Links 7/20/2025

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1. The Rev Kev July 20, 2025 at 7:17 am

   ‘Business Insider
   @BusinessInsider
   8 Sep 2018
   This LA mansion is selling for $250M, it is the most expensive home for sale in the US’

   I wonder how many staff are required to keep that place going. At a minimum you would be talking about a team of chefs, groundskeepers, maintenance staff, serving staff, cleaners, etc. So I am thinking maybe a few dozen all told with some living on site. At least the interior is done in warm colours where some mansions featured on NC have interiors that can be at best described as tacky, cold and jolting to the eye.

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   1. vao July 20, 2025 at 7:37 am

      1) It looks like a hotel, not a house where people live.

      2) If I can pay $250M for such a mansion, why would on earth would I bother with a “non-functional helicopter” blocking the helipad, instead of a working one?

      3) It is supposedly full of art — I could not find anything looking like it (but what do I know about the recent trends and tastes of the high gentry). The huge camera sculpture is supremely tacky.

      4) A bowling alley? A screening room with seats that become beds?? A wall of candy???

      5) No books. Anywhere.

      6) Why all the giant displays everywhere — including outside the house?

      7) Why were the bathrooms not shown?

      All of it gives me a slight impression that it was generated by AI.

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   2. Steve H. July 20, 2025 at 7:53 am

      It’s been noted here about the muted colors in movies now, with technical explanations about post-production predominating. But comparing automobile colors from the ’70’s to now, what was day-glo has become dark-green being a bold individualistic statement. There’s more shine, but not more saturation.

      A main axis of the World Values Survey is ‘survival / self-expression’. Is it consumer preference driving the wash-out? Or is it, you’ll eat what you’re served? Images of traffic jams in Brazil (a high self-expression country) look as washed-out as here, so that indicates the latter. A brief walkthrough of a Kardashian mansion I saw had no color, only glass and white, and no individual signification. No family pictures on the wall, just corporate art. Lifeless.

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   3. griffen July 20, 2025 at 8:30 am

      It includes a car collection so that’s pretty cool I suppose. Probably none that should be driven in public of course. I get the bowling alley portion of the video clip, and I’m immediately reminded of the brutal and ultimate ending scene from what I call an epic film, There Will Be Blood.

      “I’m finished!”

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      1. Wukchumni July 20, 2025 at 8:36 am

         I’m most interested in the non functioning helicopter, and if I have to buy the rest of the mansion to get it, so be it.

         There Will Be Blood is based on Edward Doheny, a ruthless oil man.

         To make amends later in life he paid for the building of a large Catholic church on Figueroa St in LA, wags at the time called it ‘Doheny’s Fire Escape’ as it was pretty certain he was going to hell~

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      2. LawnDart July 20, 2025 at 9:07 am

         Had to look…

         https://youtu.be/aKYCa56tDSw?si=nQI_VGx1N-3UmclP

         “I’m finished!”

         You must admit, he really didn’t have anything left to do after that.

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   4. Stephen V July 20, 2025 at 9:25 am

      That’s why they’re called job creators Rev!

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2. AG July 20, 2025 at 8:02 am

   re: US media
   
   How Public Media Lost The Federal Funding Battle, And What Happens Next To Stations, NPR And PBS
   https://deadline.com/2025/07/pbs-npr-funding-cut-explained-whats-next-1236461136/

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3. griffen July 20, 2025 at 8:19 am

   Stephen Colbert getting the axe. It’s unfortunate for the staff and apparently it was well staffed. I shed no tears, crocodile or other, for this individual. He turned into a political hack at best, far from his time at Comedy Central initially working for / with Stewart, then launching his own branded report show. Someone at that level and in a signficant role and time slot, well perhaps he and also the show writers, really could’ve done better than opening on a recurring “Two Minute hate speech” during the first Trump administration.

   Last year he did give a poignant, even heartfelt it seemed brief recap and memorial to country star Toby Keith. It started with an appearance by the Big Dog on the aforementioned CC show. Obviously the politics of these two entertainers varied quite much.

   And hey this proves the axiom, unless you own the company you can become expendable. Start a podcast…. everyone else has one.

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   1. The Rev Kev July 20, 2025 at 8:27 am

      C’mon, man. Think of all the good things that Stephen Colbert has done that we can remember him by-

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq76QSlRiPo (1:27 mins)

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   2. Daniil Adamov July 20, 2025 at 9:14 am

      I watched Colbert for a bit on Youtube back in 2016, when I followed American politics with interest. Soon came to the conclusion that it wasn’t for me. However, I did have a favourable impression of his immediate post-election performance. It had the air of someone talking shocked and anguished people off the ledge, which I do think is a good thing to do, even if the people in question and their tragedy are a little hard to take seriously. That said he also seemed to be the sort of entertainer who’s squarely oriented towards cheering up a particular political grouping, in his case the Democratic faithful, and not doing anything more interesting or complicated. Good for them (or perhaps bad now, but I doubt he’ll just disappear – he has talent for this specific thing he does).

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   3. tera July 20, 2025 at 10:26 am

      People like him are the part of the problem, doing brainwashing of the populace for the benefit of the “elite”, and hence the Guillotine Watch material. They deserve real axe. Staff too, because the “I was just following orders” talk works only in the minds of those saying it.

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4. Acacia July 20, 2025 at 8:43 am

   Re: How can Democrats win back working-class voters?

   Dream on.

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   1. The Rev Kev July 20, 2025 at 8:51 am

      I have to admit that the first thought that popped into my mind in reading that headline was ‘How can cannibals stop being cannibals? By not eating people.’ Yeah, not going to happen. So, ‘How can Democrats win back working-class voters?’ By offering immediate material benefits to their lives. Also not going to happen.

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   2. Jabura Basadai July 20, 2025 at 9:05 am

      and then there’s this take-down of AOC by Caitlin Johnstone this morning –
      AOC is definitely honing her political chops and duplicity –
      https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/07/20/aoc-is-a-genocidal-con-artist/

      reached out to share the AZ billboard of tRump from yesterday’s links with an acquaintance – her first response to me was, “I haven’t forgiven you yet for this past election. I’m sorry, but that’s how I feel”
      my transgression was not voting for Ms Giggles – my mistake was sharing for whom i did vote –
      and it wasn’t tRump –

      for some there is no hope and no rational debate – my daughter told me to just forget about political conversations with folks – shaking my head, she may be correct –

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5. Mikel July 20, 2025 at 8:44 am

   UK reduces voting age to 16, aims to boost electoral participation – Scripps News

   Time for Semper to post the movie “Wild In The Streets”? :)

   Every satire and cautionary tale is becoming non-fiction/documentaries.

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6. Carolinian July 20, 2025 at 8:46 am

   Re Did Trump Play a Role in Colbert–not only does the article not answer its own question but it also ignores the fact that Colbert was a government promoting outlet for his good friend Biden until last January. Additionally any broadcast outlet is by definition a government partner since their license grants them what was once a triopoly status and the ability to print money. That’s not nearly as true as it once was and for sure it was the Republicans who tossed the Fairness Doctrine. But one should certainly not judge the opportunist Colbert to be some kind of noble figure. For people like him it’s easy to be smug when you are preaching to the converted. Indeed your rice bowl depends on it.

   We do need the media to keep the elites honest but in that increasingly ownership restricted space there is little to keep them honest. One might even argue that’s the bigger problem.

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7. Nikkikat July 20, 2025 at 8:50 am

   I agree, I shed no tears for Colbert himself. As soon as he hit the big time he was just another boot licker
   For the establisment elites. Quit watching him and the others a long time ago. Late night show comedians have not been funny or entertaining for years.

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   1. The Rev Kev July 20, 2025 at 8:56 am

      A coupla years ago they had these American late night show comedians on late TV here in Oz as cheap fill. It was just garbage from end to end and I would rather watch an ancient rerun of Red Skelton and Jack Benny instead. At least they were funny.

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      1. mrsyk July 20, 2025 at 9:51 am

         Benny Hill in 2028! Sure, he’s British and dead, but those things don’t seem to matter anymore in American politics.

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         1. The Rev Kev July 20, 2025 at 10:05 am

            Absolutely Benny Hill and the only reason I did not mention him was because he was British. He was rude, crude, vulgar and sexist – and absolutely hilarious-

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv1FBqFOTLQ (4:34 mins)

            His life’s work reminds me of a tombstone I read about upon which the following words were carved-

            ‘R.I.P
            Here lies my Husband, he was
            Dishonest, erratic,
            Erotic, irresistable,
            Wanton, untrustworthy
            And a liar.
            Sadly missed by his
            Everloving wife.’

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8. LawnDart July 20, 2025 at 8:50 am

   Re; People Are Becoming Obsessed with ChatGPT and Spiraling Into Severe Delusions

   “…Vasan agrees that OpenAI has a perverse incentive to keep users hooked on the product even if it’s actively destroying their lives.”

   “The incentive is to keep you online,” she said. The AI “is not thinking about what is best for you, what’s best for your well-being or longevity… It’s thinking ‘right now, how do I keep this person as engaged as possible?'”

   We’ve seen this before, and many of us here likely have experienced lost or ruined relationships in our lives because of it:

   Facebook’s ethical failures are not accidental; they are part of the business model

   Facebook’s stated mission is “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” But a deeper look at their business model suggests that it is far more profitable to drive us apart. By creating “filter bubbles”—social media algorithms designed to increase engagement and, consequently, create echo chambers where the most inflammatory content achieves the greatest visibility—Facebook profits from the proliferation of extremism, bullying, hate speech, disinformation, conspiracy theory, and rhetorical violence. Facebook’s problem is not a technology problem. It is a business model problem. This is why solutions based in technology have failed to stem the tide of problematic content.

   https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8179701/

   Pain (upon others) = Profit (for shareholders)

   Who wants to tie this in to “our” law-makers personal investment portfolios? Ride ’em out on a rail in ’26.

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   1. Craig H. July 20, 2025 at 10:31 am

      I forget the author but around a month ago I read a short blog piece about a new OpenAI hire who was a top executive at facebook in the early 2010’s and the message was something like the person in charge of ruining facebook has just been hired to manage user engagement at OpenAI. The process is an A/B testing group which measures how long the user stays at the site and there is only one measure anybody cares about and that is to keep them online. Like the old casino manager instruction to keep them playing.

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9. Mikel July 20, 2025 at 8:53 am

   Ghislaine Maxwell believed Trump would save her, now she’s documenting everything behind bars: jail source- NY Post

   That’s cool. She gets writing tools that can be used to make shanks. That’s some self-protection.

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   1. Carolinian July 20, 2025 at 9:19 am

      Supposedly she had already been moved to a cushy white collar crime type facility where shankings are rare.

      As for The New Republic up in Links, Max Blumenthal on a podcast asked why the Dems hadn’t used Epstein against Trump long before and that’s an interesting question. I probably follow the news more than your average MAGA but didn’t know that Trump and Epstein were15 year bosom buddies. This weekend’s NYT story even cites an incident where Epstein brought one of his girls up to Trump Tower for a visit. It’s impossible that Trump didn’t know what was going on and suspicions that he participated need only the slightest verification. Hubris meets nemesis.

      On the plus side Mrs. Vance will make a nice first lady. Sooner than we think?

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      1. The Rev Kev July 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

         Well Max Blumenthal should know that the reason why the Dems could never use Epstein against Trump and the Repubs as doing so would burn a lot of their own donors. And it would certainly drag down Bill Clinton as he used to take flights on the Lolita Express which would also mean that Hillary Clinton would get dragged down as well. In wrecking the Repubs, the Dems would wreck themselves so we have a MAD situation here.

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10. GramSci July 20, 2025 at 9:07 am

    Re: Human Programmer beats OpenAI (op cit)

    Gimme a break. Tom’s Hardware doesn’t give details about the challenge’s challenges, but it seems I first encountered this kind of problem (“dynamic programming”) back ca. 1980, matching speech signals to targets, and it was already an old problem, a variant of the “traveling salesman problem” in which a self-driving car has to cross Manhattan.

    And the contestants weren’t allowed to look up any of the 55+ years of solutions OpenAI had been trained on??? Shades gladiators forced to compete against lions in the Roman Colosseum.

    A publicity stunt.

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11. ciroc July 20, 2025 at 9:08 am

    >How Elon Musk Created a Nightmare for Donald Trump

    If Musk really wanted to ruin Trump, he would offer $1 billion to expose Epstein’s client list. That’s less than one percent of his total wealth.

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12. The Rev Kev July 20, 2025 at 9:42 am

    ‘Science girl
    @gunsnrosesgirl3
    Jun 17
    kindergarten lessons in China’

    It’s a fascinating view of how another country sees education. The idea seems to be to make those kids self sufficient from an early age and develop their hand-eye coordination. It’s almost a meme how guys right out of high school have no idea about cooking and will just go for Door Dash instead or get their moms to make them something. Of course the comments for that video clip are mixed and some are really experiencing sour grapes-

    https://xcancel.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1935044059506295111

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13. Ken Murphy July 20, 2025 at 9:45 am

    Happy Moon Day everyone!

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14. GramSci July 20, 2025 at 9:49 am

    Re: AI robot does gall bladder surgery (op cit)

    «Autonomous surgical robots like SRT-H promise faster procedures, fewer complications and better access, especially in rural or underserved areas.»

    Calling Dr. Mengele…

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    1. mrsyk July 20, 2025 at 9:56 am

       Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones..,,

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    2. The Rev Kev July 20, 2025 at 10:07 am

       For the upgraded plan for this autonomous surgical robot, you will also be able to have anesthesia while being operated upon.

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15. Mass Driver July 20, 2025 at 9:51 am

    An electric scooter that accelerates faster than a Tesla Model 3? No thanks! The Verge

    Acceleration is not only about power-to-weight ratio, but also rubber meeting the road. In addition to that, going fast is not only about accelerating, but also slowing down. Small wheels (and small brakes) are inherently bad at that, because they are small. A team of ex-Formula One engineers knows that, which means they are just talking the talk for publicity.

    Also, the smaller the diameter of the wheel the higher the rpm, so going fast on these would probably require Formula One level maintenece. On a positive note, having an accident on these while driving at maximumu speed means that you won’t be suffering a lot. :)

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16. JB July 20, 2025 at 10:06 am

    Just out of curiosity, are there many people here with enough money to spare that they need to find something to do with it, who don’t invest in something unethical?

    Starting a new job, and at a stage where the basics in life are sorted, and have the nice problem of not knowing what I will do with the money (which of course I will need to in-part use for retirement some day) – but after years of reading NC and the ills of ‘money making money’ in general etc. – am kind of paralyzed as to what to actually do with it, which isn’t going to be investing in something unethical one way or the other.

    So am curious if there are people who have successfully navigated this, and are doing well, without selling their soul and ‘buying in’ to one variety of evil or other, with their investments. Whether it is actually practically doable.

    I’m becoming more convinced that this is one of the ways – maybe even one of the primary ways – that economic conservatives and exploitative capitalists, achieve ‘buy in’ and votes among so much of the population:

    Corrupting their ethics/morals, through gains from unethical investments (that many people are not even initially aware they are investing in, e.g. hidden/obscured in pension portfolio company lists).

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17. pjay July 20, 2025 at 10:09 am

    – ‘The CIA Initiated an Intelligence and Terrorist War on Russia Based on a Lie’ – Larry Johnson

    I somehow missed the original article by Tim Weiner in Foreign Policy that is the subject of this piece. I had just read it this morning (it was linked at MofA) and saw Johnson’s rejoinder here. I’m not sure if it was linked in NC earlier, but everyone should read it. It is quite extraordinary for all the reasons Larry points out and more. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such an unintentionally revealing article about an important subject (the CIA’s Russia House and its role in Ukraine) and also its author. If there were any doubts that Weiner is a complete “toady” for the CIA (to use Weiner’s own term), this article should dispel them.

    Unfortunately, because of all the despicable current actions by the Trump administration from Gaza to Ukraine to Epstein to DOGE to etc,.etc., it will be hard to take seriously any real “revelations” about Russiagate made by any of them. They will simply be seen as partisan rhetoric to deflect attention from Trump’s own evil actions (all of the sudden Gabbard has reappeared from oblivion to carry out this task for the MAGA faithful). And this will probably be correct. A curse on all their houses.

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18. ChrisFromGA July 20, 2025 at 10:16 am

    Small ray of hope:

    Trump disses neo-con killapalooza:

    https://thehill.com/homenews/5410319-trump-administration-turns-hostile-on-aspen-security-forum/

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19. ciroc July 20, 2025 at 10:20 am

    >Genocide or tragedy? Ukraine, Poland at odds over Volyn massacre of 1943

    “Both [Poland and Ukraine] are modern European democracies that can handle an objective investigation of past atrocities in ways that a country like Russia unfortunately can not,” he said.

    Any article about Ukraine’s dark past must conclude with a condemnation of modern-day Russia.

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20. bertl July 20, 2025 at 10:24 am

    Britain faces a test of identity: Will Britons become a minority in their homeland? – opinion Jerusalem Post https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-861437

    The Jerusalem Post is concerned that young British Muslims are going on camps where some form of indoctrination apparently takes place. I remember going on a boy scout camp when I was 12 and we were fed tales of the Empire and the need to maintain our right control our our colonies as a Christian mission, forced to wear funny caps, scarves and toggles at all times, and listening to lots of Methodist guff around the campfire every evening.

    I buggered off home on the third day thumbing lifts all the way to my house and told my parents I had no intention of ever having anything to do with the scouts after that. I left the scouts and a couple of lads followed my lead because we saw the camp for what it was – a primer for the our right to defend the imperial system agin’ the dirty rat-fink commie coloureds in the colonies who wanted rid of our lovely Monarchy and Parliament.

    The Jews have their own indoctrination systems for young people which have had a much more serious negative impact on British, European and Amercan politics since the 1930s and which intensified after the war with the legitimisation of the settler colony.

    I find the idea that we will be outnumbered by Muslims in our own home less than likely purely on the basis of the demographics. I’m much more worried by the example set by Jewish and Christian Zionists in their wholehearted support for the Palestinian genocides than I am about Muslim girls’ fashion choices when camping, and the perspective that many Muslims and non-Muslims have on the political élite of the West given their open support for the deliberate murder and maiming of children who are inconveniently Palestinian by bombs, bullets and starvation – and it’s resulting power as a new iteration of the blood libel. The Zionists are attempting to extend their landholding by soaking it in the blood of the children they have sacrificed, and the blood they continue to sacrifice until they are stopped by military force as they continue to overreach, along with the Collective West by deploying the rundown Anglo-Saxon and European armouries.

    There was an interesting article featured in the links yesterday and one section really disturbed me. ” In response to a question in The Brothers Karamazov about whether Jews steal and kill Christian children at Easter, Alyosha replies with a simple “I don’t know”. That is quite the glib treatment of blood libel.” https://unherd.com/2025/07/why-gen-z-goes-mad-for-dostoyevsky/?us=1

    On the contrary, it was a profound treatment of the extent of one’s knowledge and the nature of truth which gave me great pause and resulted in many discussions with my fellows when I was a nineteen year old student. “…Alyosha replies with a simple “I don’t know””. How can he know? What other answer can an honest man give? A convenient yes or no, expressing belief without authority, or “well I’m rather a bit of a sceptic about that, actually, old boy”, depending on the audience, or just speak the bare unvarnished truth. My reading and re-reading of Dostoevsky in many different translations over the years have merely reinforced my belief that the position taken by Alyosha is morally and intellectually correct. For the honest, it must always be the bare unvarnished truth – and that is something which seems to have got lost somewhere in my lifetime.

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21. The Rev Kev July 20, 2025 at 10:26 am

    “Genocide or tragedy? Ukraine, Poland at odds over Volyn massacre of 1943”

    Yeah, the Poles are not going to forget the Volyn massacre – nor should they. There are about 100,000 Poles buried in mass unmarked graves and the Poles want their remains exhumed. Needless to say the Ukrainians are not thrilled at this idea. Polish President Andrzej Duda got stuck into Zelensky about this massacre so of course Zelelnsky played dumb saying-

    ‘Andrzej, I’ve never heard of the murders, the killing of Poles in western Ukraine, in Volhynia. They didn’t teach us about it in school.’

    https://www.rt.com/news/621319-zelensky-never-heard-nazi-crimes/

    But the Poles will not let this go and it was only several years ago that they made a film about what happened back then-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0POxClxb8cM (1:00 min)

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