Is this tree green?

When I first moved here, about 20 years ago or so, Columbus Day weekend was the traditional peak of the autumn color season. Now, as you can see, not so much.

All this time it’s been the Russians spoiling everything (those meenies)

The Breakthrough: How a Reporter Uncovered Widespread Russian Meddling — In the Olympics

When it came time to test the athletes during the Olympics, Russian agents replaced tainted urine samples with clean ones in the dead of night through a hole in the wall of a testing laboratory.

Stop! Please stop!

https://goo.gl/cWLi7K

Democrats arrive at peak stupid

Democrats look to wreak havoc in GOP primaries

The idea: Elevate the GOP's most extreme option in each race, easing Democrats' path to victory in a range of states tilted against them.

https://goo.gl/qmcscY

They haven't had enough of "extreme options" yet?

The near miss

Arrested drunk man claims he time traveled to warn of aliens

The man told police he was only able to time travel because aliens filled his body with alcohol. He noted that he was supposed to be transported to the year 2018, not this year.

https://goo.gl/NGwckY

Me, I'm a time traveler from the past and I can totally relate.

Who’s bringing the jelly?

Pay your NMSU parking citation with peanut butter

https://goo.gl/gwBUaf

Wait, we're talking about REelecting this guy now?

Republicans Stand by Trump as Majority of Americans Oppose His Re-Election

https://goo.gl/6ygx8S

Commie salmon!

NKorean workers prepare seafood for US stores, restaurants

HUNCHUN, China (AP) — The workers wake up each morning on metal bunk beds in fluorescent-lit Chinese dormitories...

This means Americans buying salmon for dinner at Walmart or ALDI may inadvertently have subsidized the North Korean government as it builds its nuclear weapons program, an AP investigation has found. 

Read the full story

Sent from AP News. Download now on the App Store or Google Play

LOL Well, maybe IQ isn’t everything

NYU professor Scott Galloway: Big tech regulation is coming

"If you pit the U.S. administration against Amazon," Galloway said, Amazon comes out on top. "The collective IQ of the administration right now versus Amazon is woefully undermatched."

https://goo.gl/BNY9eU

This is very possibly a true statement, I get it, but still. We can hope, can't we?

This is getting to look more and more like a banana republic every day

You gotta be…wait…really?

IRS awards multimillion-dollar fraud-prevention contract to Equifax

A contract award for Equifax's data services was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities database Sept. 30 — the final day of the fiscal year. The credit agency will "verify taxpayer identity" and "assist in ongoing identity verification and validations" at the IRS, according to the award.

https://goo.gl/54oR2F

If you haven't changed your passwords yet, better get going

Yahoo Data Breach: More Than 3 Billion Users Affected By Hack

A massive data breach at Yahoo in 2013 was far more extensive than previously disclosed, affecting all of its 3 billion user accounts, new parent company Verizon Communications Inc. said on Tuesday.

Equifax hack affected 2.5M more Americans than first believed

The national credit bureau revealed Monday that another 2.5 million people are believed to have gotten their personal information swiped during the cyber attack — bringing the total up to 145.5 million.

Now we get down to it

Russians took a page from corporate America by using Facebook tool to ID and influence voters - The Washington Post

https://goo.gl/5aZnLM

Yep, the same advertising technology that sells you Wells Fargo bank and Equifax, not to mention the R's and the D's, is what allowed those sneaky Russians to weaponize (in the overwrought lingo of MSNBC commentators) the information battlespace (ditto) that is Facebook to attack (ditto the ditto) our recent presidential election.

"These are the same methods and sophisticated tools that the pharmaceutical companies were using, that big oil companies were using," said Philip N. Howard of Oxford University's Computational Propaganda Project. "This was regular ad technology that regular advertisers use."

Facebook, of course, assures the Congress it can keep those pesky Reds from using the advertising tool they call "Custom Audiences" to make mischief in the future. 

But wait…

Custom Audiences also allowed a business to know when consumers had viewed a particular pair of shoes on a website so that they could be repeatedly shown an ad for those shoes on Facebook and elsewhere online. As consumers spent more time on social media, the tool became a driver of Facebook's ad business — and of the company's sevenfold increase in value since its initial public offering in 2012.

Italics mine. 

Trump has been bad for gun sales but this Las Vegas thing…

Gun maker stocks skyrocket after Las Vegas massacre | New York Post

Smith & Wesson parent American Outdoor Brands jumped 2.3 percent in morning trade, Sturm, Ruger & Co. shares climbed 3.7 percent and Vista Outdoor shares rose 1.4 percent.

https://goo.gl/YYSKn4

Brought to you by the letters N, C, S, A, and M

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

https://goo.gl/uhAX7m

Get busy and read about this stuff.

But what if the Associated press?… Oh, never mind

NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week

The Associated Press checked these out; here are the real facts:

https://goo.gl/KNZyXT

Just…Dunkin'?

Dunkin' Donuts dropping 'Donuts' from name and downsizing menu

Right now, most Dunkin' Donuts offer 30 varieties of doughnuts, but by the end of the month, most will offer only 18. If you're lucky, your Dunkin' will be one of the select stores that offer 24 different varieties, according to Nation Restaurant's News

And only 18 kind of donuts? That's horrible! Is this something the Russians are doing too? It's downright inhumane!

https://goo.gl/yG2Z5b
(Via Western Mass News)