s Critical Infrastructure"]

I would be taking this more seriously if it wasn't for the obvious question, 'why do they still have any critical infrastructure?'  You've been invading them for four and a half years!  The critical infrastructure should have gone the way of the dodo back in 2024.  You really expect us to believe you finally had this brilliant idea?  It sounds like Ukraine doesn't really have a military anymore, just drones.  Which is fine to an extent but there's not much you can do with them against a real enemy.  But apparently Russia isn't a real enemy, so what are you complaining about?

It's also ambivalent how much support Ukraine is really getting from the west at this point.  I'm not sure any *real* news is coming from this war any longer and it looks like most people are just ignoring it anyway.  Russia is threatening the UK and the EU for the support they do provide, or attacking Russian ships.  Hopefully that's their problem, not ours.  It would be nice to think that the US has totally dropped support and that's why we're ignoring the war these days.  But then, based on what news we are getting, I don't really see how Ukraine is in a different position than Iran is these days and that doesn't seem to be ending any time soon either.

I still try to figure out if this war really is connected to our fight against Iran, or China, or leftism in general.  Partially it's just Russia and Ukraine's problems that go back for centuries but you could say that about Persia and the rest of the world.  It's the way leftists have been connected to these wars for so long that makes me suspicious, it's not like the fight between (for instance) India and Pakistan which is quite important to those people but not to anyone else.  But the left stayed focused on this war for the first few years until they moved on.  Still no explanation but this looks like a problem they really wanted to create.

Abdul El-Sayed’s Mother Worked for Terror Group That Funded Osama bin Laden, Taliban, Hamas
August 18, 2026