Matthew Rozsa via Alternet.org:

‘Speaking with AlterNet last month, Dr. Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government at Harvard University, echoed Elias’ alarm about Trump trying to steal the midterms.

“I have no doubt that Trump is willing to order some sort of a coup against democracy to try to overturn the elections,” Levitsky told AlterNet. “He has shown over and over again that he is not a democrat and is perfectly willing to engage in really old-school authoritarian tactics to overturn elections.”

Levitsky added “We don’t know for sure whether he can get away with it. There are some troubling signs. One of them is that we’re just completely unprepared for a sort of radical seizure of power in this way. The courts have been pretty good, not great, on Trump’s efforts to sort of overstep his bounds on elections, but courts move slowly. And it’s just not at all clear, if on election night Trump were to order the seizure of ballot boxes, declare some kind of an emergency, mobilize troops, that courts could move quickly enough to stop it. So at the very least, it would create a massive, massive crisis.”…’

Nick Hilden via Alternet.org:

‘Garrison began by playing a clip from a recent Fox News interview, in which Trump declared that the price of oil is “going to go down like a rocket.” According to Garrison, “There were two neurological issues in this very short clip, both of them verbal. One is that he’s having speech planning issues, saying ‘going down like a rocket.’ Obviously, that’s combining phrases. He’s having a hard time organizing his thoughts. And second is an involuntary vocalization.” Here Garrison replays the clip, noting an abrupt sound Trump makes, explaining, “The pathways that deal with language are disrupted. We are seeing serious issues with language with President Trump.” What’s more, Garrison asserts that such vocalizations are “relatively new.”…’

Joe Wilkins via Futurism:

‘”Pentobarbital is not a painkiller, and when it is injected by the state, no one can say when a prisoner stops feeling pain.”…’

Lewis Dartnell via BBC Sky at Night Magazine:

‘Planet 9 is the hypothetical ninth planet in our Solar System. Has it finally been found?…’

Justyn Newman via PCMAG:

‘You’re not very likely to run into Wi-Fi scammers at home. Hackers could theoretically try to tap into your home network, but the chances of that are quite slim. Your main concern should be your ISP. Not only do these companies often lock you into their service out of regional dominance and monopoly, but many are also in the business of profiting from your personal data. After all, these services know just about everything you do online. A VPN will blind your ISP’s prying eyes and grant you significantly more control over your privacy.

Still, a VPN can’t stop all forms of snooping. Advertisers employ advanced techniques such as browser fingerprinting to identify you and your online habits. You’ll need to pair your VPN with tracker blockers and use browsers with built-in privacy tools for maximum effectiveness. That’s not to say a VPN is completely useless. It will make it harder for advertisers to maintain an up-to-date fingerprint of your activities. What it won’t do is remove that profile if one already exists….’

Suzanne Rowan Kelleher via Forbes:

‘Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio previewed a new U.S. passport redesign for 2028 featuring President Donald Trump’s likeness on the inside cover—as commercial passport services told Forbes the president’s image “appears to be non-negotiable.”…’

Ellyn Lapointe via Gizmodo:

‘The death of a 28-year-old lab worker at a plague research institute in Siberia has reawakened pandemic fears….’