Headline of the Day

Donald Trump’s Kink is Firing Black Women

—W. Kamau Bell

I really don't need to add anything to this, do I?

Another Failed Ham Sandwich

In this case, it appears that  an FBI agent swung at one Lori Reid and missed, skinning her knuckles on a brick wall, so the prosecutors decided to indict Ms. Reid for assaulting an officer.

Gee, I cannot imagine why the grand Jury declined to indict. 

Federal prosecutors on Monday reduced the charges against a woman accused last month of assaulting an F.B.I. agent during a protest against immigration officials in Washington, refiling her case as a misdemeanor after they were unable to persuade three grand juries over a month to indict her with a felony.

It is highly unusual for prosecutors to fail even once — let alone three times — to obtain an indictment from a grand jury given the way the process is stacked in favor of the government. And the move by the prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington to recast the proceeding against the woman, Sidney Lori Reid, as a low-level misdemeanor case suggested that they had overcharged it from the beginning.

Prosecutors almost never go in front of grand juries without obtaining indictments because they are in control of the information grand jurors hear and defendants are not allowed to have their lawyers in the room as evidence is presented.

But in a brief submission filed to Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey in Federal District Court in Washington, the prosecutors in Ms. Reid’s case acknowledged the extraordinary: that they had failed three times to secure an indictment within the 30 days given to them to do so after Ms. Reid’s arrest.

………

The reduction of the charges against Ms. Reid also came after federal prosecutors failed to indict several protesters in Los Angeles after evidence challenging the government’s narrative emerged.

We really need to make sure that everyone on the law enforcement side of this case are never allowed to work as peace officers or lawyers ever again.

Or, we could go with James Thurber's solutions, and have the Todal Gleep them. 

Good Riddance

Iowa Senator, and famous pig castrator Joni Ernst will not run for reelection in 2026.

Good riddance.

While the linked article by (of course) the New York Times attempts to portray her as a victim of Trump's MAGAts, she was very much a fellow traveler. 

Replacing her with a Democrat is possible, albeit not particularly likely. 

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

I am, of course, referring to the  Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment)

Once again the Very Serious People™ in the party have looked at possible challengers to Susan Collins in Maine, after completely screwing the pooch the last time, and are trying to nominate the worst possible candidate.

The story is nominally about a Maine oysterman who has decided to run against Collins, but it buries the lede.

The important part of the story is that Schumer and the DSCC are pushing another candidate, current Maine Governor Janet Mills, age 77.

She would be the oldest freshman Senator in history. 

But that's OK, 77 is the new 76!  AmIright?

The DC Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) are the biggest losers to come out of Washington, DC since the Washington Generals, who were paid to lose to the Harlem Globetrotters.

At 8 a.m., Taunton Bay is glassy—the air cool but salty enough to make your nose wrinkle. A man in rubber boots, canvas pants, and a black t-shirt worn to gray, carrying a large cooler on his shoulder passes me on the beach. “Ya here for Graham?” he says, his Maine accent looping the first two words together. 

“Yup,” I reply. 

“Good man,” he says, continuing on his way.

I flew here to profile Graham Platner because his announcement video for his Senate campaign (produced by the same company that’s done work for Zohran Mamdani) struck the same deep chord in me as it did in the millions of others who watched it. His plainspoken fury at the billionaire economy broke through the noise of the Trump presidency to capture extravagant donations of voters (the campaign says they’re closing in on $1 million) and the attention of media outlets across the country.

That he’s been added as speaker at Bernie Sanders’s anti-oligarchy rally on Labor Day is unsurprising. That Sanders has had to move the rally to a bigger venue since Platner got on the bill is telling.

Merciful heavens.  A candidate who excites the party base!

I have the vapors.  This cannot be allowed.

………

Someone asks Platner why bother running as a Democrat. He says the infrastructure for fundraising would not be as robust if he ran as an independent and, besides, running as a Democrat in Maine isn’t the campaign-killer it would be elsewhere. “Also,” he says, “At my core, I’m a Democrat. I grew up as a Democrat, I voted Democratic, my whole life.”

He cautions: “I want to make it clear, I’m not running as a reform candidate here. We need to take the party back. We need to build power and leverage power, both in the party and the institutions of power to get what we need.”

There are a lot of do nothing Democrats, both among elected officials and the consultants who don't want that.  

They are too timid, and selecting for nothing beyond fund-raising prowess is easy and it makes them money.

Thus we have:

………

Reportedly, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is wooing Maine Governor Janet Mills to run for the nomination. At 77, a win against Collins would make her the oldest senate freshman in history. (Platner is 40.) Platner’s campaign only becomes an insurgency against Susan Collins if he first survives the Democratic establishment. His pointed critiques of party inaction have already set the tone. His candidacy isn’t just about beating Republicans, it’s about forcing Democrats to do more than fundraise off of their failures.

And this is why you want your name removed from the DCCC, DSCC, DNC, Mothership Strategies, etc. lists.

I don't know if he can beat Collins, but Mills certainly won't, but she'll raise a f%$# tonne of money to pay the consultants with, so Schumer et. al want her. 

We Are F%$#ed

A new study of changes in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation shows that the current that keeps Europe out of the deep freeze is far more likely to collapse than previously thought.

The collapse of a critical Atlantic current can no longer be considered a low-likelihood event, a study has concluded, making deep cuts to fossil fuel emissions even more urgent to avoid the catastrophic impact.

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) is a major part of the global climate system. It brings sun-warmed tropical water to Europe and the Arctic, where it cools and sinks to form a deep return current. The Amoc was already known to be at its weakest in 1,600 years as a result of the climate crisis.

Climate models recently indicated that a collapse before 2100 was unlikely but the new analysis examined models that were run for longer, to 2300 and 2500. These show the tipping point that makes an Amoc shutdown inevitable is likely to be passed within a few decades, but that the collapse itself may not happen until 50 to 100 years later.

The research found that if carbon emissions continued to rise, 70% of the model runs led to collapse, while an intermediate level of emissions resulted in collapse in 37% of the models. Even in the case of low future emissions, an Amoc shutdown happened in 25% of the models.

Scientists have warned previously that Amoc collapse must be avoided “at all costs”. It would shift the tropical rainfall belt on which many millions of people rely to grow their food, plunge western Europe into extreme cold winters and summer droughts, and add 50cm to already rising sea levels.

This is real end of the world sh%$.

Major Historical Anniversary

We really do have the most inane and stupid political commentariat, don't we?

11 years ago today, the world nearly ended, as President Bracket Obama disgraced his legacy and wore a tan suit.. today we remember
byu/Andrew-President inPresidents

Never forget.

Yeah, They Went There

It appears that Trump's Brownshirts arrested firefighters working on an active wildfire, because they are a bunch of terrorist thugs.

Two people fighting the Bear Gulch fire on the Olympic Peninsula were arrested by federal law enforcement Wednesday, in a confrontation described by firefighters and depicted in photos and video.

Why the two firefighters were arrested is unclear. But a spokesperson for the Incident Management Team leading the firefighting response said the team was “aware of a Border Patrol operation on the fire,” that it was not interfering with the firefighting response and referred reporters to the Border Patrol station in Port Angeles.

Over three hours, federal agents demanded identification from the members of two private contractor crews. The crews were among the 400 people including firefighters deployed to fight the wildfire, the largest active blaze in Washington state.

Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday about the confrontation.

It is unusual for federal border agents to make arrests during the fighting of an active fire, especially in a remote area.

Well, it was unusual for ICE to arrest people fighting an active blaze, but they gotta hit Stephen Miller's numbers now.

Worst timeline ever. 

The Fruits of Colonialism

We know that the junta that took over in Niger tossed out the French, and the French company mining uranium.

Now, Russia is proposing that it build a nuclear power plant in Niger.

Given that, despite sitting on top of one of the largest Uranium deposits in the world, the desperately poor country is dependent on coal powered plants and imported power, this no doubt seems like a welcome development.

I'd be surprised if they ever break ground, I think that there are some severe development and infrastructure issues to be addressed first, but it is a masterful bit of in your face diplomacy by both Niamey and Moscow.

Russia has dangled the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in uranium-rich Niger - a vast, arid state on the edge of the Sahara desert that has to import most of its electricity.

It may be deemed impractical and may never happen, but the concept is yet another move by Moscow to seek a geopolitical advantage over Western nations.

Niger has historically exported the metal for further refining in France, but that is changing as the military-led country cuts off ties with the former colonial power.

The uranium-mining operation operated by French nuclear group Orano was nationalised in June, which cleared the way for Russia to put itself forward as a new partner.

It is talking about power generation and medical applications, with a focus on training local expertise under a co-operation agreement signed between Russian-state corporation Rosatom and the Nigerien authorities.

This is a direct consequence of France's neo-colonial arrangements with its former colonies, which are best described as looting.

There is a lot of hate for France in the Sahel, and it is completely justified. 

If ever brought to fruition this would be the first nuclear power project in West Africa. 

Minnesota Massacre and Something About Me That You May Not Know

I like firearms a lot.

You may also notice that I frequently advocate for very restrictive gun laws.

These things are not opposed to each other.

While I have not shot a firearm since I was around 9 years old, (.22 short single shot rifles) at summer camp, and I have little desire to own a firearm. (Except possibly to build one from a chunk of metal)

I find them technically fascinating, much in the same way that I find historical tools fascinating.

So I spend a lot of time on GunTube, where things like Forgotten Weapons go through the technical and historical developments leading to a firearm.  (Highly recommended, very little, if any, discussion of gun control laws except as they directly pertain to the development of a specific weapon ⃰)

At the other end of the spectrum is GunLawTube, where ammosexual dweebs rant about how everyone is trying to take their guns away, even though they have won this battle for at least a generation.

And somewhere in the middle are the entertaining assholes, who throw in a sh%$ load of right wing politics, but cover the operation and ergonomics of weapons. 

Toward the extreme end of this is right wing asshole Brandon Harerra (aka "The AK Guy"), who I find amusing enough and interesting enough that I deal with the asshole baggage that he brings. 

Basically, I find about ⅔ of his stuff both entertaining and instructive, and the remaining ⅓ I can identify in about 15 seconds, so I watch. (Actually mostly listen.  I tend to listen to YouTube in my car using the audio controls to skip sh%$ that I put on watch later that I don't want to hear)

Such is the way of Gonzo social media channels.

This is a long way to get to the mass shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, where Robin Westman, a former student at the school, allegedly opened fire during a children's mass.

Normally, this is where I would rant about how nothing is going to happen, and nothing ever happens to atrocities like this.

What I am going to write about instead is the fact that the shooter left a manifesto endorsing Brandon Harerra for President.

Considering the fact that Harerra is on his 2nd run for Congress, he definitely has political aspirations, or at least he did before this.

Needless to say, Mr. Harerra is unamused by this development. 

He released a YouTube (below) where he (IMHO honestly) says that he is completely freaked out by this, spews some anti-trans bigotry, and literally ends the video with thoughts and prayers. 

Needless to say, I am amused by this development.

In a perfect world, Brandon would learn something about empathy and civic responsibility, but this ain't a perfect world. 

^*The one case of where he discussed this was a large capacity pistol that used a stripper clip and fixed internal magazine to get around removable magazine limits.

Parasites

I have noted on a few occasions that the consultant wing of the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) is more interested in getting their cut of campaign spending than they are in actually winning elections.

The case of Mothership Strategies, whose email spam machine keeps 98.4% of all money they raise for themselves.

And no, that number is not a typo:

The digital deluge is a familiar annoyance for anyone on a Democratic fundraising list. It's a relentless cacophony of bizarre texts and emails, each one more urgent than the last, promising that your immediate $15 donation is the only thing standing between democracy and the abyss.

The main rationale offered for this fundraising frenzy is that it's a necessary evil—that the tactics, while unpleasant, are brutally effective at raising the money needed to win. But an analysis of the official FEC filings tells a very different story. The fundraising model is not a brutally effective tool for the party; it is a financial vortex that consumes the vast majority of every dollar it raises.

We all have that one obscure skill we’ve inadvertently maxed out. Mine happens to be navigating the labyrinth of campaign finance data. So, after documenting the spam tactics in a previous article, I told myself I’d just take a quick look to see who was behind them and where the money was going.

That "quick look" immediately pulled me in. The illusion of a sprawling grassroots movement, with its dozens of different PAC names, quickly gave way to a much simpler and more alarming reality. It only required pulling on a single thread—tracing who a few of the most aggressive PACs were paying—to watch their entire manufactured world unravel. What emerged was not a diverse network of activists, but a concentrated ecosystem built to serve the firm at its center: Mothership Strategies.

………

To understand the scale of this operation, consider the total amount raised. Since 2018, this core network of Mothership-linked PACs has raised approximately $678 million from individual donors. (This number excludes money raised by the firm's other clients, like candidate campaigns, focusing specifically on the interconnected PACs at the heart of this system.) Of that total fundraising haul, $159 million was paid directly to Mothership Strategies for consulting fees, accounting for the majority of the $282 million Mothership has been paid by all its clients combined.

But the firm's direct cut is only part of the story. The "churn and burn" fundraising model is immensely expensive to operate. Sending millions of texts and emails requires massive spending on digital infrastructure. For instance, FEC filings show this network paid $22.5 million to a single vendor, Message Digital LLC, a firm that specializes in text message delivery.

The remaining hundreds of millions disappeared into a maze of self-reported categories: $150 million to consulting/fundraising, $70 million to salaries and payroll. There are some disbursements to what seem to be legitimate advocacy and organizing–for instance Progressive Turnout Project reports paying Shawmut Services $19 million for canvassing. However, most of the unclassifiable expenditures appear to be administrative costs or media buys that feed back into the fundraising machine itself.

………

To understand the scale of this operation, consider the total amount raised. Since 2018, this core network of Mothership-linked PACs has raised approximately $678 million from individual donors. (This number excludes money raised by the firm's other clients, like candidate campaigns, focusing specifically on the interconnected PACs at the heart of this system.) Of that total fundraising haul, $159 million was paid directly to Mothership Strategies for consulting fees, accounting for the majority of the $282 million Mothership has been paid by all its clients combined.

But the firm's direct cut is only part of the story. The "churn and burn" fundraising model is immensely expensive to operate. Sending millions of texts and emails requires massive spending on digital infrastructure. For instance, FEC filings show this network paid $22.5 million to a single vendor, Message Digital LLC, a firm that specializes in text message delivery.

The remaining hundreds of millions disappeared into a maze of self-reported categories: $150 million to consulting/fundraising, $70 million to salaries and payroll. There are some disbursements to what seem to be legitimate advocacy and organizing–for instance Progressive Turnout Project reports paying Shawmut Services $19 million for canvassing. However, most of the unclassifiable expenditures appear to be administrative costs or media buys that feed back into the fundraising machine itself. 

Those frantic fundraising emails?  They are a fraud.

Unsubscribe, because losing a name and an email address has business consequences for these mother-f%$#ers. 

If you are running a campaign, fire these leeches ……… Out of a cannon ……… And into the sun.

Et Tu Grok(ey)?

Once again, one of Elon's projects screws up.

In this case, it's his AP program Grok, which leaked thousands of prompts.

This is not a surprise.  What is a surprise is that the chat-bot offered tips on how to assassinate ……… Elon Musk.

Gee, I guess that Grok is like all the rest of the Apartheid Era Emerald Heir Pedo Guy's employees.

Wall Street tech watchers that had only recently recovered from Elon Musk’s AI chatbot going rogue are now quietly reassessing the technology, after a new leak of thousands of user conversations show it teaching people how to make drugs, assassinate Musk himself, and build malware and explosives.

Luckily for xAI, the company that created Musk’s AI chatbot Grok, it is not a publicly traded company, so no public investor or shareholder backlash has forced down its share price or pressured its executives to address the public about privacy concerns.

Yeah, "Lucky," not, "Stupid and corrupt."

………

More than 370,000 user conversations with Grok were publicly exposed through search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo on Aug. 21. That led to the posting of a wide range of disturbing content and sent xAI scrambling to contain the fallout and fix the malfunction that reportedly caused the leak.

What kind of disturbing content? Well, in one instance, Grok offers up a detailed plan on how to assassinate Musk himself, before walking that back as “against my policies.” In another exchange, the chatbot also helpfully pointed users to instructions on how to make fentanyl at home or build explosives.

Forbes, which broke the story, reports that the leak stemmed from an unintended malfunction in Grok’s “share” function, which allowed private chats to be indexed and accessed without user consent.

Needless to say, I am amused.

Beyond Orwellian or Kafkaesque

Beyond their wildest fever dreams

In Tucson, Arizona, children are forced to represent themselves in immigration court.

When I mean children, I don't mean 16 year olds, or 12 year olds,  I mean 3 year old kids.

This is despicable.

On Aug. 18, 17 minors appeared in front of Pima County Judge Irene C. Feldman in immigration court. Fourteen of them did not have legal representation.

Lucy, a 3-year-old girl wearing a purple dress and beaded bracelets, was called to the front of the courthouse by the judge. She spoke limited English and did not have legal representation.

A lawyer with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP), a nonprofit providing legal services, accompanied the child to the stand to provide additional information to the judge regarding her case.

As the judge asked Lucy questions through a Spanish-speaking interpreter about her two stuffed animals, Lucy looked around the packed courthouse with her thumb in her mouth, remaining silent.

She was one of many children without legal counsel.

Judge Feldman asked attorneys with the FIRRP, who were in court representing three of their clients, if they would consider taking on Lucy’s case.

The attorney explained that the organization lost most of their federal funding in March after the Trump administration terminated contracts. As a result, the group is unable to take on new clients.

In the meanwhile, the toddler will have to seek representation elsewhere.

Assuming that there are elections in 2024 and 2028, we need to turn over a whole bunch of these folks to the Hague, or Guantanamo, or a Turkish prison. 

I favor the Hague, because I want to see the law crush them, not some abusive prison guard. 

Subway Is Not a Sandwich Shop

I know that this sounds absurd, but I have proof.

The burden of proof is low, probable cause rather than beyond a reasonable doubt, and only the prosecutor presents evidence, and the grand jury does not have to be unanimous in their decision.

This is why he have the adage that,  "A prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich."

Well, a grand jury refused to indict Sean Dunn, better known as, "Sandwich Guy," just refused to indict him despite being caught on a now viral video chucking a salami subway food item at a federal agent.

Thus, Subway does not make sandwiches.

QED.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday were unable to persuade a grand jury to approve a felony indictment against a man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent on the streets of Washington this month, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The grand jury’s rejection of the felony charge was a remarkable failure by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington and the second time in recent days that a majority of grand jurors refused to vote to indict a person accused of felony assault on a federal agent. It also amounted to a sharp rebuke by a panel of ordinary citizens against the prosecutors assigned to bring charges against people arrested after President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and federal agents to fight crime and patrol the city’s streets.

The rejection by grand jurors was particularly noteworthy given the attention paid to the case of the man who threw the sandwich, Sean C. Dunn. Video of the episode went viral on social media, senior officials talked about the case, and the administration posted footage of a large group of heavily armed law enforcement officers going to Mr. Dunn’s apartment.

………

It is extremely unusual for prosecutors to come out of a grand jury without obtaining an indictment because they are in control of the information that grand jurors hear about a case and defendants are not allowed to have their lawyers in the room as evidence is presented.

Yes, I know, my logic is faulty, but having experienced the Subway dining experience, I have to state on the best days, they are barely food adjacent.

What can I say, but "DAD HUMOR". 

 

Google Releases Study Showing Lower Water Consumption for AI

Spoiler, they are lying through their teeth.

Shorter version:  Google used an unreasonably narrow definition of water consumption. 

The longer version is at the link. 

We really need to break big tech up.  (Also, arrest big tech executives, but that's another rant)

He's F%$#ing Broken the F%$#ing Post Office!

Most of the postal services in Europe have stopped shipping parcels to the United States, as have Japan, Australia, and Taiwan.

In addition, shipping giant DHL has suspended shipping parcels as well.

In most cases this only applies to their lower cost shipping services from commercial entities, typically items from private people listed as gifts are still being shipped.

The customs process has become too much of a headache.

You have to f%$#-up hard to kill postal service without resorting to armed conflict.

Perhaps the Only Pol More Corrupt than Donald John Trump

I am referring, of course, to current New York mayor Eric Adams,

I am not referring to the charges specifically against him, his own corruption indictment dismissed as a result of the corrupt political and legal machinations of Trump and his Evil Minions™, but rather the continuous perp walks of his cronies who have been charged with corruption as well.

Hell, there have been so many shots of his aides being arraigned that it's beginning to resemble the f%$#ing Rose Parade.  (The Portland one, not the Pasadena one)

Several associates and supporters of Mayor Eric Adams are expected to face corruption charges in the coming days, according to four people with knowledge of the matter, in cases that could serve as a potent reminder of the scandals still marring his mayoralty.

The mayor, who is just months away from facing voters in his bid for a second term leading New York City, is not expected to be charged. But the defendants, according to the people with knowledge of the matter, are expected to include his closest political ally and former chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, and her son, both of whom are already facing corruption charges handed up late last year.

Also expected to face charges are the mayor’s friend Jesse Hamilton, a former state senator whom Mr. Adams installed in a powerful city job, and two influential supporters, Gina and Tony Argento, siblings who run a prominent soundstage company and who, with their employees, have donated more than $20,000 to Mr. Adams’s mayoral campaigns.

………

The latest accusations are expected to include at least one bribery scheme in which some of the defendants allegedly sought to influence policy through well-connected mayoral associates by supplying favors to Ms. Lewis-Martin, who has in the past called herself Mr. Adams’s “sister ordained by God.” Mr. Adams has said he and Ms. Lewis-Martin are “sisters and brothers.”

Ms. Lewis-Martin, who resigned last year days before the first indictment was announced, had been viewed as the second-most powerful person at City Hall and is believed to be at the center of all or most of the charges in the new case, some of the people said.

Arthur L. Aidala, a lawyer for Ms. Lewis-Martin, confirmed in a statement that she will be arraigned on Thursday and said that the district attorney had provided no details about the charges.

……… 

The new indictments add to the cascade of legal issues surrounding the mayor, despite the abandoning of federal corruption charges against him by the Trump administration’s Justice Department earlier this year.

In the last several weeks, Mr. Adams has seen one associate plead guilty to a federal wire fraud conspiracy charge and another sentenced to a year of probation for the same crime. At least four former high-ranking police officers recently sued the mayor, accusing him of enabling corruption in the Police Department.

And a former interim police commissioner, Thomas G. Donlon, has also filed suit against the mayor and some of his top aides, accusing them of running the department like a criminal enterprise.

Not only is this sh%$ unbelievably corrupt, but it's penny ante corruption.

I mean things like bribery schemes about bike lanes. (See at the link)

Boss Tweed must be spinning in his grave.

It's On

I understand the motivation for California Democrats putting Congressional redistricting on the ballot, in response to Texas' mid decade redistricting, but I honestly think that they will lose when the vote is held.

It's not that the people of California love Trump or the State of Texas, I'd be hard pressed to think who they hate more, but this is such political inside baseball that the average voter will feel annoyed, particularly after their media is flooded by dozens of advertisements every hour. 

Basically, I believe that a significant number of voters will look at the spectacle, and think, "F%$# this Sh%$, I'm out of here."

California governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a sweeping redistricting proposal aimed at redrawing the state’s congressional boundaries to create five new Democratic US House seats – a direct response to the gerrymandered maps Republicans in Texas are advancing at the behest of Donald Trump.

The Democratic-controlled state legislature voted to advance a legislative package revising California’s maps after hours of debate. With Newsom’s signature, the measure now heads to voters in a special election this November.

Newsom, who led the redistricting push, said California was “neutralizing” Texas’s maps designed to help Republicans stave off losses in next year’s congressional midterm elections.

“They fired the first shot in Texas,” the governor said, surrounded by Democratic lawmakers at a signing ceremony on Thursday afternoon. “When all things are equal, [when] we’re all playing by the same set of rules, there’s no question that the Republican party will be the minority party in the House of Representatives next year.”

So you have my prediction, and I am the son of Ronald "Those idiots nominated Nixon, there's no way that Humphrey can lose now!" so perhaps you can take that with a grain of salt.

This time, I'm pretty sure that I'm right though. 

Will Not End Well

Dollar drops sharply (this one is USD/JPY

Breaking news: *TRUMP REMOVES FED'S COOK EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY pic.twitter.com/YlrREpdSUA

— David Ingles (@DavidInglesTV) August 26, 2025

The markets did not take this well

In his continuing quest to fire black women from anything resembling a position of authority, Donald Trump has announced that he will be firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

There is a vague allegation of wrongdoing on a mortgage application that is being used as a justification.

As an aside, mortgage fraud is criminal, and a Baltimore mayor was convicted of such, but this is awfully weak tea:

President Trump said on Friday that he would fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board, if she did not resign her post, as he looked to leverage new allegations around her past mortgage applications in a bid to remake the top ranks of the nation’s central bank.

Mr. Trump issued his latest threat, which would most likely face severe legal obstacles, two days after Bill Pulte, the federal housing director, accused Ms. Cook of falsifying records to obtain favorable loan terms. Mr. Pulte referred the matter to the Justice Department, a representative of which said the case “requires further examination.”

While the two men have criticized Ms. Cook for her actions, and Mr. Pulte has insisted his primary goal is to root out fraud, they have each done so in the context of an expanding campaign to oust officials on the Fed’s Board of Governors, including its chair, Jerome H. Powell.

By forcing out sitting governors, the president could appoint a set of loyalists who share his desire to lower interest rates, which the central bank has kept steady in response to persistent concerns about inflation. Mr. Trump has already announced one nominee for the board, tapping Stephen Miran, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, for the spot that Adriana Kugler abruptly vacated this month. Ms. Kugler's term was initially set to end in January, and Mr. Miran, a critic of the Fed, will need to be confirmed by the Senate.

I expect another stern letter from Chuck Schumer.

I'd rather see a Schumer letter from Howard Stern. 

Gee, Ya Think?

Federal Judge Matthew Brann has ruled that there is no legal authority allowing former parking lot attorney Alina Habba to serve as the US Attorney for New Jersey.

What?  You mean that the Trump Administration is breaking the law?  Again?

Well, knock me over with a 1953 baby blue Chrysler Imperial:

A federal judge on Thursday ruled that Alina Habba had been serving as New Jersey’s U.S. attorney without legal authority for more than a month, thrusting the state’s already paralyzed federal court system deeper into disarray and potentially placing limits on the president’s power to choose his own top federal prosecutors.

“Faced with the question of whether Ms. Habba is lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of the United States attorney for the District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not,” the judge, Matthew W. Brann of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, wrote.

“Because she is not currently qualified to exercise the functions and duties of the office in an acting capacity,” he added, “she must be disqualified from participating in any ongoing cases.”

But the judge delayed the practical effect of his own decision, including an order disqualifying Ms. Habba from participating in ongoing cases. The pause will allow the government to fight on Ms. Habba’s behalf in a federal appeals court.

It should be noted here that Habba should not be a lawyer, because she was representing Donald Trump, and misrepresented herself to someone suing him over sexual harassment allegations at Mar-a-Lago in order to tank their case.  (She got them to ditch their lawyer and sign a completely unfair settlement)

She should have been disbarred for that. 

Headline of the Day

Bank Fires Workers in Favor of AI Chatbot, Rehires Them After Chatbot Is Terrible at the Job

—Gizmodo

This is really the whole of the AI bubble in one headline.

Great Googly Moogly, This is an Epic Troll

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung: “I look forward to your meeting with the chairman Kim Jong-un and construction of a Trump Tower in North Korea and playing golf at that place.”

[image or embed]

— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) August 25, 2025 at 2:16 PM

The best part is that I'm sure that Donald Trump thinks that it is a compliment.

This is a sublime troll. 

Linkage

• Titan sub implosion caused by absolutely bonkers “toxic workplace environment” (Ars Technica) It's actually a pretty standard Tech Bro founder environment.
• Millionaire Trophy Hunter Asher Watkins of Texas Gored to Death by Buffalo on Safari (The Daily Beast) Just desserts.
• Greedflation Is Back as Corporations Use the Tariff Excuse to Hike Prices (The Big Newsletter) Why we need aggressive antitrust enforcement.
• Let’s Turn the Tide on Surveillance – starting with radio biometrics (Prof Jem Bendell) Things like WiFi signals can be used to track you through walls.
• Moscow, Tehran push to complete Rasht–Astara railway (The Cradle) This is a pretty big deal,  It will facilitate Russia-Iran trade significantly.
• Should We Have Patents? (Nicholas Decker) Not in their current form. Possibly in the form they were in 1895.  They have been expanded too broadly and are now an impediment to progress.
• The Surprising Link Between Craigslist, Classified Ads, and Political Polarization (Stanford Graduate School of Business) Short version, when Craigslist ate classified ads, newspapers cut costs largely from local coverage, particularly local political coverage, and we see the consequences today.

The Daily Show roasts Joe Rogan: (And do a pretty good job of it)

Bad Day at the Office

Looks like the engine started throwing blades shortly after it left the ground:

🇲🇾 F/A-18D Hornet belonging to the Royal Malaysian Air Force crashes on takeoff from the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Airport in Kuantan. The jet’s pilot and weapons systems officer safely ejected.

According to a statement released by RMAF, the incident occurred during a night flight… pic.twitter.com/iqqbhuV5MB

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 22, 2025

Pilot and WSO/RIO both survived.

I Did Not Expect This from Them

The Federal Trade Commission has sued some of the largest gym chains in the nations to end their Byzantine membership cancellation policies.

This was something that Lina Khan was working on in the last administration.

The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against the operators of several gym chains, including LA Fitness, on Wednesday over allegations that they make it too difficult to cancel memberships. And that’s probably welcome news for anyone who’s had the displeasure of trying to cancel with their gym.

The companies being sued by the FTC are Fitness International and Fitness & Sports Clubs, which own gym chains like Esporta Fitness, City Sports Club, and Club Studio. The largest chain, LA Fitness, has over 600 locations across the U.S.

The 22-page complaint, which has been posted online, details how the FTC believes LA Fitness and others have created a cumbersome process for consumers to cancel. For starters, members are required to log in to their website and print off a cancellation form. But users are encouraged at sign-up to use the LA Fitness app and a QR code, meaning that many people apparently don’t know their login information for the website. There’s no way to cancel through the app, according to the FTC.

………

The FTC’s press release announcing the lawsuit also alleges that LA Fitness has trained staff to reject requests to cancel by phone or email. And “consumers who try to cancel their memberships by stopping charges to their bank or credit card find they are rebilled, often under new account numbers.” The FTC says that violates the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA). Cancelling with nothing more than a click on the app seems like it would be a reasonable and consumer-friendly way to conduct business.

“The FTC’s complaint describes a scenario that too many Americans have experienced—a gym membership that seems impossible to cancel,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a press release.

As much as it pains me to say, the Trump administration got this one right.

It's the Iron Law of Institutions

After winning the Democratic Party primary for Mayor of New York, the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) continues to shill for corrupt sexual harasser and grandma murderer Andrew Cuomo, because they see Zohran Mamdani as a threat to their own power within the party

Just to remind you, the Iron Law of Institutions is, "The people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself. Thus, they would rather the institution "fail" while they remain in power within the institution than for the institution to "succeed" if that requires them to lose power within the institution."

And folks like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and  House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are still trying to make Andrew Cuomo mayor, because all they know how to do is suck up to big donors.

In the weeks after he won the 2021 Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, Eric Adams was enthusiastically embraced by the party’s establishment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi posed for a picture with Adams and described herself as “honored” to host him at a meeting of House Democrats. He was seated near President Biden at a White House session. “Why Top Democrats Are Listening to Eric Adams Right Now” was the headline of a New York Times story.

Four years later, Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral Democratic primary in the Big Apple by a larger margin than Adams, with far more overall votes, and on the strength of a spectacular campaign that inspired young voters across the country. But the party’s establishment is dissing him. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, hugely influential figures in both New York and national politics, have refused to endorse Mamdani. Same for the state’s other senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Governor Kathy Hochul. Many prominent national Democrats, such as Rahm Emanuel and Cory Booker, are also either criticizing Mamdani or refusing to back him. It was considered a coup for Mamdani when it was reported that he and Barack Obama had a lengthy and positive phone call. But the former president hasn’t actually publicly announced his support for Mamdani, either.

The shunning of Mamdani is an important illustration of the state of the Democratic Party in 2025. It shows some unfortunate truths about the party’s center-left establishment and points to some clear steps progressives must take.

A minor correction here, Schumer, Obama, Jeffries, Gillibrand, Hochul Emanuel, Booker, and the rest of their ilk are not center left.

They are, and always have been, corporate stooges.

Let me move to what I suspect are their actual reasons for the cold shoulder Mamdani is receiving. First, many center-left [Again, not left at all.  At best center-right] Democratic strategists and lawmakers fear that prominent progressives tar the entire party as overly left-wing. So they don’t want a socialist to become mayor of New York City and certainly would not endorse that person and encourage his victory.

………

As party leaders, Jeffries and Schumer in particular may view their roles as appealing to the median voter across the country. That’s reasonable. If their position is that they can’t associate themselves with Mandami because he is too far left for swing voters outside New York, they should state that explicitly (or at least have their aides leak it). That way, they are not implying that Mamdani has policies so radical that he can’t be endorsed even for New York City. It would also end the drama around their refusal to endorse Mandami. If their primary considerations are swing voters far away, they have little reason to back Mamdani, no matter what he promises them. 

But I doubt the wariness of Mamdani is entirely about electability and party positioning nationally. I worry that Jeffries, Schumer, Gillibrand, and perhaps more importantly their campaign donors simply oppose someone as progressive as Mamdani holding office, particularly one as prestigious as mayor of New York. 

………

The Democratic Party is so ideologically diverse these days, from Rashida Tlaib to Jared Golden, that there are bound to be conflicts. But not every disagreement is legitimate. There is no good reason for Jeffries, Schumer, or Gillibrand to refuse to support Mamdani, an inspiring candidate who won the primary and is willing to work with people to his right, particularly when his opponents are the ethically challenged Adams and Cuomo. Party leaders are dead wrong here—and their terrible instincts in New York are a reflection of their broader shortcomings.  

How about primarying Jeffries? That would be a good start.

The Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) says, "Vote Blue, No Matter Who," whenever a right wing corrupt creep like Rahm Emanuel gets a nomination, but when someone with actual ideas and political acumen shows up, they line up on the other side.

Unless and until progressives in the Democratic Party understand that electing a bad Democrat is almost as bad as electing a (any) Republican, and are willing to stay home rather than vote for Blue Dogs, New Democrats, and their ilk, this will never change, and it has to change.

Gee, What Do They Have to Hide?

It appears that the Department of Homeland Security has been routinely deleting text messages since April, in violation of the Federal Records Act.

I'm sure that Chuck Schumer will write a strongly worded letter to Donald Trump.

The Department of Homeland Security rebuffed a request for public records related to the National Guard deployment in Los Angeles this summer, saying that the agency had not maintained text message data among top officials since early April, according to its communications with a nonprofit watchdog group.

A July 23 letter from the Homeland Security Department’s public records office, in denying the request from the nonprofit American Oversight, said that “text message data generated after April 9” was “no longer maintained.” The group had requested all messages received and sent by top department officials related to the deployment of the National Guard in the Southern California city, which President Trump authorized in response to protests over immigration raids.

The agency gave a similar response on Thursday to a request for communications about the migrant detention camp in the Everglades called “Alligator Alcatraz,” telling American Oversight that it was “unable to locate or identify any response records” since the agency “no longer has the capability to conduct a search of text messages.”

Under the Federal Records Act, government agencies are required to preserve all documentation that officials and federal workers produce while executing their duties, and they have to make federal records available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act unless they fall under certain exemptions. 

I am sure that Schumer's letter will be particularly strong.

It would be nice if the opposition was not a bunch of delusional octogenarian cowards. 

I Am Unworthy

I posted about the Washington, DC hero Sean Charles Dunn, aka "Sandwich Guy," yesterday, and today, I was made aware of my inadequacies as a writer by Grady Martin at Current Affairs:

Assault with a Deli Weapon

Damn, that's good.

That is an amazing hed. 

Not Shocked

Studies are now showing that NYPD staffing levels have no effect on crime rates.

Not a surprise.

Law enforcement does not stop crime, they just (depressingly infrequently) catch the bad guys after the fact.

Whether or not to hire more police officers has been one of the more contentious policy arguments among New York City’s mayoral hopefuls — but a new report by a former NYPD executive shows that more cops don’t necessarily equal better public safety.

The report, published Thursday by the group Vital City, shows crime declined consistently across multiple years where the number of uniformed officers also waned.

 To paraphrase Smedly Butler, law enforcement, much like war, is a racket.

Do I Need to Work on My Headlines More?

Just wondering.

It seems that the titles of my posts seem a bit flat lately. 

I Have Finally Found a Use for a Subway Sandwich

It's been memed

Man charged with felony assault after hurling a Subway sandwich at a CBP officer Sunday night in NW D.C. Sean Charles Dunn, 37, allegedly shouted “Fck you! You fcken fascists!” before throwing the sub, striking the officer in the chest. Caught on video, he admitted, “I did it. I… pic.twitter.com/3Vnb4150Yo

— GoodMorningRooster (@RoosterGM) August 14, 2025

This may be the best use of white privilege ever


In Breathed, Veritas

Lord knows that I have absolutely no interest in eating one, but using it as a tangible indicator of disgust and contempt for Trump's bully boys?

I might buy a sub for that.

Where protest movements take hold, symbols of resistance soon follow.

In Washington, since the Trump administration has taken over the city’s police force and ordered the National Guard to patrol the streets, that symbol has taken the form of a person who flung a footlong sub.

His name, colloquially, is “Sandwich Guy.”

Sandwich Guy’s real name is Sean Charles Dunn, a D.C. resident and former Department of Justice employee who was captured on video hurling a footlong at a federal officer and now faces a felony charge. A video of the incident, posted on Instagram under the account @bigap4l, quickly went viral.

It shows Dunn (prior to the lob heard ’round the District) pointing and shouting at officers crossing an intersection in a popular nightlife area. “F--- you, fascists,” he yelled, then chanted “shame” before turning and walking away from the officers. “I don’t want you in my city,” he screamed at them. Minutes later, he returned, kept on shouting, and chucked his sandwich — salami, The Washington Post confirmed — before attempting to flee on foot. Days later, 20 federal agents cuffed him at his front door.

20 agents, huh?

I guess it's kind of intimidating to law enforcement when someone says, "Don't bread on me."

We really do live in the absolutely worst timeline. 

The World Has Become a Better Place

And Hell has become a worse place, because Christofascist bitot James Dobson has died at age 89.

I'm sure that the neighborhood associations in Hell (Of course Hell has neighborhood associations) are trying to figure out a way to exclude him.

James Dobson, the founder of the Christian anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups Focus on the Family (FOF) and the Family Research Council (FRC), has died at the age of 89. Hailed as one of “the most influential evangelical leader[s] in America,” he considered same-sex marriage worse than terrorism and encouraged men to murder trans women.

Born in 1936 to a fundamentalist minister father in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dobson graduated with a doctoral degree in psychology from the University of Southern California in 1967, and gained notoriety in 1970 by writing Dare to Discipline, a book that urged parents to use corporeal punishment to “break the will” of their children; his book also encouraged parents to hit their kids more if they cried for longer than five minutes after their initial beating.

I know that it sounds trite, but there must be something behind that much projection.

FWIW, if there is a Hell, it existence or absence is not significant in normative Judaism, I do not think that Dobson is there.

If there is a Hell, then his soul was simply obliterated. 

Mixed Emotions

Trump's Brownshirts at the FBI just raided John Bolton's home and office for alleged mishandling of classified documents.

It's clearly an act of [political retribution and wrong, but it is also something bad happening to John Bolton.

It's like watching your mother-in-law drive off a cliff in your brand new car.

The Vampire Loses

Peter Thiel, (remenber he is a literal vampire) and his private stalking company Palantir, just took a loss on an attempt by Colorado lawmakers to give him immunity from lawsuits.

It appears that the good folks at Lever News got wind of this, and published a story about this, and suddenly people are running away from the plan.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers pushing stealth legislation to shield artificial intelligence giants from lawsuits abruptly backtracked and voted to defang the provision hours after it was exposed by The Lever.

In Democratic-controlled Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis (D) had called an emergency legislative session to force lawmakers to consider initiatives rolling back parts of the state’s first-in-the-nation artificial intelligence regulations. One of the bills up for consideration included a seemingly innocuous line that experts say in practice could have prohibited district attorneys, watchdog groups, and citizens from filing consumer-protection lawsuits against AI giants. 

That includes Denver-based Palantir Technologies, a surveillance-tech giant cofounded by one of President Donald Trump’s biggest billionaire boosters that the Trump administration has reportedly hired to compile data on Americans, prompting privacy concerns.

Hours after The Lever’s report on the provision, the legislation was amended to explicitly state that it will not interfere “with rights available to consumers pursuant to” the section of the Colorado Protection Act that allows individuals to bring AI-related lawsuits under the law.

The new law is still bad, but is no longer as bad as it was.

 

Ghislaine Maxwell Is the Kindest, Bravest, Warmest, Most Wonderful Human Being I’ve Ever Known in My Life

Hopefully You Get the Cinematic Reference

So the transcript of Ms. Maxwell's interview with Donald Trump's personal defense attorney United States Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche have been released, and they are, to put it mildly,as detached from reality as an education from Donald Trump University.

It's actually a clever gambit.  Her statements are so over the top that if someone not wearing knee pads for Donald Trump reviews them, she can credibly claim that they were coerced.

Trump, of course, will eat this up, because he loves flattery and sycophancy, but no one else, not the MAGATs and not the Fox news presenters will see this as anything but collusion between Trump and Maxwell for their own benefit.

Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime confidante of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, told a top administration official she never saw President Trump engage in improper or illegal acts during his long friendship with Mr. Epstein, according to transcripts released late Friday.

The transcripts and audio, covering two days of interviews in late July between Ms. Maxwell and Todd Blanche, the former Trump defense lawyer tapped to the No. 2 post at the Justice Department, are likely to raise as many questions as they answer. Time and again she claimed not to have witnessed events or punted when asked to provide details of known incidents.

Ms. Maxwell has been seeking to overturn or reduce her 20-year sentence, giving her a powerful incentive to tell Mr. Trump’s team what it wanted to hear.

Maxwell PARTICIPATED in some of the episodes of abuse.  That's in the trial testimony.

So no credibility here.

 ……… 

“I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” Ms. Maxwell said in a muffled English accent in the conference room of a Florida courthouse. “I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way.” 

Ms. Maxwell — who, according to prosecutors, has a history of self-serving falsehoods — knocked down the central pillars of the Epstein conspiracy theories, one by one. “There is no list” of powerful clients, she said, no blackmail campaign by Mr. Epstein to extort money or favors, and no dark secrets about Mr. Trump, who once considered Mr. Epstein a close friend. 

………

Ms. Maxwell, who is seeking a pardon or reduction of her long prison sentence for sex trafficking, downplayed the president’s relationship with Mr. Epstein. She went out of her way to tread lightly when the subject turned to Mr. Trump, who has not ruled out issuing her a pardon.

“President Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me,” she told Mr. Blanche. “I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now. And I like him, and I’ve always liked him.”

She described Mr. Trump as “a gentleman in all respects.”

………

Ms. Maxwell was dismissive of Mr. Epstein’s documented history of preying on young women and underage girls, despite her own conviction on enabling his behavior. She said she never saw Mr. Epstein encourage men to have inappropriate contact with his masseuses, minors or young women. 

………

Ms. Maxwell went so far as to suggest that none of the famous men who hung out with Mr. Epstein came for sex.

“If you met Epstein, there is no way that this cast of characters, of which it’s extraordinary, and some are in your cabinet, who you value as your co-workers, and you know, would be with him if he was a creep or because they wanted sexual favors,” she said. “A man wants sexual favors, he will find that. They didn’t have to come to Epstein for that.” 

Nothing to see here, move along. 

Hopefully, even the MAGAts will see this. 

Fat, Corrupt, and Stupid Is No Way to Go Through Life, Son

Sometimes, a subject hands a reporter a story inadvertently. 

In this case, NYC Mayor Eric Adams stooge Winnie Greco literally handed a story to the City Hall reporter for The City, Katie Honan.  It was an envelope full of cash inside of an open potato chip snack bag.

It appears that someone was browsing MySpace instead of listening to the lecture in Corruption 101:

A former top City Hall advisor and current campaign confidante to Mayor Eric Adams attempted to give money to a reporter from THE CITY following a campaign event in Harlem Wednesday.

The failed payoff — a wad of cash in a red envelope stuffed inside an opened bag of Herr’s Sour Cream & Onion ripple potato chips — was made by Winnie Greco, a longtime Adams ally who resigned last year from her position as the mayor’s liaison to the Asian community after she was targeted in multiple investigations. She resurfaced recently as a consistent presence in his re-election campaign.

On Wednesday, City Hall reporter Katie Honan spotted Greco near the announcement of the opening of Adams’ newest campaign office, in Harlem. Greco later texted Honan after the event when she spotted her again and asked her to meet across the street from the campaign office next to a TD Bank.

Greco and Honan walked to the Whole Foods next door. While inside the store, Greco handed Honan the opened bag of chips with the top crumpled closed. Honan, thinking it was an offer of a light snack, told Greco more than once she could not accept the chips, but Greco insisted that she keep them.

The two parted ways. Before entering a nearby subway station, Honan opened the bag and discovered a red envelope inside stuffed with cash, at least one $100 bill and several $20 bills. The reporter then called Greco and told her she could not accept the money and asked if she was still nearby so she could give it back. Greco said she’d left the area. Honan told her she had to take the money back, and Greco said they could meet at some point in Chinatown.

The reporter then texted Greco, “I can’t take this, when can I give it back to you?” She did not get a response.

In an interview later Wednesday, THE CITY asked Greco what her intention was in handing money to the reporter. In response, she said she’d made “a mistake” and apologized over and over.

“I make a mistake,” she said. “I’m so sorry. It’s a culture thing. I don’t know. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry. I feel so bad right now. I’m so sorry, honey.”

She then called THE CITY back, advising that we call her attorney, Steven Brill, and adding, “Can we forget about this? I try to be a good person. Please. Please. Please don’t do in the news nothing about me.”

Not only the lamest bribe attempt ever, but also the lamest attempt an alibi ever.

It's a complete mind-f%$# but in comparison, Andrew Cuomo looks good when compared to Eric Adams. 

It's Thursday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Initial Claims


Continuing Claims Initial unemployment claims rose last week, rising by 11,000 to 235,000, with  with continuing claims rising 30K to 1.972 million, a 3½ year high.

Continuing claims have been trending upwards, but I am no longer a part of this statistic, which makes me a happy camper.

I think that we are already in a recession. I think that we have been for a while.

The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits rose by the most in about three months last week and the number of people collecting unemployment relief in the prior week climbed to the highest level in nearly four years, signaling recent labor market softness continued into August.

………

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits climbed 11,000 - the largest increase since late May - to a seasonally adjusted 235,000 for the week ended August 16, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 225,000 claims for the latest week.

The data covered the survey week for the August nonfarm payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and while it does not yet suggest large-scale layoffs are afoot, it nonetheless points to another month of sub-par job growth.

………

The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, rose 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.972 million, the highest level since November 2021, during the week ending August 9, the claims report showed. 

I wonder what the Federal Reserve will do.  

My guess is that they will hold rates steady, by YMMV. 

Going Down the Rabbit Hole

For me, it commonly involves historical recipes.

I'm looking up something, and suddenly I have spent over three hours looking up a Renaissance era Lenten (no meat, eggs, cheese, or butter at that point in history during Lent) lasagna recipe containing walnuts, sugar, cinnamon, and other spices.

It's called, "Monk's Head."

Other folks are obsessing about civil rights violations, jackbooted thugs kidnapping people of the street, and billionaire pedophile sex rings, and I'm doing old recipes.

I am the dullest mother f$#@er on the planet.

Way to Go Bill!

Yes, I know, Bill Gates no longer runs Microsoft, but breaking products in order to jump on the latest hype bandwagon?  Classic Bill. 

In this case, the headline says most of it, "It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes."

Short version, comgining the Excel Spreadsheet program and AI, it gets you a spreadsheet which cannot reliably perform mathematical functions. 

It's not AI winter just yet, though there is a distinct chill in the air. Meta is shaking up and downsizing its artificial intelligence division. A new report out of MIT finds that 95 percent of companies' generative AI programs have failed to earn any profit whatsoever. Tech stocks tanked Tuesday, regarding broader fears that this bubble may have swelled about as large as it can go. Surely, there will be no wider repercussions for normal people if and when Nvidia, currently propping up the market like a load-bearing matchstick, finally runs out of fake companies to sell chips to. But getting in under the wire, before we're all bartering gas in the desert and people who can read become the priestly caste, is Microsoft, with the single most "Who asked for this?" application of AI I've seen yet: They're jamming it into Excel.

Excel! The spreadsheet program! The one that is already very good at what it does, which is calculation and data analysis. You put some numbers in and it spits some numbers out. According to The Verge, "Microsoft Excel is testing a new AI-powered function that can automatically fill cells in your spreadsheets." Using natural language, the idea goes, you tell it what you want and then the AI will "classify information, generate summaries, create tables, and more."

If you squint a little, or just look at this through the eyes of a person or company with a vested financial interest in shoving AI products into every cranny of your life, you can sort of see the vision. Excel requires some skill to use (to the point where high-level Excel is a competitive sport), and AI is mostly an exercise in deskilling [When did this become a term that sane people use?] its users and humanity at large. If everything works right, you'll be able to tell the program, in words, broadly what you want it to do, rather than have to learn the formulas that already exist and have for decades, which tell the program exactly what you want it to do.

Ah, but there's a rub. Microsoft explicitly warns users that its AI function should not be used for things like "doing math" or "anything actually important":

When NOT to use the COPILOT function

COPILOT uses AI and can give incorrect responses.

To ensure reliability and to use it responsibly, avoid using COPILOT for:

Numerical calculations: Use native Excel formulas (e.g., SUM, AVERAGE, IF) for any task requiring accuracy or reproducibility.

Tasks with legal, regulatory or compliance implications: Avoid using AI-generated outputs for financial reporting, legal documents, or other high-stakes scenarios.

 We live in the worst timeline ever.

Skeet of the Day

Hello, police? I'd like to report a murder on Bluesky:

[image or embed]

— SwiftOnSecurity (@swiftonsecurity.com) August 20, 2025 at 7:12 PM

Their Incel bodies have been burned to a crisp.

F%$# the Incumbent Carriers

In this case, it is T-Mobile, who just lost their appeal of $92,000,000.00 for selling customer location data without consent.

Their appeal was basically, "It's legal, because wer're T-Mobile."

The judges were less than receptive to this argument: 

A federal appeals court rejected T-Mobile's attempt to overturn $92 million in fines for selling customer location information to third-party firms.

The Federal Communications Commission last year fined T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, saying the carriers illegally shared access to customers' location information without consent and did not take reasonable measures to protect that sensitive data against unauthorized disclosure. The fines relate to sharing of real-time location data that was revealed in 2018, but it took years for the FCC to finalize the penalties.

The three carriers appealed the rulings in three different courts, and the first major decision was handed down Friday. A three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously against T-Mobile and its subsidiary Sprint.

………

Until 2019, T-Mobile and Sprint sold customer location information (CLI) to location information aggregators LocationSmart and Zumigo. The carriers did not verify whether buyers obtained customer consent, the ruling said. "Several bad actors abused Sprint and T-Mobile's programs to illicitly access CLI without the customers' knowledge, let alone consent. And even after Sprint and T-Mobile became aware of those abuses, they continued to sell CLI for some time without adopting new safeguards," judges wrote.

……… 

Instead of denying the allegations, the carriers argued that the FCC overstepped its authority. But the appeals court panel decided that the FCC acted properly: 

Needless to say, I expect Trump's FCC is already looking for a way to let your cell phone provider spy on you again. 

Right to Repair Now

Rolling stock manufacturer NEWAG was discovered to have been bricking trains if they were not serviced at their facilities.

It was unbelievably bad PR for the train manufacturer, and their response is to sue rail lines, repair shops, and tech experts who made it possible for the trains to run, claiming that repairing and running equipment that you purchase violates their copyright.

Because owning a 50 tonne locomotive doesn't mean that you can operate it as if you own it.

This is what is wrong with our current IP system.

It encourages rent-seeking, increases inequality, and stifles innovation:

Back in 2023 we wrote about how regional Polish rail company and a train manufacturer NEWAG had taken to using DRM to lock down trains that are repaired by independent technicians, in a bid to both monopolize — and drive up the costs of repair. This kind of effort to monopolize repair is common across numerous industries, driving an organic, grass roots “right to repair” reform movement.

The original story by 404 Media noted that NEWAG put code in their train’s control systems preventing them from running if a GPS tracker detected that it spent any time at an independent repair company, and if certain parts had been replaced without a manufacturer-approved serial number. Some independent companies responded by hiring a white hat hacking group dubbed Dragon Sector to bypass the DRM and get the trains running again.

Two years later and it sounds like NEWAG has taken all the wrong lessons from the experience.

The folks at iFixit note that the company has now sued both the Polish repair service SPS that fixed those original trains, and has also gone after the individual members of ethical hacking group Dragon Sector for helping them. NEWAG is looking for $1.7 million for copyright violations and “unlawful competition” in one court, and $1.36 million for unlawful competition and infringement of personal rights in another.

 This, as well as the sh%^$ that John Deer, and HP printers, and Tesla, and Ford, and GM, etc. pull needs to stop.

Parasite

The Apartheid Era Emerald Heir Pedo Guy™ is trying to kill Virginia's program to bring fiber optic connectivity to residents of the commonwealth, because they want to sell their (overpriced and under-performing) service to these same people.

Just so you know, based on Starlkink's own data, you start getting significant performance degradation at 6.66 subscribers per square mile.  That's about 96 acres (39.2 hectare)per subscriber.

Starlink operator SpaceX is fighting Virginia's plan to deploy fiber Internet service to residents, claiming that federal grant money should be given to Starlink instead. SpaceX is already in line to win over $3 million in grant money in the state but is seeking $60 million.

Starlink is poised to benefit from the Trump administration rewriting rules for the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program. While the Biden administration decided that states should prioritize fiber in order to build more future-proof networks, the Trump administration ordered states to revise their plans with a "tech-neutral approach" and lower the average cost of serving each location.

With the Trump administration backing its attempt to obtain more federal funding for Starlink, SpaceX is likely to object to state plans that still include significant fiber builds. That's what happened yesterday when SpaceX filed comments on Virginia's final proposal, which will be reviewed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

 Elon Musk is the biggest welfare leech in the world.

About Those Tariffs

The Producer Price Index rose by 0.9% in July.

That annualizes out to about an 11% inflation rate, though it should be noted that this is only 1 month of data.

I'm more pro tariff than a lot of people, I believe that friction in international commerce and international finance is a good thing because it provides stability and prevents destructive capital flows. (I take the term "Destructive Capital Flows," from Keynes.) 

That being said, tariffs drive up costs.  That's as close to a fact as you can find in economics.

The question is, or should be, whether the additional costs create any societal benefit, and if so, is the benefit worth the cost.

Wholesale prices rose far more than expected in July, providing a potential sign that inflation is still a threat to the U.S. economy, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Thursday showed.

The producer price index, which measures final demand goods and services prices, jumped 0.9% on the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.2% gain. It was the biggest monthly increase since June 2022.

Excluding food and energy prices, core PPI rose 0.9% against the forecast for 0.3%. Excluding food, energy and trade services, the index was up 0.6%, the biggest gain since March 2022.

To quote Bette Davis, "Fasten your seat-belts; it's going to be a bumpy night." 

More AI Humbug

A year ago, a PhD student at MIT produced a study claiming to show that Artificial Intelligence, by which we mean large language model AI, resulted in an increase in discoveries by researchers.

It was a pre-publication release, so there was no peer review, but much fanfare.

Following an investigation, MIT us doing its best to to get it withdrawn, with the Economics Department stating that it has, "No confidence in the provenance, reliability or validity of the data and has no confidence in the veracity of the research contained in the paper."

This sort of statement from academia is both rare and strong:

Last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was touting the research of a PhD student on the impact of AI on the workforce that “floored” professors in the field. Now the university is backing away from it and calling for it to no longer be published. On Friday, MIT announced that it reviewed the paper following concerns and determined that it should be “withdrawn from public discourse.”

The paper, titled “Artificial Intelligence, Scientific Discovery, and Product Innovation” snagged all sorts of attention and headlines for its finding that scientists aided by AI tools were considerably more productive than their peers working without the technological aid—but those same researchers making more discoveries were significantly less satisfied by their work. The work was considered a breakthrough, and Daron Acemoglu, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who recently won the Nobel Prize in economics, described it as “fantastic.”

But the findings didn’t quite sit right with some. According to the Wall Street Journal, a computer scientist with experience in materials science approached MIT professors with questions about how the AI tool used in the experiment worked and just how big of a boost in innovation that it was actually responsible for. The professors took those concerns to the university, which started a review process that ultimately led to MIT stating that it “has no confidence in the provenance, reliability or validity of the data and has no confidence in the veracity of the research contained in the paper.”

Given the financial and professional incentives associated with the current AI frenzy (Bubble?), any claim made by a research paper claiming that AI is a game changer should be viewed with the same skepticism as Donald Trump's wedding vows.