The ongoing saga around the collapse of the US Empire continues.

In this case, it's the surveillance state/corporate entities being more open about bullying and terrorizing people.

https://consortiumnews.com/2026/08/11/local-us-cops-adding-ai-drones-to-tech-surveillance/

Wanna see something really fucked up? Check out this small snippet from the article (emphasis mine) -

New Orleans was among the cities that received the FAA waiver for an automated drone-as-first-responder program. Police plan to expand their existing drone program to launch drones in response to 911 calls from the historic French Quarter later this year.

But residents were outraged after activists discovered that the city’s police department had changed internal rules to allow police drones to carry “weapons” with prior approval from the police superintendent, according to Edith Romero, an organizer with Eye on Surveillance. Police claimed the change was only a proposal added to a draft policy, but as Verite News pointed out, the file name for the “draft” document suggests the policy was meant to go into effect on June 21.

“Nobody knew; city council didn’t know, we had to announce it, and we mobilized people to start calling and start demanding that this be rescinded,” Romero told Truthout in an interview.

Police ditched the policy on drones carrying weapons after public outcry. On Aug. 6, the New Orleans City Council voted to require police to publicly publish regular drone flight logs and reports on usage and reasons for deployment. While the new ordinance addresses transparency, it does not place enforceable restrictions on drone use. Romero echoed residents who submitted public comments arguing the ordinance does not go far enough.

“We need to do an investigation of the policy violations that happened last year, and the change in policy that weaponized the drones before we can move toward an expansion,” Romero said, adding that there must be penalties for police who deploy drones for unapproved uses.

Buried underneath all the current and pending climate problems, was this little gem.

https://apnews.com/article/hottest-month-july-climate-change-4a9d612281485356103631f0f09b61af?utm_source=app&utm_medium=iOS_share&utm_campaign=copy_link

Contiguous US breaks its record for hottest month ever, NOAA says

KENSINGTON, Maryland (AP) — The contiguous United States sizzled to its hottest month ever last month, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

July averaged 76.89 degrees Fahrenheit (24.94 degrees Celsius) across the Lower 48 states, eclipsing the Dust Bowl’s July 1936 by an eighth of a degree. Records go back to 1895.

“It’s not good when you’re breaking records from the Dust Bowl, which we are in this case,” said meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections. “And that was a crazy sort of situation where you put tens of millions of people in motion. You had this great migration because of the drought and the heat that hit the center of the U.S. — just a cataclysmic event in U. S. history. If we’re exceeding records from The Dust Bowl, that says that we’re in deep trouble.”

Although it was unusually cool in Alaska, hotter-than-normal conditions blanketed the Lower 48, with the most excessive heat in the Mountain West, Southwest, Northern Plains and Southeast. The heat was so widespread that every one of the Lower 48 states was at least 1 degree Fahrenheit (nearly 0.6 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th century average, said Russ Vose, chief of monitoring at NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information.

To weapons corporations, 'STEM'=future workers.

Yep, that's all.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/how-lockheed-martin-raytheon-bae-systems-are-propagandizing-children-to-support-war-through-stem/291074/

As much as these companies attempt to present themselves neutrally as scientific entities, the reality is that their primary businesses revolve around producing the hardware and weaponry that the United States uses to dominate the world.

In the past twelve months alone, the United States has bombed seven countries: Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. And it is companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin that make this kind of extraordinary planetary violence possible.

For example, on February 28, the United States launched an attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls’ School in Minab, Iran. A Tomahawk cruise missile – one of the most precise guided weapons on the planet – was launched from a nearby warship and pummelled the building, causing the school to collapse in on itself. Soon after, a second missile hit the school’s courtyard, where desperate survivors were gathering.

Goodbye Lloyd Center, and thank you.

Too bad a place like this could've done well hosting events like comic book conventions and things like that.

Oh well.

I will always remember it's 70's vibe and casual but futuristic atmosphere.

All in the name of 'progress' supposedly.

A response to Imperial Power worth noting.

https://breakthroughnews.org/2026/08/07/breakthrough-issues-official-response-to-congressional-subpoena/

https://breakthroughnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Lttr.-and-Encl.-to-J.-Smith-regarding-BreakThrough-News-Letter-and-Subpoena-8.7.26.pdf

There are a myriad of reasons why I don't watch movies much anymore.

That is, new movies.

A lot of it is because I'm not the target audience.

A lot of it is because I don't find any of them interesting.

But this person calls out that in a lot of ways, they aren't really movies at all.

Oh my, this can't be good.