A new element in #gymnastics is named after its performer, 18-year-old #Armenia|n gymnast Hamlet Manukyan. The element is named “Manukyan”. pic.twitter.com/DBQoLe16PP
— Karina Karapetyan (@KarinaKarapety8) September 13, 2025
Your Phone Already Knows Your Age, It Just Isn’t Telling You Technobezz
A New Hope for Life? Webb Telescope Reveals First Clues From Potentially Habitable World SciTech Daily
Project Xanadu – The Internet That Might Have Been Astral Codex Ten
Alcohol Escapes a Government Crackdown—for Now Reason
COVID-19/Pandemics
Bonkers CDC vaccine meeting ends with vote to keep COVID shot access Ars Technica
Internet use during pandemic illuminates urban–rural digital divide Phys Org
Climate/Environment
Report: Two-Thirds of Heat Deaths in Europe This Year Were the Result of Climate Change Mother Jones
Climate Activists Disrupt Fossil Fuel Executive at Harvard University Symposium Inside Climate News
Diet changes in food futures improve Swedish environmental and health outcomes Nature
South of the Border
US touts collaborative plan to tackle Mexico’s drug cartels – but initiative is met with denial and mistrust south of the border The Conversation
Venezuela urges UN investigation of US for ‘crimes against humanity’ Andolu Agency
U.S. Military Buildup in Caribbean Signals Broader Campaign Against Venezuela NY Times
China?
Lots of the anti-China trolls tell me I don’t show cities other than “First tier cities.”
This is Shijiazhuang. It’s a city of 11 million people, larger than New York city, and most westerners have never heard of it. It’s a second tier city and the capital of Hebei province. It… pic.twitter.com/g4ianX5Gzv
— Jason Smith – 上官杰文 (@ShangguanJiewen) September 20, 2025
Green Giant: China’s massive scaling of clean energy pays off for the whole planet.China limits the use of AI by clergy in efforts to regulate its ‘Temple Economy’ Cryptopolitan
China promotes direct-to-device satellite services with new guidelines and licensing Space News
Lawyers vs. engineers: Dan Wang sees U.S.-China dynamics in a new paradigm NPR
India
The Limits of Rapprochement Between India and China War on the Rocks
India-US airports in turmoil? Flight fares surge after Trump’s surprising H-1B visa move; ‘Extremely bad situation’ Hindustan Times
India’s influence in the Middle East: balancing energy, workers, and Saudi-Pakistan defense pact The Jerusalem Post
Africa
Africa’s future runs on water. So treat it as essential infrastructure Al Jazeera
Stability paves way for Somalia to become Horn of Africa’s new tourism gem Andolu Agency
How Many Countries Fit in Africa? Visualizing the Continent’s True Size Visual Capitalist
European Disunion
Airports across Europe face disruptions due to cyberattack DW
Trump faces challenge in convincing Europe to hit China over Russia The Hill
Europe’s Toxic Air: When the Clean Continent Isn’t So Clean EU Today
Old Blighty
Rachel Reeves warned her tax hikes risk sending UK economy into a ‘doom loop’ Daily Mail
‘It’s Fascism All Over Again’: The UK Is Following the US Down a Dark Path Zeteo
Israel v. Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran
Any person or entity that describes Israeli atrocities — Gazan journalists, human rights groups, western doctors and nurses — are instantly maligned as anti-Semitic liars.
Here are two very courageous Australian physicians in Gaza, describing the reality of the IDF. Listen: https://t.co/OOUfqwipzW
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 20, 2025
Israel’s Gaza City demolitions fan fears of permanent removal of Palestinians ReutersDemocrats rapidly shift on Israel amid Gaza assault, evidence of famine Washington Post
Over 50 Gazans Reportedly Killed by IDF, Including Family of Al-Shifa Hospital Director Haaretz
Israel’s attack on Yemeni newspaper complex kills 31 media workers The Guardian
New Not-So-Cold War
Zelensky plans to meet with Trump on sidelines of UN assembly as Russian strikes persist The Hill
Moscow launches large-scale attack on Ukraine as Kyiv continues attacks on Russian oil refineries Euro News
UK to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine war effort as world condemns Putin over Estonia incursion The Independent
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man The Guardian
Kmart broke privacy laws by scanning customers’ faces. What did it do wrong, and why? The New Daily
Imperial Collapse Watch
Woman struck in mass shooting at Minneapolis homeless encampment dies of her injuries CBS News
Santa Fe County sees 104% spike in overdose deaths as fentanyl potency increases Santa Fe Reporter
A record number of students lack basic reading skills. Can this approach help? WGBH.org
Trump 2.0
Trump basks in pageantry and praise – then leaves allies twisting in the wind Daily Mail
U.S. conducts fourth strike against vessel transferring drugs, Trump says Axios
A vengeful Trump props up the unproductive as his economy falls apart The Hill
‘Tidal wave of problems’: With harvest here, Trump’s trade war pushes some US farmers to the brink CNN
Charlie Kirk
Max Blumenthal: Charlie Kirk’s Story FALLS APART Dialogue Works, YouTube. If you are pressed for time, please at least listen to the section starting at 7:55.
Musk Matters
Elon Musk’s Neuralink plans a brain speech trial in October Engadget
Who is going to buy Elon Musk’s cars? Daily Press
Did Elon Musk Just Say “Checkmate” to Nvidia? The Motley Fool
SpaceX Files for 15,000 New Starlink Satellites to Boost Cell Connectivity WebPro News
Democrat Death Watch
NY Democrats hesitate to back Mamdani over Israel stance, Biden snub Jerusalem Post
From Biden to Buttigieg: All the Democrats Kamala Harris slams in her new memoir Politico
Immigration
Immigrant rights activists braced for crackdown as Trump threatens to target ‘leftwing’ groups The Guardian
Tear gas used on protesters at Chicago-area ICE site as immigration crackdown escalates NBC News
Our No Longer Free Press
In battles over free speech, comedians are often center stage AP
Trump’s New Restrictions on Pentagon Reporters ‘Should Alarm Every American’ Common Dreams
Mr. Market Is Moody
President Trump Owes His Base Strong Words About the Weak Dollar RealClear Markets
The Fed cut its interest rate, but long-term rates — including those on mortgages — went higher CNBC
Real estate stocks decline despite interest rate cut Seeking Alpha
AI
Microsoft AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman:
By the end of 2025, models will move from one-shot answers to continuous planning
With persistent memory and long-horizon planning, models will become deeply human-like
no new algorithm, mostly compute and scale pic.twitter.com/yPrvYvgtUh
— Haider. (@slow_developer) September 20, 2025
The Problem Isn’t AI Therapy. It’s That Most Therapy Is Trash. Pirate Wires
‘We should kill him’: AI chatbot encourages Australian man to murder his father ABC Australia
Why AI Safety Officials Keep Quitting Their Jobs Technobezz
World’s first AI-designed viruses a step towards AI-generated life Nature
The Bezzle
Congress Presses for Answers on Financial Fraud Mitigation ACA International
Social Media Tax Scam Epidemic Newswise
Guillotine Watch
Sky Pool is a swimming pool in Houston, Texas. Constructed on top of the Market Square Tower apartment complex, it’s 150 meter high with a glass floor
[📹 marketsquaretower]pic.twitter.com/W42XCh9NpR
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 18, 2024
Even if you don’t have a fear of heights, you probably won’t be able to try out the 82-foot-long, see-through swimming pool in London that sits more than 10 stories above the ground. Pool access is limited to select residents at a luxury apartment complex. https://t.co/9p4Q0JCba9 pic.twitter.com/BBCRnvehYW
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 2, 2021
Antidote du jour (via)
And a bonus:
Marylin Monrowl.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/JVNTcQ83R2
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) September 20, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
“Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man”
The spirit of Jeffrey Epstein is alive and well with Mark Zuckerberg and his Meta. Using images of 13 year-olds in school uniforms as bait for Threads? EEwwwwwww!! What’s Meta’s unofficial motto then – ‘Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed?’
Controversy over using very young models is nothing new.
According to the article, it seems the main problem is that a lot of parents weren’t paying attention to their privacy settings. I haven’t seen any of the pictures, but I doubt they are purposely provocative in the matter of Paris Vogue (see link above).
But those weren’t young models. None of them were. They were just images of young schoolchildren that often showed their faces and even their names. One mother said her account was set to private but Meta still swiped that image. And one section of that article said-
‘With 267 followers, her Instagram account usually had modest reach but the post of her child attracted nearly 7,000 views, 90% from non-followers, half of whom were aged over 44 and 90% of whom were men.’
Yeah, I’ve got a problem with that. Zuck is a sleazebag.
No argument about Zuckerberg. And I’m not on Instagram, but based on previous experiences with that organization, I wouldn’t be surprised if they made their privacy settings very granular and what someone thought was private wasn’t actually private because they missed a few of the checkboxes.
That organization is well known for this approach to privacy, and I wonder what percentage of parents who were complaining actually closed their free accounts after this. Probably a very low percentage.
Yeah, I thought the EULA for Meta services states that they consider anything you upload to be their property.
And they keep “updating” the privacy settings, which may cause yours to be reset. So either you constantly police those settings and make an ongoing effort to understand the semantics of every single update they roll out, all bets are off.
Yet another reason I will never use any Meta services.
Zuck doesn’t care about anything except if it drives time spent on platform.
Nothing new and he’ll keep doing it because he’ll keep getting away with it.
Some additional trivia – A grand-daddy of all such controversies:
https://www.today.com/style/celeb-style/brooke-shields-responds-controversial-1980-calvin-klein-ad-rcna4104/
“Brooke Shields was a 15-year-old model when she was caught in the middle of a media firestorm after uttering the words, “You want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”
Did it stop C.K.? Nope..
https://www.complex.com/style/a/karizza-sanchez/controversial-calvin-klein-ads/
Controversy for attention is also a part of it.
Seems more like they have mistaken UK for Japan.
Just thinking the unthinkable here but maybe people should stop using facebook? Maybe not spend your life analyzing terms and condition which, when you pay attention, you shouldn’t accept, and which you have no power to change? Maybe just opt out?
So, what is your suggestion on how to share photos with your friends and family that doesn’t require a lot of technical knowledge? I haven’t used it, but I remember thinking at the time that Instagram was a user friendly and cheap idea to put pictures of daily life in front of a few dozen people without much of a hassle. Do you think that the zillionaires ability to buy out every easily accessed networking program means that people disagree with selling every scrap of their lives just get what they deserve?
If you use a free service, you are the product.
If you want control and restrictions, you have to pay for it. I have no idea if any services offer that.
Hmm, how about:
If you want control and restrictions, you have to own it..
No idea how people could get together and do that . . . ah well.
Yes, that is a corollary.
Open source software was an answer but a site for images requires hosting, bandwidth, and tech people managing it.
As I said, perhaps there is a site that is trustworthy. Perhaps readers can recommend one.
Yves Smith: What do you think of Flickr? Do you ever use Flickr for images here at Naked Capitalism?
I note that Flickr requires a sign-in. It also has paid levels of use, as well as “security” settings for nudity, I suppose. So Flickr has never been as loosey-goosey as a place like Fbook. Flickr doesn’t want people sacking the site for images.
Not free, though. As an editor, I occasionally browsed Flickr galleries for specific topics and kinds of images for textbooks for high-school students. Trying to buy / license a photo from Flickr, ironically, is a bit of an adventure. Fortunately, I was working with a photo editor who is a human dynamo.
Years ago a scandal arose over Flickr. This girl was told by friends that she was on an ad advertising mobiles. Turned out at the time that when you posted to Flickr, then Flickr owned the copyright for those images. So they took this image of this Asian-American girl with her friends at a Christian camp, cut her image out, reversed it and sold it to be on these posters without that girl even knowing. When this came out there were a lot of professional photographers that had their work on Flickr take a harder look at the terms that they had signed up to.
The Pixelfed community has a bunch of existing servers that will allow you to join so as long as you have an e-mail. Pixelfed uses the same Fediverse protocols as Mastodon, so you can allow your content to be accessible across platforms without other people needing to create two sets of credentials if you desire.
The platform and software’s funding model is Patreon donations and sponsorships from users and orgs who have an interest in using the software but don’t want to develop it themselves.
If you are up to the challenge, because Pixelfed is FOSS (Free Open Source Software) you can try downloading the source and running the PHP and Javascript on a server you run. Otherwise, I would recommend tossing Dansup (The principle developer/creator behind the project) a few $$ each month to encourage him to continue improving it and not selling out.
I use Zenfolio. It requires an annual subscription. There are other services out there as well.
I can post photos into collections protected with a password and then give the password to friends/family.
When my boys were in school and running track and cross country I’d post event photos and then make them public. Removing them after awhile.
Still… the best way to save photos is to print to archival paper and place in an album.
Personal web site, $8/year from namecrane.com, run by internet buddies of mine, they are good.
https://namecrane.com/store/da-shared-hosting
soybean purchases by China were supposed to happen this weekend with the TikTok deal. With sales and production going to Brazil, corn will get sold first and further depress that market. What is unclear is can Chinese soya buyers hold out until Brazil harvest begins in late january. With congress cutting food stamps, dems won’t be in any mood to cooperate, but a big bailout is coming. Across the board grain farmers are hurting. In the CNN article one farmer talked about buying future votes, he said that was last time, this time not so much. livestock producers will gladly feed a cheap corn crop and we still won’t see replacements climb, party on!
What will happen to soybeans that just don’t sell because the Chinese are going with more “reliable” markets? Will American farmers just have to plow them into the ground?
the crop will get harvested and a big push for biofuels with mandates, subsidies will happen. But next year will see monkeywrench plans, other crops, huge financial headaches from farm to banks to communities to farm equipment. Easy to imagine a farm depression akin to the 80’s
Next year I would not count on much help from Trump – unless he remembers that he needs the farmer votes for the midterms. He might just come out with a campaign based around It’s Morning In America 2.0-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa8Qupc4PnQ (1:01 mins)
It’s Mourning in America. There, fixed it.
whispers now about using tariff money for bailout. certainly would make it easier if the deficit spending crowd could be molified.
That’s what happened in Trump 1.0,
They sure won’t be used to feed the hungry.
Most of that soy crop is for animal feed. If you eat meat, that’s what feeds it. And over half of the corn is now used for ethanol, a crime against humanity and Iowa’s rivers and lakes.
Not at all disagreeing with what you said.
Curious why there would be a need to bail out farms that produce goods for foreign markets? If it was farm producing crops vital for domestic needs it would make sense. Or, if the “bailout” was formulated to redirect them toward producing for domestic needs that would make sense as well.
Not my area of expertise by any measure though so happy to be educated on this by those that know more than nothing about the subject.
You are right it doesn’t make strategic sense, I think it just boils down to buying votes among one of the more well-off and influential groups of voters in Trump country.
A lot of farms are huge concerns, managed by very wealthy people/companies (read political donors). Subsidies from the government are just another way of shoveling our money to these pigs with their snouts in the trough. The actual product is of secondary concern.
Curious why there would be a need to bail out farms that produce goods for foreign markets?
I have read that there are about 90,000 soybean farmers in the USA. If one does not bail them out, perhaps 20,000 will go bankrupt and many of the rest may be on the edge of bankruptcy. Soybean farmers are concentrated, I think, in perhaps three states.
This means that in three states most retail sales will drop down to close to zero. Ninety thousand farmers are not buying new cars or furniture or new clothes. The local Harvey’s goes bankrupt. I have no idea what’s happening to the local banks. So, basically, you are devastating the economies in these states.
Ninety thousand farmers spent a lot of money on new equipment, so companies like John Deer start laying off workers. If you have never worked in agriculture you may not appreciate the cost of modern farm equipment. One advertisement for a used 2014 John Deer tractor I found that looks like something one would use on a soybean farm says $184,943. Most large farms these days are rather capital intense.
If your market returns next year, the country has reduced capacity to meet demand. Many farmers may be too financially stressed to get back into the soybean business or may have transitioned into some other crop. So the country may lose market share. Canada would be happy to sell more to China.
And the kicker, the mid-terms are coming up.
Thanks for this thorough explanation. Like I said, not something I have any knowledge of, so appreciate your efforts.
Definitely makes sense from a rational economic perspective. From an “America First” perspective that’s had no qualms about devastating various industries it seems refocusing those soy farms toward crops needed in this country would be wise. But, clearly “wise” and this administration have never crossed paths.
Good question, good response, good 2nd response. NC for the win.
New YouGov poll paints a somewhat different picture about Charlie Kirk’s influence over young people than the narrative would have us believe. The numbers show that favorable opinions of him increased with age and income. Additionally, race and party affiliation were strong indications about favorable/unfavorable views.
The link opens PDF and the relevant tables are on pp. 12-13.
Streisand Effect. Kirk was polarizing deeply but narrowly.
He probably was on track to be another Ralph Reed, but is now James Dean
“Streisand Effect”
Indeed, something to think about. I also mentioned that possibility just after the news hit earlier this month.
The guy had politics in his blood from a very early age. If he had lived, I wonder how long it would have been before he would be known as Senator Charlie Kirk-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Kirk#Early_life_and_education
OIFVet: Interesting set of questions, some of which are poorly worded. But I carp.
Throughout the polls, the strongest indicators of “conservative” opinions are the figures for income. Just take a stroll through, going from one poll to the next, income line after income line.
But, but, but, there are no social classes in America! There should not be class politics. Class politics are unsightly, and they are all the fault of that Karl Marx guy and other commies.
The second determinant of “liberal” / “conservative” is whiteness, with whites being noticeably more conservative, throughout. I’d be interested in some regional breakdowns, too.
Throw in race, and the U S of A seizes up, as ever. USanians are more loyal to their mythological “race” than they are to the hard realities of recognizing the treatment of one’s social class.
What is to be done?
PS: General strike in Italy tomorrow, 22 September, against the genocide in Palestine as well as against the continuing proxy war in Ukraine. I’m going to skip the first demonstration, at the University of Chocolate City at 07 00. Let me sleep in a bit, ne.
But there is a second demo scheduled for 10 30 about four blocks away, near the train station. So I will head over to see what the denizens of the Undisclosed Region have to tell me. (There was already a big demo here yesterday as part of this weekend of mobilization.)
Well, to deflect from the class elephant in the room is exactly why IdPols are deployed. Dems and MAGA both use them extensively to avoid even lukewarm social democrats like Sanders from uniting on the issue of economic justice and Kirk was particularly good at that.
Stay safe at the demos!
Nat chronicled how young conservatives inhabit completely different media spaces than oldsters. That poll may have not or only barely reached Kirk’s base.
Same thing surely applies to young progressives as well though, so the polarization in those spaces should closely resemble the polarization amongst us olds. So the question then becomes how many of each are there in those spaces. I doubt that the numbers break overwhelmingly towards the right. My guess is many youngsters in those spaces are in the middle and they were as tired of the Dem Party as we are. They can vote for Trump without necessarily being convinced by Kirk or sharing his beliefs.
I have a little bit of exposure to yutes on the internet, and I would say there are more things on Tik Tok and discord, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy, from an elaborate incel culture to horse-girls who refuse to eat pickles.
The yutes definitely don’t line up into the same groups as the oldsters, but I suppose what matters is whether they eventually line up at all.
–Robert Frost
The point is, at the of the day there are only two wings of the Corporate Party and his job was to funnel as many uuutes as possible to the MAGA wing at the ballot box by way of ideological persuasion. Methinks he wasn’t as effective at that as some will have you believe.
I’m inclined to agree, as a matter of general principle (without being too aware of the specifics). Most people are increasingly siloed: not only would the “celebrities” within the siloes be mostly unknowns outside their niche, their messages, honed for audiences within their groups, are liable to fall flat outside. I, for instance, did not know about Kirk until annoying YT ads started showing. The few antics that I’ve seen of him at various outlets seemed vacuous and unimpressive (rather typical vainglorious sophistry aimed at the young, imho). I did reckon that there are some interesting things going on with him (mostly on the acct of the Gaza related bruhaha that drew attention lately) but not enoigh to draw interest just yet.
I suppose one thing this does point to is that leaving siloes is literally dangerous, but necessary if the political entrepreneurs want to get ahead. If you want to expand your support coalition, you need to draw in people who are not already in the reservation…except, if you do, ypu incur the wrath of incumbent reservation dwellers who happen to pay you at the present. So, you either stay on the reservation, repeat the talking points to the same reservation dwellers, and stay safe but small, or you take the risk and venture outside, adopt different lines, and hope that the people outside notice and react favorably, enough to make up for the riled up insiders.
Just don’t tell his diehards that his was sophistry, they get mighty mad. Part of me suspects it’s because most of them don’t even know what the word means.
This is not what I am hearing secondhand at all, from someone who has access to the real Democrat polling data, as opposed to the public polls, which are done on the super cheap and not very good.
Latinos and Catholic whites coming out for Team R. Blacks moving that way in record numbers. NJ and VA governor’s races going badly for the Dems.
Now admittedly it does not have a reading on the youth vote specifically.
Yes, right wing, per this:
https://soatok.blog/2025/09/16/are-you-under-the-influence-the-tail-that-wags-the-dog/
Not to generation-ize but classic Gen-x of which I am.
“I’m all for the revolution just let me know when it starts. I need to get a coffee”!
;)
Been way too busy to post much, but as a mid-Millennial, this kind of tracks with my impression of Charlie Kirk. I was aware of him, but honestly always thought he was a Fox News-affiliated project to reach the college-age demographic. Pretty much a way for Murdoch and friends to float trial balloons and capture the children of his existing audience. My elderly relatives are the only people I know that ever actively brought him up in a conversation (Joe Rogan is the diametric opposite).
Maybe his popularity blew up at some point in the past few years way more than I realized, but his entire shtick always struck me as a little like the “hello fellow kids” meme. He was young himself, but outside of a very specific kind of conservative political geek (my high school had a couple), he was still ultimately speaking to people that hadn’t grown up in the 21st-century America of “get hard or die”. I don’t know how much that was really him or how much he had advisors / handlers though.
All in all, I agree most with the take like Yasha Levine’s that was linked here. In the grand scheme of things, of all the current violence, the fact that people are working themselves into a frenzy over his death really speaks to how much spectacle and images have seized the collective consciousness. The country is possessed.
IMO, we are are still living the conseqences of the Obama admin, the failure of the technocracy….in that a lot of center-right people said: ok, I’ll give the Harvard guy with the funny name a shot.
And look at all the states that obama won in 2008: IA OH FL NC.
But the only people noticeably benefiting from 2009 – 16 was the banks and bicoastal top 5%.
And the reaction in 2016 was: F it, I tried the Harvard lawyer; give me the media egotist.
Given that the latest stat showed literacy rate in USA at 56% this explanation seems pretty much correct. Florida Man gets his revenge.
Favourability among 18-29 is about 2:1 unfavourable. I would read that as the result of a rage baiting strategy. Succesfull rage baiting depends on eliciting rage among the opponents, to create interaction, make the numbers go up and get the algoritms to serve the contents. This in turn makes it easier to recruit among the polarised supporters of his message. He wasn’t running for office and didn’t have to care if most young people hated his guts as long as it made him famous enough to reach the young right wingers.
Since his beatification by the administration, quoting his rage bait has gotten poeple fired, because it is still rage bait and doesn’t paint him in a very saintly light.
“Your Phone Already Knows Your Age, It Just Isn’t Telling You”
I wonder what your phone would make of this conversation then-
https://xcancel.com/JoshWalkos/status/1968683565249421502#m
Confirms my prejudice against using the phone for anything other than calls.
Yes sometimes I read articles like this. Then turn on my YouTube, which sends me advertising in languages that I don’t understand, advertising aimed at young women looking for temp jobs, advertising aimed at older men with flatulence problems, and advertising for Bitcoin Visa cards, all in the same session.
Ads aren’t being shown because of you, they get shown based on who pays the most. If you’ve been identified as being part of a targeted audience, then those targeted ads will get shown because the marketers will pay more. But if you aren’t in an interesting (ie profitable) demographic, that doesn’t mean you won’t get shown any ads (don’t we wish), it means you’ll get show the bottom of the barrel, “just show it to anyone” ads. (someone is always looking to pad their impressions total)
I usually ad block and I only check once in a while to see how badly ad sense has me binned.
Last October I got Kamala Harris ads. Weren’t those expensive ads?
I am in the NPC useless eater demographic.
Surely, people who were paying for whatever ads in Bengali and Vietnamese that were showing up on my end were not expecting that those ads would pass completely over the head(s) of whoever that had to wait through them…
Huh? YouTube targets ads:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2454017?hl=en
Worse, it spies. If I discuss a certain topic on the phone, I sometimes get different ads related to that general topic area for a while. For instance, I get a lot of dietary supplement and alternative medicine con ads.
Scorched earth!!?! More like a sad combination of whining and second rate blame shifting for most of these excerpts. No one really cares except Harris that people didn’t immediately start cheering her being foisted onto everyone as Biden’s replacement candidate. Unless Harris goes deeper into actual backbiting destructive Democratic infighting, this is at best weak tea, that is not going to redeem her or absolve her from a deeply embarrassing campaign and loss.
To me the most astonishing thing about Harris’ book is that it wasn’t self published. That someone at Simon & Schuster still wanted to waste money on her. (I don’t suppose she is putting any part of an advance or royalties towards the campaign debt she keeps begging for help with.)
Not mentioned in that article but brought up by Alex Christoforou is how Biden was constantly trying to sabotage Harris’s campaign in that book. And I do remember Biden doing this last year which I put down to spite on Biden’s part. I take satisfaction in reading the other day how Biden cannot raise the money for his Presidential Library as his former donor’s are not simply interested.
I have wanted the Presidential Library scam ended for a long time. This won’t do it, but you are right that it is satisfying that not even those who foisted “President” Biden on us want to spend more on funding and edifying that horrid human waste of space.
And I too remember how often something came out of the White House undermining any traction the Harris campaign might be making among the undecided.
Just from my view in the cheap seats, Biden has always been spiteful and holds a grudge as well as Trump. Trump always wanted to be accepted by Manhattan society and Biden didn’t go to an Ivy League school.
I take it for granted that big advances for political memoirs that will never sell are a form of post-dated bribery. Simon and Schuster, Harris’s publisher, is owned by private equity giant Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts, so we can safely assume it paid for services satisfactorily rendered in the past.
They must have been real happy to pay Barry some $65 million after he left the Presidency for his book. For “services rendered.”
An obscene payout but to be fair it did end up becoming a record breaking memoir with millions sold. And he’d previously had hit books. For better or worse Obama had a diehard loyal fan base (cult) – and he actually had won elections.
The kind of money tossed around for big names to write books (or sign their names to a ghost written book) is obscene though. Maybe people read them? It’s been long known that conservative best sellers are often artificially inflated by bulk sales from religious orgs and PACs so wouldn’t be surprised if Dems have similar means of funneling money and hype to their people and using the publishers as a tool of brand marketing (these books often just seem like an excuse to do media tours and promote a politician more than anything else).
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/474662-the-myth-of-the-conservative-bestseller/amp/
I’m always amazed to see all the memoirs and such from politicos when I infrequently visit bookstores. I saw one from what’s her name, Hilary’s body woman recently, and that must be gag inducing. The only one of these kinds of things I’ve ever really read was Barofsky’s book from his time as inspector general and what a joke Obama’s bailout was. But he was a real civil servant, not a hack politician grifter.
Committee Ends Two Ineffective Programs and Stops the Spending of $30 Billion
Yeah, I can’t imagine dedicating so many hours of my life to reading what some politician has to say about themselves. Can barely listen to them for a few minutes in interviews before wanting to lunge out a window. They usually offer all the useful insight of the back of a cereal box with all the charm and charisma of a serial killer.
If she’s gonna name names it would be good to know whose idea it was to send Bill Clinton to Michigan to scold voters there, and who told her to attach herself to Liz Cheney like a conjoined twin.
Either way it will be fun seeing this in airport books stores with 80% off stickers by the end of the month. Can’t imagine anyone other than a masochist reading this for any reason. I’d be more interested in a memoir from the Senate Parlimentarian since they clearly had more political impact than Harris.
great post , thank you.
Like so so many in both the political and media world, they never do anything when they had the chance and complain about it later
But it seems like she just ended her chance at another presidential run. Hopefully
Always inspiring leadership to complain after the fact about how everyone else failed you. The buck stops there!
We can hope.
Kamala..yeah..I remember her…she was the genocide-wine lady right?
Irrelevant person from an obsolete political party.
As ever, wake me up when there’s a policy that improves the material (or even emotional ffs) condition of the people.
A friend has an apartment in the London sky pool building. I’ve not been for a dip yet but the fees seemed steep to me (£20 for a guest) until I tried to swim at the local council swimming baths and paid £12.90 because I didn’t yet have a residents’ card!
Perhaps the real guillotine watch is how austerity has put swimming, not just gimmicky pools, above the reach of ordinary people?
I think to the cashless advance registration barriers are to keep the homeless out. A homeless lady was being pushed out shouting the guard should understand as a woman so I guess she wanted to use the facilities for menstrual reasons ….
I don’t think the guillotine is going to fall because a non-resident couldn’t get a better price. What was the price for a resident?
In Bogota as a non-resident I paid less than $7 an hour to swim laps in an olympic sized pool, as part of a Beautiful wellness complex that is apparently part of the health benefits package for workers. https://maps.app.goo.gl/fx8pfHyEniWoftB69
I remember in my Econ 102 – Macroeconomics class, a question on a flash quiz was “are swimming pools public goods?”. I put yes. The prof noted “all of them?” next to my answer.
Sounds like your prof was trying to play it smart. Publicly funded swimming pools are public goods but perhaps the good prof was worried about his own personal swimming pool. :)
Yeah, I was being a smartass commie and I think she was actually hip to my ploy, otherwise would have marked it wrong :) It always struck me when flying from the west to land at Boston Logan, just how many pools you can see in the suburbs…lots.
There was an Inn that had a “hoppable” pool where I grew up. It faced the town center, behind it a club house, a swimming pool, and nine holes of groomed lawn that pushed into mostly wilderness and was easily accessible to the adventurous. The pool was neither fenced nor lit. My friends and I swam warm nights there for two summers before I headed off to university.
It may have been in 7th grade, when my Boy Scout troop assigned some of us to do some demonstration camping at the Los Angeles County Fair.
We set up camp and watched as fairgoers walked by.
I can’t remember who decided we should abandon camp and see the fair ourselves.
At this fair, there were demonstration pools for potential buyers and we went swimming in these.
We got admonished/kicked out for abandoning camp, but I have never regretted our insubordination.
I believe we had a much better fair experience than the other groups doing demonstration camping.
There was a bright and shiny new condo development about a mile from where I lived in LA, and it had a swimming pool, a couple of lit tennis courts, gym, sauna and hot tub.
In essence it was a teenager’s whet dream, and after I learned the gate code from an impossibly old resident around 40, I was in like flint.
There was a self-appointed ‘condo cop’ of sorts that often complained to me that kids not from the condo were using the facilities and he was dead set to roust them out!
If he only knew my status, ha.
10€ (£8.7) in a private pool in Madrid found my wife this week. How expensive she said! I agreed. In PPP terms the UK is definitely more expensive, at least swimming in the UK.
– ‘Max Blumenthal: Charlie Kirk’s Story FALLS APART’ – Dialogue Works, YouTube.
This is a very good overview of the key issues, in my opinion. Regarding the murder itself, since the beginning I’ve been waiting for information about this “extremely cooperative” roommate. Maybe I’ve missed it, but I’d sure like to know about his (her?) background, how they met, politics, etc. Obviously the autopsy is pretty crucial as well; I hope we find out the results, and perhaps just as important – who conducted the autopsy and under what conditions.
As Max himself says, for most of us our default position is to accept a simple “lone nut” scenario. But when we start being fed all this contradictory BS, we start asking questions, starting with cui bono?
I think everything the government provided was real, even the text messages.[1] I want to put out an alternative theory. Have you noticed that most of these shooters seem to be on the Autistic Spectrum? Even as far back as the Sandy Hook Shooter (who was also heavily online?
People with ASD risk being manipulated because they can’t tell when they’re being lied to
People with ASD are a target for a reason, and they are targeted via the internet. They do not need to do anything else but convince the target they are doing the right thing. All the larger conspiracies are being driven only by an inept investigators saying inept things.
All these upper layer conspiracies (the language, the direction of the bullet, the two security guys), all merely superficial and a distraction.
It upsets me as someone with Asperger’s to see this TikTok woman making fun of my overly formal speech that I have have had to learn to turn down so I can make friends.
And I am saying this, with the risk of being ridiculed, that I was a target. Not only via the internet, but it spilled out in real life. And that is all the details I will give here.
People bully and misunderstand me, still at nearly 60 years old. If we want to stop these assassination, we need to care more about what people with ASD are doing on line and protect them.
[1] Note that people are saying Tyler’s wording is odd. But why is the roommates responses not odd as well? He answers “What???????????????” When Tyler said he was the shooter, Yeah, a ton of question marks, very normal. If they faked Tyler’s, why not the roommates? Most people do not know or live with people with Asperger’s. If you did you would not see Tyler’s wording as odd.
Please Stop Making Shit Up. The FBI said the texts were “reconstructed”. They are NOT his actual words and you are out over your skis in treating them as such.
Moreover, your attempt at armchair diagnosis on FBI-created material is inconsistent with interviews of people who knew him from high school. He was popular. If he had had Aspergers, he could still have been popular, but there would have been comments on awkwardness and difficulty in making eye contact, or perhaps an odd sense of humor. The press would have been eager to find and amplify any indication that he was not a normal-seeming guy.
I neglected to provide the reason for getting sharp with you, which likely seems disproportionate to those who don’t read comments closely every day.
Yesterday in comments to Links you tried to censor discussion of the tweets by saying you did not want ot hear about them.
Today you are talking them up without having gotten the most detailed info easily available on them so far, which is the link to the Max Blumenthal discussion above about how the FBI reconstructed them. There may be even earlier sightings of that issue on Twitter, I admit to not having run that down.
pjay–
I watched most of the video this morning (tip of the hat to Alice X for posting the link in yesterday’s comments), and I just returned to try to get the many, many facts under control. Nima asks good questions, and Max simply lists one fact that he has fact-checked after another. The video is an excellent grasp of the current chaos of U.S. politics. Poor Van Jones. Max Blumenthal knows where all of the proverbial bodies are buried.
I tend to think of the roommate as a kind of red herring. The doctored SMS exchanges without time stamps are signals that someone at the FBI or DOJ is manufacturing the roommate’s purpose. So what if two young guys have a love affair? I’m not willing to take this too far — was Tyler Robinson gay and afraid of his Mormon family, and what is the roommate’s pronoun status? I wouldn’t speculate.
Likewise, there is a rumor going around the Charlie Kirk was on the verge of converting to Catholicism because his ultra-Christercrat denomination had been coopted. Again, I”m leery of taking this too far, assuming he wanted to be another convert of convenience in the service of authoritarianism like J.D. Vance.
Allegedly, I think this was from Larry Johnson on Judge Nap, his wife is Catholic (from a Catholic family) and that was a factor. Not sure what to make of it, though: US Catholics are not really a meaningful, cohesuve group. (Communities among US Catholics, at least some of them–Croats, Vietnamese, Lebanese, etc) probably are more meaningful, though, but I doubt Kirk’s wife is an ethnic Catholic.
Given FBI/CIA/etc use IMSI catchers to spoof cellular signals in order to locate phones and given the same technique can be used to spoof messages. What are the odds some government capable of IMSI spoofing used the technique to *insert* the SMS messages?
This appears to be Dialogue Works’ most watched video in less than 24 hours.
I was watching a clip on YouTube last night about the autopsy, and the commenter made the point that it is up to the family to decide if the autopsy will be made public. Or if there even will be an autopsy.
Thanks to Yves for making us aware of this Dialogue Works video. I watched it, and it just left me with more questions:
1. How did the police “reconstruct” text messages? My guess is they got the phone of the roommate, who is cooperating with the investigation. Perhaps he deleted the messages initially, and the forensic guys were able to piece them back together?
2. Did the Police ever get a warrant to search the suspect’s (Robinson’s ) phone? They certainly would have probable cause. Maybe Robinson destroyed his phone? There is an obstruction of justice charge in the indictment, IIRC.
3. Has Robinson gotten a defense attorney yet? His family seems to have disowned him. He desperately needs an advocate to point out that the leaking of the text messages, which may not even be admissible, is poisoning the jury pool.
A lot of these questions will be answered when the trial happens, but that is months away, if not years … if we get a trial.
I sure hope this doesn’t end up like the Vegas mass shooting, where the whole thing just sort of disappeared from view, including the wife/GF of the shooter, who was mysteriously whisked away out of the country never to be heard from again.
The whole thing is informative and worth your time. I’ve been supporting The Grayzone for years and continue to be impressed by how thorough and courageous Max is. Perhaps this is the moment he breaks out from the fringe media ghetto. I hope so.
Agree 100% on Max Blumenthal. Ken Klippenstein is doing bang-up reporting work these days, too.
Re Charlie Kirk’s funeral:
I really hope I’m wrong, but I’m fearful of the content of Kirk’s massive memorial service today. If I were the praying type, I’d be praying fervently that it not be turned into a brown-shirt rally against all the dark forces of the “radical left” who killed him. Here’s the speaker’s list according to USA Today:
According to a post on X by Turning Point USA, speakers at Kirk’s memorial service include:
Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s wife
President Donald Trump
Vice President JD Vance
Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff
Marco Rubio, secretary of state
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of health and human services
Pete Hegseth, secretary of war
Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence
Donald Trump Jr., the oldest son of President Trump
Tucker Carlson, a former talk show commentator on Fox News
Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff
Sergio Gor, U.S. ambassador to India nominee
Aside from Tucker Carlson and perhaps Kirk’s widow, this list gives me the creeps. Why the hell is this completely dominated by Trump administration officials? Most concerning, of course, is Trump himself; who knows what will come out of his mouth. I guess we’ll find out soon.
pjay–
Only Tucker Carlson.
Fatto Quotidiano had a column-long article about the funeral on its back page today. The article quotes Charlie Kirk as saying waggishly, “I’m a moderate compared to my wife.”
Give the many Nice Lady trainwrecks now so visible in U.S. culture, I would not trust her if I were you. (Meanwhile, here in Europe, we deal with the joy of Ursula von der Leyen, the non-entity Roberta Metsola, and Kaja Kallas foaming at the mouth.)
Yep, being violently widowed is likely not the reason why she appears to be as unhinged as some of the other Trump Valkyries. They make our Euro Horsewomen of the Apocalypse sound sane and reasonable by comparison.
I don’t really trust Kirk’s widow, but out of respect and a hope for civility I gave her a “perhaps” benefit of the doubt. Based on her first public statement after the murder, I had strong worries about her being hijacked by the Trump/Zionist faction. I imagine there is a behind-the-scenes struggle for the heart and mind of the new CEO of TPUSA. Judging by this line-up I’m not optimistic.
I notice the over-reaction has already started over Charlie Kirk-
‘Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma introduced legislation this week that would require every public university in the state to construct “a Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza”, with a statue of the assassinated Republican activist and a sign calling him a “modern civil rights leader”, or pay monthly fines.
The Oklahoma bill, sponsored by state senators Shane Jett and Dana Prieto, specifies that the memorial site must be in “a prominent area” on the main campus of every institution of higher education in the state system, and must include “a statue of Charlie Kirk sitting at a table with an empty seat across from him” or one of Kirk and his wife holding their children. Designs for the statue must be approved by the legislature.
Each plaza must also include “permanent signage commemorating Charlie Kirk’s courage and faith and explaining the significance of Charlie Kirk as a voice of a generation, modern civil rights leader, vocal Christian, martyr for truth and faith, and free speech advocate”.’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/20/oklahoma-republicans-charlie-kirk
People like me who grew up under Communism and are old enough to remember it remember the “little red corners” in schools that contained busts or portraits of Party chiefs. Frankly this sh!t sickens me. What a bunch of good little cult of personality authoritarians MAGA turned out to be
By God, in comparison, we Romanians we had it good, it was all about Ceausescu and his wife, no Hindu pantheon for us. Makes life easier.
Pure political pandering. Kirk does not deserve this.
Oklahoma lawmakers have form with chumming the water for their base on the matter of statues.
As has been said time and again, he is the modern-day equivalent of Horst Wessel. His reputation only reached legendary status after his assassination. Had he not been killed, he would have remained a minor right-wing figure.
I believe you are right.
Charlie Kirk was a parochial celebrity, and basically unknown outside the USA. That incredible mass-memorial service turning him into some kind of greater-than-life defender of Christianism, freedom of speech, and conservative values reeks of his instrumentalization by a movement in dire need of a hero.
Because after all, neither Trump, Hegseth, or Kennedy can really play the role, while other figures with a greater aura like Musk or once popular like Bannon fell out with MAGA. The weird assassination of a young, presentable demagogue influencer undoubtedly MAGA-compatible but without any real political power is a jackpot for them.
Here in AZ the Republican lawmakers want to change the name of one of the loop freeways to honor Mr K:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2025/09/18/warren-petersen-wants-loop-202-renamed-charlie-kirk/86206461007/
Hope they don’t talk to Oklahoma.
Israel already has a road named after Mr K. Still no one named after Georg Elser.
Don’t they try to keep POTUS, VPOTUS ,and secretary of state separate in public, in case of accidents or otherwise? Speaker of House looks to be omitted, maybe for that reason.
I have to say that one of my first thoughts on seeing that attendance list was “Anyone have an Oreshnik handy?”…
I don’t think it matters, as I can’t see the 50-State union surviving 4 years of this.
Watch Vance…
I have a feeling he will give a memorable speech which plays well very with its intended audience. Of all the speakers he can get the tone right.
Expect Miller to go full foaming mouth sociopath.
Please please please let Tucker seize the moment and go full “no more Israel first”
I have a feeling he will give a memorable speech
he will have to plagiarize it, without getting caught, to do that
‘Jason Smith – 上官杰文
@ShangguanJiewen
Lots of the anti-China trolls tell me I don’t show cities other than “First tier cities.”
This is Shijiazhuang. It’s a city of 11 million people, larger than New York city, and most westerners have never heard of it. It’s a second tier city and the capital of Hebei province. It ranks about 25th in China in terms of population’
Looking at the video of this city, it occurred to me that this might very well be a video of a modern American city if Neoliberalism had never taken hold.
Neoliberalism creeps upon countries. It’s often little things – for the sake of “the market” – at first that turn into an avalanche.
For countries with less power than China, it can be shoved down their throats.
“US touts collaborative plan to tackle Mexico’s drug cartels – but initiative is met with denial and mistrust south of the border”
As I said the other day, if Mexico agreed to this then there is no telling if Trump will blow up some random truck along a highway saying that it was full of drugs on its way to the US border. Since Trump has already blown up four random boats at sea and JD Vance is making jokes about the hazards of being a fishing boat in this region, how could they trust Trump to not blow up random trucks or perhaps a villa in the hillsides that Trump claims is a Cartel headquarters. This is what happens when your foreign policy is inspired by Tom Clancy-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_and_Present_Danger
Trump has a collaborative plan. US will shoot up some random cars and trucks with Apache helicopters, and then Mexico will clean up the mess and destroy all the evidence.
Years ago I had a few fisherman in Nicaragua took me out to some uninhabited islands along the Caribbean coast. Was an amazing experience. A few years later I was reading Colors magazine and they had a photo of the fisherman. Found out their actual business was “fishing” for cocaine that had been tossed overboard by traffickers when authorities gave chase.
Not that I need personal connection to know these bombings are wrong on numerous levels but knowing I was on one of those boats – and knowing how kind the guys who took me and my friends out on that trip were – makes these stories much more upsetting.
As for whether Mexico agrees to such a deal: Agreed. At this point anyone who agrees to anything with the US is just asking to be swindled (or worse). Hopefully they are smarter than that.
Donnie and the boys are out to overthrow Maduro at best to get control of the oil fields and refineries or at at worst to get control of the oil fields and refineries leaving Maduro where he is. Either way it amounts to aggression against a sovereign nation. Putting the arm on Mexico is something beyond drug cartels, something to do with money, with gaining control of this or that. I do not know what this or that it is. In the fentanyl trade the cartels are middle men. Would it not make more sense to seriously go after the source? The so-called war on drugs has not reduced use in the US. Different drugs become #1 from time to time.
What is clear as Geo concludes is agreeing with anything offered by serial liars and strong arm men is an invitation to being further extorted.
Before Prohibition, beer was $4 a barrel. After Prohibition, beer was $4 a barrel. During Prohibition, beer was $400 a barrel. Criminalization increases profits. Back in the early days of drug smuggling, the boast was, “We catch 95% of the smugglers,” but 95% of the product got through anyway. Fentanyl increases profits by making the product more alluring to the users, but overdoing it kills them.
To solve the fentanyl problem all we have to do is decriminalize drugs. When alcohol was decriminalized with the repeal of Prohibition, the Cosa Nostra had to re-orient toward bookmaking and extortion, and liquor stores did not have to compete with individuals trying to hook kids on beer by giving it to them for free. And the billions saved on law enforcement can be used to treat the addicts’ problem.
As with tobacco and liquor sales, we should have a regulated industry. Have the cartels get legitimate, giving them a reason to end turf wars. Give them a reasonable, firearms-free bottom line for products that are cheaper to buy than create in a basement (e.g, wine, beer, liquor, tobacco, tiramusu, etc.). Regulate the potency of the product. FORBID ADVERTISING. This will prevent them from recruiting victims.
There will continue to be users who have problems, but their families will not be afraid to look for help, and they won’t have to worry about revenuers or SWAT teams breaking down their door.
There also has to be some effort to reduce the social and economic conditions that make drug use appealing.
That’s not even in the chat.
Drugs are already decriminalized, for the Big Pharma. This is more of “killing the competition”.
I won’t claim to know where it’s headed, but I’ve mentioned before that I think most of the media (mainstream or alternative) is really underestimating the strategic forces at play in Venezuela. Beyond the usual neocon drooling over their best case of regime change and grabbing oil, I think there’s a genuine fear behind the boat attacks (they’re not even piracy, but something crueler and dumber).
Brazil may be a founding member of BRICS, but Venezuela is the Western pillar of the Axis of Resistance, which everyone seems to forget was never engineered by its members. It develops organically from NATO + Israel starting fights they shouldn’t with groups whose ideologies are mostly compatible. And the natural affinities between Catholic Liberation Theology and Red Shi’ism are strong and clear if one takes a second to look. For an interesting thought experiment, compare a mural of say Nicaraguan Sandinistas with one of Iranian volunteers from the Iraq War.
I’ve never heard anyone come out and say it, but just as the US irrevocably links Ukraine, Israel, and Guyana through its sponsorship, an overwhelming Venezuelan action against Guyana immediately becomes a solidarity front supreme. Not only does it bring The War(TM) into America’s own hemisphere, not only has Israel ironically set the precedent, but taking Guyana’s crude off the world market would be a direct kick in the nuts to the NATO economies.
My schizo yarn theory is that taking control of Venezuela’s oil is the US’s effort to wage economic warfare on Russia by other means. Since it can’t bully its customers into not buying its oil, it’ll seize the largest reserves in the world and then direct them to undercutting Russia’s products.
Re the by the numbers AP editorial on Kimmel, the martyr who hasn’tyet been martyred (since his show only suspended).
Sorry but this reader can’t be moved by someone like Jon Stewart who went to Kiev to support the neo-Nazis of Ukraine (and Biden’s policies) and then gets all holy about free speech. Should one point all the self censorship that took place not so many months back as the MSM pretended Biden wasn’t senile until our lying eyes saw the truth in a televised debate? Both Patrick Lawrence and Chris Hedges–former associates of the NYT–have talked about this. It’s the under the radar thought control that has really put the country in such a mess and arguably given us the censoring Trump as well.
Comedians are supposed to be in the business of making jokes about everyone and most especially themselves. Pandering to one side only is nest feathering which, given the limited slots available for TV entertainers, can be very lucrative indeed. Someone like Kimmel was the very opposite of an outsider as seen by the volte face the industry has taken in his defense. They do respect money though so perhaps Disney should simply have pointed to his feeble ratings and given him the heave ho.
One can’t deny that Trump is fast turning into a new low in horrible but there’s so much that went before. That’s also worth talking about.
This is an ad hominem attack, which is an invalid argumentation strategy as well as a violation of our site Policies. You need to address what Stewart said and not take a stab at character assassination. As readers have pointed out, Marjorie Taylor Green of all people has come around and is regularly making sound, detailed critiques. But you would similarly reject what she has to say now based on her past stances.
You are also manifesting the cognitive bias called halo effect, of requiring people to be all good or all bad, as in if they fail your purity test, they are all bad.
Pray tell, what does going to Ukraine have to do with free speech? I fail to make the connection. The fact that someone has bad taste in their pet causes is irrelevant.
We have pointed out that the ACLU has repeatedly and proudly defended the free speech rights of causes they regard as heinous, such as the Klu Klux Klan and American Nazis, because free speech has to be universal to be free speech.
So you are saying that someone who has a strong political bias in their comedy is not worthy of having a platform. As in you are fine with censorship; Glad to know that.
Speaking only to the issue of Stewart, free speech and the Ukraine, could this be in reference to the fact that the Ukraine government greatly restricted the press and any pro-Russia / anti-Ukraine demonstrations fairly soon after the Russian SMO started? If I remember correctly, Stewart was quiet on this issue. So I could see an argument being made for him being a bit of a hypocrite on the matter. Much like FIFA with regards to Russia being kicked out the World Cup, but Israel still being included.
Just a guess on my part.
Lots of places around the globe have free speech issues. Despite how many of us here may feel about Ukraine much of the US finds the invasion of their country to be tragic and support their efforts to resist Russia. So, if he did go there to show support (as I noted in another comment I cannot find any articles about him visiting Ukraine so I don’t know his reasons) it would not be hypocritical in the least since he has always stood up for who he believes to be the underdog.
And not to “both sides” it but visiting Ukraine isn’t nearly as hypocritical as the Riyadh Comedy Festival attended by supposed free speech warriors like Dave Chappell, Andrew Schultz, and Tim Dillon (who was fired from it after joking about “taking the money” despite their atrocities).
I think you’d have to be willfully blind not to know about the human rights abuses of the Ukrainian regime – see my comment below on the killing of Gonzala Lira.
Stewart is not a stupid individual who just guzzles the kool-aid dished out by the CIA/MI6/Business Insider propaganda mills.
Unless he’s extremely intellectually lazy or clinging to his prior beliefs with both hands while he dangles over the cliff, he should have known better.
Can you point me to anything about his visit to Ukraine? I cannot find a single article about it on the interwebs. Was pointed to a piece about him being a presenter at some silly “warrior games” event at Disney in Orlando where he handed an award to a Ukrainian with extremist ties. But nothing about him going to Ukraine.
Not saying it didn’t happen. Just never heard about this trip and would like to know more about it.
Sorry, I’m relying on the original commenter’s statement that Stewart visited Kiev as being in good faith. If it’s not, then shame on him. I can’t do your homework for you.
Thinking about it more, I am starting to agree with Yves, though that even if Stewart made the mistake of visiting the Kiev Nazis in the past, that doesn’t invalidate his argument about free speech today. In other words, I am not sure it’s worth the effort as this is a “hypocrisy” argument.
I was speaking more generally about those who claim to be proponents of free speech having a blind spot; unfortunately, all humans have those.
Ya know I did get that one wrong and so confess. It was David Letterman who went there toward the beginning of the war along with others like Sean Penn.
In defense of too fast written comments I’ll point to the reply button which some of us rely on for the setting straight on all matters.
That said others in this ongoing debate may have shoot from the lip issues including Kimmel who arguably should have simply retracted his “MAGA did it” statement as ABC probably wanted. Meanwhile apologies from the (old guy) peanut gallery.
Seems he never visited Ukraine. Another commenter also searched and found links they thought were of that but were actually just Stewart in DC speaking about what he’s seen on social media about Ukraine.
So, yeah, a long thread here of us debating a falsehood the original poster teed up for us. Waste of time. Oh well.
Sad though how jaded we’ve all gotten that we believe the worst about someone with a pretty exceptional track record like Stewart whether we have proof or not. As you said, no one is perfect.
See my comment just above and out of moderation. As for Stewart here’s what he did say as the war was starting, just not in Kiev.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/jon-stewart-ukraine-president-zelensky-b2026890.html
As those of us who followed the war here know, by that time Zelensky etc had provoked the intervention by shelling the eastern provinces and some claim they were on the verge of invading them.
My point being that Stewart is a very funny guy but not necessarily a guru about FP. But then neither is our current president….
And let’s not forget about Gonzola Lira.
The Zelensky regime has a kill list of other people who have spoken up against them.
I’d say guilt by association- anyone who goes to Ukraine is no friend of freedom of expression.
Fairly soon, indeed. 6 months before SMO, on August 21, 2021, he banned “opposition” radio and television channels.
Right after SMO started, he banned the actual “opposition” parties, and remaining four Ukrainian TV channels were put under the government control and forced to participate in 24/7 United News telethon – each channel has 6 hour slot to repeat the government
propagandaaccepted news.Some people are voicing their oposition against Israel participating in FIFA games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO2pXPZmMUo
You seem to be reading things into my comments that were not intended and if that’s the result of sloppy writing or a desire for brevity then I plead guilty.
But of course I’m not in favor of censorship and in my comment I counter suggest that many of those who are complaining about Trump seemed fine with the previous administration attempts to limit discussion on certain topics. One of those, it has been reported, was Kimmel.
As for Stewart I don’t get cable and haven’t watched him in a long time but enjoyed his show when I did. But I’ve seen him at the political rally he and Colbert did in DC and was considerably less impressed. Surely there’s a case to be made that celebrities in general are open to criticism when using their fame to bolster support for oh say Zelensky.
I started reading this site long ago because you seemed open to contrarian sites like Counterpunch. I rarely read that site anymore but NC is still here and many of us still ourselves as supporters.
Thank you for your clarification. However, the overarching mission of this site is promoting critical thinking. Arguing hypocrisy is another logical fallacy and therefore an invalid argumentation strategy. It’s called tu quoque.
From Wikipedia:
Having said that, it is fair to point out that the West does pay too much attention to celebrities.
I know Google has gotten bad but I searched for “Jon Stewart visits Kiev” and “Jon Stewart visits Ukraine” and nothing turns up. Anyone have a link to any reports on his visit there? Curious to know more context before conjuring up my opinion on it.
“Comedians are supposed to be in the business of making jokes about everyone and most especially themselves.”
There’s no specific job requirements for being a comedian. Many find careers by appealing to niche audiences.
“there’s so much that went before. That’s also worth talking about.”
Much has been said about that stuff here. Doesn’t mean the now is not important too.
Try searching for Jon Stewart gives medal to a Nazi at Disney World. That sounds like a joke only a professional comedian could come up with, and must be his best one. It sure made me LMAO. :-)
Thanks for that info. Presenting awards at some ridiculous military promoting “games” is awful but in line with his typical jingoistic valorization of “the troops.” It’s an area he’s always been devoted to (his efforts to get support for those whose health was harmed by toxic burn pits is somewhat admirable) and while I don’t always like it, I personally don’t discount his overall character over that one issue.
As for the Azov dude, this is what WSWS had to say:
“Whether Stewart was ignorant of or indifferent to Halushka’s ties to a violent neo-Nazi organization, his appearance at an event dedicated to promoting the bloody machinery of US militarism is indicative of the far-right shift of an entire layer of very well-paid, Democratic Party-aligned celebrities and pseudo-comedians.
“Last year, Stewart appeared on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show where he ranted against science and endorsed the racist Wuhan lab lie that had first been concocted by fascists like Stephen Bannon. At the time, the WSWS commented that Stewart, much like Glenn Greenwald and other former opponents of the Iraq War in the upper middle class, had been “swept up by powerful right-wing currents in contemporary politics, unmoored by a vast social crisis all around them, which they do not understand and for which they are politically unprepared.””
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/06/aque-s06.html
So, even in an article painting Stewart as in the wrong they still admit it may have been ignorance of this person’s ties to extremist groups. And, to be even more fair & balanced: any event with a large quantity of US military personnel is bound to have some people with ties to extremist groups in it. But “support the troops” is a strong intoxicant in this country.
Jon Stewart visits Kiev
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d-LVI5YPKg
I used Yandex as my browser. Neither Foxfire nor Opera found it and I did not bother with Chrome.
Brave also found it
https://www.tmz.com/watch/2022-03-02-030222-jon-stewart-1372092/
Thanks. Saw this TMZ video in my searches as well and they are not of him in Ukraine. He’s in Capitol Hill taking about what he’s seen on social media happening in Ukraine.
From the video description:
“We got the former ‘Daily Show’ host Wednesday on Capitol Hill and asked him about the Russian invasion and what he’s seeing from his fellow comic, who is now leading Ukraine. Jon Stewart is blown away by what he’s seeing of the war play out in real time on social media.”
So, it seems the claim he visited Ukraine in the original comment may not be accurate since none of us have been able to find news of this online.
I guess AI has found its killer app. Religion.
It won’t be long before LLMs have enough data and guidance to be very effective religious leaders.
Start a church under the premise that everyhing you hear is personalised just for you, and there will be Wrath if the messages to you are repeated.
Now every member of the congregation can get a tailored message tweaking their personal buttons. Scary.
Following on from IMDoc’s recent comments on gnosticism, perhaps AI will provide the gnostic pathway for individuals to come to their own personal Jesus.
Your own personal Jesus.
Someone to hear your prayers.
Someone who cares.
green giant
There is this continuing theme that the US was the leader in renewables. It never was. At points in the past the US was in the top few for installations of solar, but not manufacturing.
The majority of solar panels in the US up until the chinese came on the market in 2010ish, were from international companies, german, french, norwegian,india , japanese. The US had manufacturing here, but most were foreign owned companies that made plants here. Schott, REC, solar world, etc. There was a major company called Spire, which made the equipment that made solar panels, it was US but I think they are long gone.
How about inverters? The only US company is Enphase, of which they are rapidly losing market share to the chinese. China now has 7 or 8 of the top 10 inverter companies in world wide sales.
Wind, yes the US has had a pretty big market share but that is declining rapidly
Batteries, not really. Most of what happens here is assembly of foreign products made on equipment of foreign origin. Tesla just bought a LFP battery plant from china, lock stock and barrel, complete with foreign installation and tech support in operation as well as all the feed stock comes from china. Their other battery plants were owned and operated by LG or panasonic or a few others, but not actually tesla.
I don’t think there is a prismatic LFP cell maker in the US.
Meanwhile china is on to sodium.
And what is made/assembled here is way more expensive than from all the other countries so no one is going to buy US products.
But on the other hand, China’s leadership in renewable energy technology hasn’t reversed China’s relentless climb in CO2 emissions. Per https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions, China was responsible for 31.5% of global CO2 emissions in 2023. The West, specifically the US and EU-27, clocked in at a mere 13.0% and 6.6%, respectively.
Even on a per-capita basis, China is doing worse than the EU-27, releasing 8.4 tons of CO2 per capita in 2023 vs 6.6 tons in the EU. The US was still thirstier at 14.3 tons, but the US trend is sloping downward, whereas the Chinese trend is sloping upward. If these trends continue, China will pass the US in per-capita emissions in a decade or so.
I’d be more impressed with the “green giant” if they were actually getting greener.
If you look at the latest information here is what you’ll find. In short there is a noticeable downward trend. Most analysts say its looking peak coal and oil have happened China.
At the rate of which china is installing wind/solar/nuclear, the adoption of EV’s and electrification, they are making staggering gains in the reduction of carbon.
If every year they are installing 300GW of just solar, let alone wind and nuclear and new hydro, they are making the worlds biggest inroads to carbon reduction, from the worlds largest country and manufacturing engine of the world.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-clean-energy-just-put-chinas-co2-emissions-into-reverse-for-first-time/
here is another pointing to peaks having happened.
https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2025/09/China-Energy-Transition-Review-2025.pdf
And the above must be mixed with the amount of solar and wind added in the last years. 4 years ago, as to the article you posted is about when China really go busy with solar.
Here is a list of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_China
With 2025 forecasted to be 300GW of just solar.
Hmmm… The data from “outworldindata” only goes to 2023, and didn’t show last year’s reduction in Chinese CO2 emissions. That’s definitely good news from 2024, though it remains to be seen if this is a one-time dip or the beginning of a sustained decrease in emissions. Time will tell.
While it doesn’t change the picture too much, I like to look at consumption based CO2 numbers. You have to consider that China has become the worlds factory and produces many of the goods/CO2 that would have prior been produced elsewhere: https://ourworldindata.org/consumption-based-co2
RE: Democrats Rapidly Shift on Israel
And as a result some of the Democrat “leadership” are calling for a cut off of “offensive” weapons to Israel. Could they possibly come up with a more useless remedy? Last I checked bullets didn’t stop mid-air after determining they were fired offensively rather than defensively. Katie Halper poignantly asked recently whether people would have been OK with the US sending just “defensive” weapons to Germany in 1939.
The democrats are a day late and a dollar short and still timid, but I suppose they have the excuse that the paymaster is twisting their knickers until their eyes bulge.
Last I checked anti-missile missiles were a big dollar item for certain defense contractors.
And Russia plans to persist with strikes as Zelensky and Trump meet. They should have figured out by now, that the voodoo that they do at those meetings doesn’t cut the mustard.
.
Just in case someone missed it, “Estonia incursion” actually means flying over the Baltic Sea. More or less the route Russian ship was sailing on, when Estonian pirate wannabes tried to seize it, not so long ago.
https://x.com/gidonsaar/status/1969285336015462538
Israel is concerned of Russian airplanes violation of Estonia airspace.
These violation together with recent event in Poland might threaten stability and peace in the region and should be avoided.
Israel is such a responsible global citizen!
And it always respects other county’s airspaces.
Unprompted, the voice of Kissinger read that quote to me in my head.
‘Haider.
@slow_developer
Microsoft AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman:
By the end of 2025, models will move from one-shot answers to continuous planning
With persistent memory and long-horizon planning, models will become deeply human-like
no new algorithm, mostly compute and scale’
The guy is aware how the present models are notorious for hallucinating facts I hope. Here he is talking about using the same technology but for continuous planning, giving as an example driving to work. Can you imagine? That model might send you the wrong way down a one-way street or it might plan your car trip using streets that do not even exist. You would end up scaling up hallucinations from time to time.
To build on a comment I made recently…
There are some terms he used which have a precise meaning in the industry, notably (tech/AI brethren in the comments, do not come after me for generalizing and simplifying, I’m speaking to those outside of the field):
– persistence: durable storage for application state
– planning: a type of agent workflow that utilizes RAG context fed to the LLM/frontier models with checkpoints that can save (“persist”) the state of the response so the user can resume, fork, change etc from the checkpoint with the state data from that point in time
What he is describing is a variant on the external RAG connector paradigm I mentioned in the final point in my earlier comment. The model itself is taking in information which is stored somewhere in the user’s application space (for example, a project plan with goals, outcomes, good and bad examples of expected output) and feeding that to the model using a planning/orchetration agentic process so that the model processes the project plan to take action based on the project plan contents and any other RAG or external (to the model) tools (like external web search, schedulers, etc). This is an expected part of the transition of the AI space going from science experiment/magic trick to just another part of the application layer.
What you’re bringing up – hallucinations – are typically an artifact of the model not having enough context about what it is being asked and so it makes stuff up to avoid getting halted. Bringing in more context via RAG (but not so much as to overload the model’s context window for each step of the interaction) is like 98% of the magic of using AI productively.
He’s not describing any new breakthroughs. Pretty much all of the ‘serious’ end of the dedicated AI tooling is beginning to roll more sophisticated RAG-based tooling on top of their applications that use the frontier models. There is a bullwhip effect while everyone figures out how to use each new tier of tooling. Paradoxically the more of these are added, the less the actual LLM/frontier model is required to dig deep into its own training set to respond. Over time we’ll see the enormous frontier models probably die off as they are replaced with hyper-specific models for particular use cases, like coding (this is already starting to happen in certain arenas where the coding type is not one that has a lot of public data that could have been used in the frontier models training set, like FPGA/ASIC development).
Finally, to make something extremely explicitly clear, any serious company that implements this will build out the user-associated persistence layer separate from the model so each individual’s context files are segregated from everyone else (“multitenancy”) and if they’re on a paid or enterprise plan that usually comes with a legal agreement not to take that information and retrain the frontier models on it if the service is also a frontier model provider. The context is usually encrypted and passed to the model in a format the model can read, not human readable, so the provider can say they’re not stealing your context data or harvesting it for nefarious deeds (not all paid plans/services do that which is why you have to read the fine print in the agreement). Any downstream provider who, say, buys a Microsoft service to build out their own application leveraging this tech, will use these private/secure endpoints and services so there is a chain of legal accountability so lawyers down the chain can sign off on it. This is not provided to users of the free and public implementations of the chatbots, which is where a lot of the horror stories and bad experiences come from.
Color me skeptical that RAG is going to accomplish anything like what he says (persistent memory? long-horizon planning?) What you’re describing is more like adding a human-like UI and flexibility on top of highly specialized and tightly defined problem spaces. I agree it’ll probably be good for those, but it’s just another kind of empirical tuning, albeit a little more sophisticated than ‘prompt engineering’ (which is code for ‘try different stuff and see what works’).
The long term memory problem is still not solved, and they are still not capable of learning from conversational data, abstraction, or any of the many other qualities of human intelligence. I don’t think those problems will be solved with the current class of model – there needs to be another research breakthrough, which will not happen on a Moore’s Law timescale. We are already reaching the point of diminishing returns on the current class of models – the plans for massive data center buildouts, and the complaints that “there’s not enough data in the world” to keep evolving the models, are both suggestive of companies trying to square this particular circle by throwing resources at the problem.
I suspect the AI experts like Suleyman know this, but they can’t say it because it would puncture the hype balloon. So it will be perpetually just over the horizon, or if it starts to become too obvious that it’s a pipe dream then they’ll move the goalposts.
What you’re describing is more like adding a human-like UI and flexibility on top of highly specialized and tightly defined problem spaces.
The models are totally separate from the application built around them. So the UI on top of the model is actually how things are now in a lot of products. I’m not sure what your primary interaction with the LLMs so far has been for but you sound like a tech person so you’ve probably used one of the coding assistants that are built into an IDE, like Cline? Think about how the Cline interface is set up: you can select whatever model you have connected (either through their endpoints or with your own API keys), you can toggle between an Act or Agent mode, and you can add specific context to the RAG by using specific characters to as part of the prompt. The persistent data storage layer is part of that application layer and the state is updated there with each chat checkpoint. I presume based on some experiments I’ve been working through with my team that ‘long horizon planning’ is special formatted project planning file with overall instructions that is part of the workspace that the application interface reviews periodically with the LLM to handle the processing.
The long term memory problem is still not solved, and they are still not capable of learning from conversational data, abstraction, or any of the many other qualities of human intelligence.
I personally don’t see them ever reaching that point. I think instead we are going to see a lot more emphasis on RAG and application layer tooling to make scaffolding out the particular use case easier to supply to the model on an ongoing basis + tooling to integrate elsewhere into the the use case stack (video editing workflow or software development lifecycle or whatever) + more extremely niche-specific distilled models that are smaller and more resource-constrained but tailored for explicit use cases. I think the era we’re in currently with frontier models doing wacky generalized stuff (it codes! it makes movies! it develops recipes from what you have in your fridge! it can even translate ancient akkadian manuscripts!) and evangelists claiming we’re at the threshold of some weird ultra-intelligence that could end the world is going to be looked back on with embarrassment because ultimately the successful use cases for the models are going to be kind of unsexy to normals and for the tech people they will become just another runtime refactoring like when everyone shifted away from monolithic Java backends to distributed web services.
I suspect the AI experts like Suleyman know this, but they can’t say it because it would puncture the hype balloon.
Suleyman is hyping up what can be built (with Azure’s compute and Azure’s provisioned model endpoints) because that is what makes money for Microsoft. He doesn’t have to worry about massive capex burn on the models, that’s why they have the partnership with OpenAI. That’s why he’s describing stuff that requires building out an application layer on top of a model. TBH I am kind of disappointed in his hype skills, given Microsoft’s resources I would expect to see what he’s describing by like, Q126 not the end of next year.
Democrats rapidly shift on Israel amid Gaza assault, evidence of famine Washington Post –
rapidly……really….rapidly!!!!! – I guess time really is relative.
rapidly
Speaking of censorship.
https://scheerpost.com/2025/09/21/trumps-new-restrictions-on-pentagon-reporters-should-alarm-every-american/
Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, explained to the Times that the government is prohibited by law from demanding journalists surrender their right to investigate the government in exchange for access or credentials.
“This policy operates as a prior restraint on publication which is considered the most serious of First Amendment violations,” Stern said. “The government cannot prohibit journalists from public information merely by claiming it’s a secret or even a national security threat.”
Perhaps while visiting UK last week Trump was picking up tips.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-notice
Commenters in England.
Well, the English are being inscrutable again. I’m reading head-scratcher articles here in Italy about the crackup of Your Party.
Is there anything worth reporting? Worth knowing?
Did Jeremy Corbyn want to avoid the internal polling that characterizes the Italian political movement, Five Stars? Yes, they poll the members, but they still have a party organization. Some decisions about policy and direction, though, must be made by the base.
Or is Sultana losing her cool?
Why would this group toss out so much good will and so much potential to remake the U.K. political scene? Heck, at this point, the only leftist party in the U.K. is the Scottish National Party. But then Scots are less inscrutable than the English are.
Looks like selection of delegates by sortition was a deal-breaker for the Westminster power-brokers.
Craig Murray has some serious concerns (which you may have seen) about how Your Party’s internal governance is being set up:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/09/its-your-party-and-ill-cry-if-i-want-to/
…and Yanis Varoufakis and Ken Loach outline their concerns in today’s Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/21/historic-opportunity-british-left-thrown-away-your-party-row
There is also the Workers Party, to which George Galloway and Craig Murray belong. It is impressively leftist, and anti-war.
Thinking about AI and Aliens and time travel…. If AI becomes the mechanism that allows humans to offload thinking, physical demand and want… leading to human brains and bodies atrophied and becoming vestigial during evolution: might those Aliens depicted with dwindled bodies and large heads be our future selves with fat clogged brains being transported through time, just sacks of water with nary the brain power of a cell, wisked about without comprhension because AI developed all the advanced tech and time travel – generations ago by our future selves ancesetors.
Progress and time sure is relative –
Nah, AI will never get that far. Best case, climate change will have gotten rid of humanity for the most part and what is left will need to radically rethink what progress looks like. Worst case, we cook the Earth so it resembles Venus.
Dune
India-US airports in turmoil? Flight fares surge after Trump’s surprising H-1B visa move; ‘Extremely bad situation’ – Hindustan Times
“During this time, many Indians working overseas return home for Durga Puja, which begins next week.”
This administration is MESSY…
Kmart broke privacy laws by scanning customers’ faces. What did it do wrong, and why? The New Daily
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My initial thought was, how many K-Marts exist now in the USA?
Turns out it was in Aussie, where domestically dormant American merchandise stores still thrive (looking at you Woolworth’s) for some reason.
Full Disclosure:
My family were the loyalist K-Mart shoppers ever, and under that flashing blue light for the next 15 minutes, mens’ underwear is half off
I believe the Aussie Wollies has nada to do with the US Woolworth’s. Australia’s Woolworth’s is not a general store but a grocer, and it and its competitor Coles have about an 80% market shares.
Re: sublime pool views…
I’m guessing that viewing the US embassy is on no one’s bucket list when vacationing in London
Argentina’s “anarcho capitalist” goverment is now selling one billion USD every two days to keep the peso artificially appreciated until the midterm elections. Reddit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It would take about a million current Argentine Pesos to equal what 1 Peso was worth in the late 70’s, not as much of a financial basket case as Venezuela, but not from a lack of trying and what’s the difference when you start talking such highfalutin numbers?
In battles over free speech, comedians are often center stage AP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In some measure under censorship in the 60’s, comedians had to couch their funny in a cloistered fashion, which in some ways made it more hilarious. There haven’t really been any limits on what a comedian can say these days, so they mostly say things with mouth wide open, try a little clever subterfuge.
Trump Turns on Fox News Mid-Interview When Pressed on Slowing Economy
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-turns-on-fox-news-mid-interview-when-pressed-on-slowing-economy/ar-AA1MQG4P?ocid=spartan-dhp-feeds
When you’ve lost Fox News…
And:
‘Trump eventually said that the economy’s turnaround—thanks to his policies, like sweeping tariffs—will “kick in probably in a year or so.”’ The master planner’s got it timed for right before the midterms.
And nonsense pledges that make little Trump get big but amount to little and too late
Rushing waterfalls. Towering mountain peaks. Late-summer wildflowers. It’s no wonder Mineral King has often been compared to the Swiss Alps.
But the only road that brings visitors to this remote corner of Sequoia National Park is also, in part, what keeps people away. The glacial valley is narrow and treacherous. Storms have washed out big chunks of asphalt, and snow keeps the road closed for much of the winter and spring. And a recent late-summer wildfire – now mostly contained – threatened a stretch of the road. But when the road is passable, Laile Di Silvestro makes the trip from the foothill town of Three Rivers several times a week in her rickety Toyota Corolla, even as the door latches and windows have rattled loose from too many bumpy trips.
There’s no insulation in her engine compartment, either, because marmots have chewed through it. These giant rodents are known for drinking radiator fluid and eating hoses, so park rangers urge visitors to protect their cars by wrapping them in giant tarps. The trailhead parking lots look like something out of a sci-fi movie, with every vehicle encased in a burrito of blue plastic.
“One of the theories is that [marmots] are looking for salts,” explained Di Silvestro as she strapped tarps together in a kind of elaborate origami. “It’s fascinating because [eating rubber and insulation] couldn’t possibly be good for them. And yet, the marmot population is thriving. They don’t just limit themselves to cars. They eat cabins, too.”
Di Silvestro has spent the last 11 years scouring county records and painstakingly mapping out every mining claim she can verify in Mineral King. She’s found that a surprising number of claims were held by women.
“When I mention the female miners, you should be gasping with astonishment,” she said. “That was something that just did not happen in the 1870s, 1880s. It was virtually unheard of.”
But Di Silvestro’s research shows that in Mineral King’s mining heyday, 11% of mine claim owners were women. In 1870s California, women were not legally allowed to engage in business or file mining claims, but these women thwarted the law.
https://www.kqed.org/news/12007126/uncovering-women-miners-forgotten-legacy-in-the-swiss-alps-of-sequoia-national-park
Has anyone ever fallen off the road?
I confess to be a wimp when it comes to some of those roads Western Model T pioneers thought were fun. At Mesa Verde they tell how the Model Ts would back up the steep initial entrance road so gas would keep flowing to their carburetors!
Thank goodness we now have fuel injection….
Occasionally cars go off the road, watched a Nissan sedan get winched up from about 100 feet straight down, and the car experienced more damage from that than the initial plunge.
Good news, even though symbolic, e.g., Canada says it doesn’t compromise its support for Israel: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/in-historic-shift-u-k-australia-and-canada-recognize-a-palestinian-state/ar-AA1N0mX5?ocid=spartan-dhp-feeds
Let us have patience. The PM only purged Christa Freeland a few days ago.
I am rather sourly amused that the foreign minister (not her exact title) says that Hamas must go. Everyone seems to forget that Hamas won the 2006 elections and, as far as I can tell, remains the legitimate Palestinian Gov’ albeit immediately couped by Israel, the USA, and Fatah.
Bush’s White House spokesman admitted that Chavez was, “democratically elected,” but, he added, “Legitimacy is something that is conferred not by just the majority of voters.”
I think what will play out is remove Hamas, install PA, and probably oust Netanyahu and the other extremists.
File under Not a Good Look
Trump ‘border czar’ Tom Homan reportedly accepted $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents, Guardian. It was a sting.
A new report from MSNBC on Saturday reveals that the agents recorded Homan, six weeks before the 2024 election, allegedly promising to assist in securing government contracts across the border security industry during Trump’s second term. The administration tells us not to believe our lyin’ eyes,
In a separate statement to MSNBC, the FBI director, Kash Patel, and the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said: “This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and justice department prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.” And Trump gets to have an “angry outburst”,
In an angry outburst on his social media platform on Saturday night, Trump appeared to direct his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to appoint a White House aide, Lindsey Halligan, interim US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, so that she could seek criminal charges against Schiff and another of the president’s political rivals, New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. Trump has demanded that both Schiff and James be prosecuted on mortgage fraud claims both deny.
How does one explain away getting caught on camera taking the money and promising contracts?
>How does one explain away getting caught on camera taking the money and promising contracts?
Calvinball rules: nobody will do anything about it so just brazen it out.
Chris Hedges Live Q&A TOMORROW: Where Is America Going and Should You Leave?
Join me tomorrow, September 22 at 6:30pm ET for a live Q&A where we will discuss the surging fascist police state spearheaded by the Trump admin, and whether its enemies should consider fleeing
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/chris-hedges-live-q-and-a-tomorrow-5cd
Re: Project Xanadu – The Internet That Might Have Been
This article is an interesting take on the history that covers a lot of ground.
Long ago, I worked at Xerox PARC and Doug Englebart was once invited to our laboratory. One thing he said that always stuck with me: as a pioneer of research on interactive systems, he investigated how long a person would be willing to wait for a response from a software system. I.e., what response speed was required for an “interactive” experience?
To answer this question, Englebart’s group did a series of empirical tests. Their finding was: if the software system routinely takes more than 700 ms to respond — seven tenths of a second —, a human user will start to feel quite irritated. Needless to say, most of the desktop and web apps we use now are regularly much slower than this.
The other researcher mentioned in this article is Ted Nelson. Also during the years I was working for Xerox, one day I received a phone call and it was Ted Nelson, cold calling to pitch his idea for Project Xanadu. I don’t know how he chose to call me but he did. This was over a decade before the world-wide-web appeared — email was still sent via the ARPAnet — but I already knew who he was and roughly what his project was about.
Sadly, I wasn’t a manager and could only refer him to my boss — and that was the last I heard of it.
re: BanderaLobby
3-part interview with Ukrainian historian Marta Havryshko
1) The Evolution of Marta Havryshko
Stories from the laboratory of Ukraine’s Banderization
Moss Robeson
Sep 09, 2025
https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/the-evolution-of-marta-havryshko
“How did Marta Havryshko, a historian from the heartland of Ukrainian nationalism, become one of the most outspoken critics of the far-right in Ukraine? For years, she worked as a librarian at 1 Stepan Bandera Street in Lviv. This was the Center for Research of the Liberation Movement, a pivotal OUN-B front group that functioned as the laboratory of Ukraine’s “Banderization.” I’m so honored to have been able to discuss this with her:”
3) Memory Politics and Academic Freedom in Ukraine
Part 3 of my interview with Ukrainian historian Marta Havryshko
Moss Robeson
Sep 11, 2025
https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/memory-politics-and-academic-freedom
Here is Part 3 of my interview with Ukrainian historian Marta Havryshko, which we recorded about one month ago. In case you missed it, Part 1 dealt with the Azov movement, and Part 2 with the Banderites. In this installment, Marta talks more about her awakening as a historian from ultra-nationalist western Ukraine, and why it is so difficult to challenge the problematic memory politics that dominates the region (and now Ukraine on a national level).
2) paywalled – Alfyorov and the Banderites
The rise of Ukraine’s new ‘memory czar’ from the Azov movement (Part 2)
Moss Robeson
Sep 18, 2025
https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/alfyorov-and-the-banderites
the sun has gone to bed behind the big hill that we call “the Mountain”, but is reflecting baby aspirin light down upon me from that lil cloud.
call it “god”, if you like.
i maintain that we cant know.
and thats OK.
Thaumazein, the greeks called it.
there’s also a butterfly orgy/ballet up in the canopy of those cedar elms, right now….and a dragonfly armada whirling overhead, above it all.
Greetings amfortas from India.
I’m sat drinking morning coffee watching the sun rise over a different mountain. No butterfly orgies, but there are more different birds than I’ve ever seen. Currently watching greenish wren-types fluttering through the grass next to me.
Thanks for reminding me to enjoy nature :)
the kingdom of heaven is within you, and all around you(Thomas)
one learns to remain still, and silent in that Presence.
it really helps if yer nekkid, too,lol.
critters interpret textiles as foreign.
i have falsified this claim.
…by the way thank You for
keeping Your face hidden, I
can hardly bear the beauty of this world.
-Franz Wright, Cloudless Snowfall
Some Kirk funeral speech transcripts for those that want a taste of theocracy…
Stephen Miller https://youtubetotranscript.com/transcript?v=IPcp67tidDY
JD Vance
https://youtubetotranscript.com/transcript?v=5GjYbtqrXbQ (this one is formatted badly sorry)
A cleaned up section from Vance:
Charlie Kirk brought many truths in his life.
He taught that young people deserved a stake in the future—and a voice in shaping it.
He showed that marriage and family are the highest callings, far more important than any job or credential.
He warned that our nation would fade unless it restored order to its neighborhoods and prosperity to its people.
He declared that life is precious, and must be defended at all stages, at all times.
Most of all, Charlie proclaimed the greatest truth: that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings, and that all truth flows from this first and most important truth.
jeeze, louise, these people grow tiresome after 50+ years of being all but forced to listen to them(Rural Texas).
but the Left didnt have a Party/organisation, and kow-towed to the Right’s definitions and ontology, and here we are.
Dems=Sauruman.
“we must join with Him, Gandalf…”
My biggest fear under a President Vance is this line:
He showed that marriage and family are the highest callings, far more important than any job or credential.
…combines with Thiel’s “giving women the right to vote was a mistake” and the torched economy to force women, especially the unmarried childless high-earning and high-ranking ones in prestige jobs (such as myself) out of jobs so “more deserving” young male heads of household can take the jobs.
Also I need to check in with the older Kahanist rabbi I know who splits his time between south Jersey and Israel and knows everyone in the upper class orthodox Jewish tech scene (yes, it’s a thing) because last time I caught up with him over the summer he made a passing comment about how his people were unhappy with the ‘onward Christian soldier’ shit because, and I quote, “I don’t agree that the US is or should be a Christian nation”, and I wonder how much this sentiment is shared and if it might turn into something bigger (like a split in the hard right Jewish support for the Trump admin).
The Thiel quote is an old one (from 2009) but I do not disagree. [Thiel famously has no use for women privately or in his businesses.]
Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron.
Musk fits in with these ‘trad’ views also I think.
Canny riders of the theocratic wave, Thiel and Vance are investors in a hugely popular Catholic prayer app:
The ungodly truth about Hallow
what I can’t get my head round is why someone might spend $69.99 a year to have their relationship with God mediated by an app. For such a contemporary phenomenon, this feels like a pretty medieval issue: money, mediation and the Catholic Church. Martin Luther, remember, attacked the Church on two counts. First, that it came to interpose a level of clerical intermediaries between the individual believer and God. Second, that it came to monetise this role in the form of indulgences.
Catholic Prayer App Hallow Platforming ‘Fringe Elements’ On Catholic Right
Jim Caviezel, an actor who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, has been featuring in ads and leads the Stations of the Cross on the app as part of their Lenten prayer offering. In 2021 he spoke at two QAnon conferences, including a conference in Las Vegas where he delivered a rambling speech on the need to fight Satan and liberal values that ended in the rallying QAnon cry of the “storm is upon us”
Jack Posobiec:
https://youtubetotranscript.com/transcript?v=ozc4DOkIlzM
Excerpt:
We will overcome their evil.
[Applause] and Charlie’s and Charlie’s sacrifice has given us all. And I see it in your eyes. I see it in the eyes of every man, woman, and child who has come to me since this unspeakable evil happened.
We have it now. Charlie gave it to us.
He gave us that last bit of courage, that last bit of fight, that last bit of grit and resolve to say no more. We are done. We are done with all of it. And we will now stand and fight. Because if you took Charlie Kirk off that line, then every single one of us will rise up and we will replace that line. And we will be there and we will remind them what they did for Charlie, what they did to Charlie. And we will never ever let them forget the name Charlie Kirk.
Our civilization will endure. The United States of America will endure. For Charlie, we will continue the mission.
For Charlie, we will end the evil disease that split us and took Charlie from us. And for Charlie, Turning Point USA will last forever.
And we will come to find we will come to find that in the final moment that Western civilization was saved through Charlie’s sacrifice. in the only way possible by returning the people to Almighty God.
For greater love hath no man than this than he who laid down his life for his friends.
Are you ready to continue the mission?
Are you ready to fight back?
And are you ready to put on the full armor of God and face the evil in high places and the spiritual warfare before us?
Then put on the full armor of God. Do it now. Now is the time.
This is the place.
not sure if declaring ritual warfare on the putative left or formally declaring the US a theocracy is my least favorite part. how ever could a lady choose.
yeah,lol…and i hafta go hang around in town, tomorrow
near as i can tell, i am the only actual Leftist in these parts…and the Dems have been in hiding, locked in their hillforts, for years.
Wow! Amazing word salad! I’m sure it went over bigly.
Pete Hegseth
https://youtubetotranscript.com/transcript?v=tw5hPimTfbU
Excerpt:
You see, we always did need less government. But what Charlie understood and infused into his movement is we also needed a lot more God ….
…Charlie Kirk was a citizen who had the biblical heart of a soldier of the faith who put on every single day the full armor of God with a smile as the scriptures tell all Christ followers to do. Charlie Kirk, a warrior for country, a warrior for Christ. He ran the race. He finished the fight. Now it’s our turn. My charge to all of you, live worthy of Charlie Kirk’s sacrifice and put Christ at the center of your life as he advocated for giving his Charlie has heard the words echoing now in heaven.
Miller rabid frothing excerpts. [Note the QAnonish line ‘we are the storm”!]
https://youtubetotranscript.com/transcript?v=IPcp67tidDY
We are the storm and our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve, our passion.
Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Montichello. Our ancestors built the cities. They produced the art and architecture. They built the industry.
Erica stands on the shoulders of thousands of years of warriors of women who raised up families, raised up city, raised up industry, raised up civilization, who pulled us out of the caves and the darkness into the light. The light will defeat the dark. We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil.
They cannot imagine what they have awakened. They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us.
Because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble. And to those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to fment hatred against us, what do you have?
You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness. You are jealousy. You are envy. You are hatred.
You are nothing. You can build nothing.
You can produce nothing. You can create nothing. We are the ones who build. We are the ones who create. We are the ones who lift up humanity….
…You cannot defeat us. You cannot slow us. You cannot stop us. You cannot deter us. We will carry Charlie and Erica in our heart every single day and fight that much harder because of what you did to us. You have no idea the dragon you have awakened. You have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilization, to save the West, to save this republic.
Because our children are strong and our grandchildren will be strong and our children’s children’s children will be strong. And what will you leave behind?
Nothing. Nothing. To our enemies. You have nothing to give. You have nothing to offer. You have nothing to share but bitterness. We have beauty. We have light. We have goodness. We have determination. We have vision. We have strength. We built the world that we inhabit now. generation by generation.
And we will defend this world. We will defend goodness. We will defend light.
We will defend virtue. You cannot terrify us. You cannot frighten us. You cannot threaten us. Because we are on the side of goodness. We are on the side of God.
Miller’s full QAnon bit:
When I see Erica and her strength and her courage, I am reminded of a famous expression.
The storm whispers to the warrior that you cannot withstand my strength.
And the warrior whispers back, “I am the storm.” Erica is the storm. We are the storm …
This is not accidental language. It’s a QAnon battle cry.
From b´s recent Moon of Alabama piece on the Poland drones:
“The unarmed Russian Gebera decoy drones that flew over Poland do a have a range of some 600 kilometer (370 mi). If they had been launched from behind Russian lines they would not have reached Poland. The drones were most likely found in Ukraine, patched up and reprogrammed by Ukrainian services, and sent towards Poland. They were just on the ways Ukraine tries to drag NATO into its war. ”
Sure he has no sources but how should he? That´s where “national security” sets in and as things have developed, lies by secret intelligence with much fanfare are altered into official news because they have to remain below the scrutiny level usually applied to news reporting (aka “journalism”) due to the greater good.
So if the government lies because it claims it has secret info that this lie is necessary to protect us the lie is not addressed as such and is being declared truth. Eventually there is not reference of truth and actual fact at all.
To enforce a call for arms and invoke war and violence without presenting actual truth to support and justify this call to make it available for discussion is known as totalitarianism.
SBU, MI6 and Co. know that´s the beauty of their profession: What did not happen cannot be disproven. That is: Russia – somehow – sending drones to Poland.
Much enjoyed reading the article
Project Xanadu – The Internet That Might Have Been
For all those who have an interest in the history of information gathering, organization and access, I strongly reccomend reading about Paul Otlet, especially the series of articles written by Australian librarian W. Rayward Boyd, and the documentary L’homme qui voulait classer le monde.
Fascinating stuff.