March 30, 2025
Daily Tech News 30 March 2025
Top Story
- Why do LLMs make stuff up? (Ars Technica)
Because that's what they're designed to do.
They're language models, not fact models. Indeed, they don't have fact models.
They're stuffed full of words and the associations between those words, and then told not to use certain of those words, a process called lobotomisation alignment.
And then they go forth and bloviate.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (193) | Trackbacks (Suck)
March 29, 2025
Saturday Night "Club ONT" March 29, 2025 [The 3 D's]
Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (330) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Saturday Evening Movie Thread [moviegique]: The Rule of Jenny Pen
Cat (left), mouse (right), WTF? (middle).
If "hag horror" is a thing—and with examples like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Strait-jacketwho can deny that it is?—might there be a non-distaff version of the genre? That is, if we have genres featuring old women, former starlets, going head to head against each other, is there a genre where once strong young men stagger around as oldsters and 'cause mischief and mayhem?
This isn't a rhetorical question. I really don't know! Bubba Ho-Tep, maybe? Grumpy Old Men is a comedy, not really the same. Well, if there wasn't one before, we have the beginnings of in The Rule of Jenny Pen. A neat and nasty little horror out of New Zealand that pits John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush against each other mano-a-mano and cato-a-mouse-o and so on.Cat (left), mouse (right), WTF? (middle).Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:30 PM | Comments (292) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Hobby Thread - March 29, 2025 [TRex]
[Photo:National World War II Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana]
Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin and it shuddered, wobbled and squeaked. Enough of that. The Wheel clearly needs servicing. We will try something else in the interim...
Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (120) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Ace of Spades Pet Thread, March 29
Courtesy BIF
(Pet Thread Wins, will share with Book Thread)* * *
Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.
Would you like a treat?
Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.
* * *
Courtesy BIF
(Pet Thread Wins, will share with Book Thread)
Posted by: K.T. at 03:28 PM | Comments (82) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, March 29
I bought 40 crocus bulbs a few years back. Now I have about 80 flowers - a good return on investment!I would say so! Lovely! Tells us your secrets. Tulips, Crocuses, Hyacinths and More today! And we have extras for next week!
Posted by: K.T. at 01:00 PM | Comments (57) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Is Newsom going to break into his podcasting schedule long enough to do something real about High-Speed Rail? 
NEW: California’s High-Speed Rail project needs $7 Billion by next summer, lawmakers learned today. “We have no plan, we have a good likelihood it's going to get worse, and we have a short time to solve the problem,” said Democratic Asm. Steven Bennett.From the accompanying news article: "That's not a good place for government to put itself into". Who is this "Government", Asm. Bennett?
Posted by: K.T. at 11:01 AM | Comments (303) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Classical Saturday Coffee Thread & Prayer Revival [Happy Birthday Wishes!]
Good morning boys, girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Three Lakes). 1) This is an open thread, feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice. And no, you can't jump on the furniture.
3) It's the end of the 1st quarter, have you met your health insurance deductible? Running with sharp objects is strictly prohibited.
4) Have a great weekend. Even if you can't run with sharp object.
Good morning boys, girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Three Lakes). 1) This is an open thread, feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice. And no, you can't jump on the furniture.
3) It's the end of the 1st quarter, have you met your health insurance deductible? Running with sharp objects is strictly prohibited.
4) Have a great weekend. Even if you can't run with sharp object.
Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian (ONT Cob Emeritus) at 07:58 AM | Comments (278) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Daily Tech News 29 March 2025
Top Story
- xAI has acquired parent-ish company X in an all-stock transaction that values xAI at $80 billion and X itself at $45 billion less $12 billion in debt. (Twitter)
What does all this mean?
Well, now xAI officially has access to and is fully integrated with Twitter rather than semi-officially having access to and being fully integrated with Twitter.
Also, xAI was valued at $50 billion just three months ago.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (123) | Trackbacks (Suck)
March 28, 2025
Friday ONT
Howdy all! Welcome to the ONT! It's officially spring.
Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (543) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Running Dog Lackeys Cafe
@peperamirez76
@peperamirez76
Posted by: Ace at 07:48 PM | Comments (196) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Week In Woke
Ratchet Congressthot Jasmine Crockett turns out to have, get this, lied when she claimed that her reference to "Governor Hot Wheels" only referred to his bussing of immigrants, not his confinement to a wheel chair due to paralysis.
Five years ago this past Tuesday, celebrities and former celebrities united to sing "Imagine" to us because thinking of a nationless world prepare us to obey the government's demands about the covid crisis that world governments foisted on us. White liberals explain that Voter ID laws are racist because black people can't get to the DMV. One totally non-racist White Girl whitesplains that black people "really don't have the knowledge of how it works." Mother: We told the Fairfax School Board we didn't want them to trans our children behind our back so they voted 16-to-0 to do it anyway. British policewoman demonstrates perfect Retreat Maneuver against aggressive male suspect. Remember when we used to compare ourselves favorably to the Soviet Union by noting how bountiful our food stores were?
This judge worked at the UN on their slavery committee. She was just arrested for... slavery and human trafficking. She also worked at, get this, Columbia University, in the field of human rights advocacy. Woke waitress tells MAGA voters they're not allowed to eat tacos. She's then fired. She says it's no big deal, she'll just get another job. Will you though? Who'd want to hire you? You're bragging about driving customers away based on your puerile politics and tantrums. Who's going to sign up for that?
A real White House tweet:
Hans MahnckeA little inflammatory but at this point, I don't care. Inflame the left. Spur them towards the violence that they've already decided on. Let's get it on. Update: "Eric In Atlanta" says that that meme is based on a real picture of a real illegal alien fentanyl dealer who was arrested and is being deported. There was a trend people were doing this week of using AI to "ghibilify" photos into Japanese (?) cartoons, and this meme is an example of that.
@HansMahncke A lot of people are complaining about this tweet, and in a sane world, I probably would too. But let's be honest here. Every single norm was shattered by Democrats and the media over the past nine years--starting with their completely fabricated plot to paint President Trump as a Russian agent, all the way to sending an army of agents to rifle through Melania's underwear drawer. In New York, they even changed a law retroactively--a move that even tinpot countries don't make--just to get Trump. The craziness of it all was off the charts, and because of that, it's important not to do the norms thing. Maybe in a few years, when Democrats and the media snap out of it--or maybe never. But certainly not now.
End WokenessThe "migrant influencer" who posted advice on how to defraud the US of government payments and how to squat in Americans' homes and claim the right to live there rent-free forever has been deported back to Venezuela. You won't believe this -- this low-executive-function savage disrupted his deportation flight.
@EndWokeness BREAKING: Federal judge overturns Snow White's 1.8 of 10 IMBD score
The brazen "migrant influencer" who infamously flashed around wads of US government cash handouts and encouraged other illegal border crossers to squat in American homes has finally been deported back to Venezuela -- after causing uproar on the flight back. Leonel Moreno, who encouraged illegal migrants to "invade abandoned houses" in sick TikToks, was sent back to the narco state this week, after President Trump resumed deportation flights to the country. Venezuela's Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, said Moreno was "welcome" back, however, the freeloading migrant caused disruptions on the flight and upset his fellow passengers. The firebrand TikTokker had to be placed in his own section of the plane with extra security to calm tensions. It is unclear why Moreno caused a disruption or what he was doing. After he stepped off the deportation flight, he flashed a thumbs up and received a pat on the shoulder from a security official escorting him off the plane.Update: Here's a video of this squatfulencer bragging about "invading" people's homes. He uses that word.
Ratchet Congressthot Jasmine Crockett turns out to have, get this, lied when she claimed that her reference to "Governor Hot Wheels" only referred to his bussing of immigrants, not his confinement to a wheel chair due to paralysis.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas) "liked" Facebook comments referring to wheelchair-bound Texas governor Greg Abbott as "hot wheels" in 2021--a year before he started busing migrants to Democratic cities, the policy Crockett said she was referring to when she called Abbott "hot wheels" herself. "We in these hot ass Texas streets, honey. Y'all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there. Come on now! And the only thing hot about him is that he's a hot-ass mess, honey! Yes, yes, yes, yes!" Crockett said to applause at a Human Rights Campaign event on Saturday. After clips of Crockett's remarks went viral on Tuesday, the congresswoman denied that they referenced the governor's condition. "I wasn't thinking about the governor's condition--I was thinking about the planes, trains, and automobiles he used to transfer migrants into communities led by Black mayors, deliberately stoking tension and fear among the most vulnerable," Crockett wrote on X. But Crockett was aware--and supportive--of the derisive label for the governor before he began the migrant transfers. "Hot wheels something else," reads a June 2021 Facebook comment that Crockett "liked" on the platform. The comment was a reply to a Crockett post about Abbott.As you probably know, Democrats are trying to show how "authentic" they are by engaging in a coordinated, focus-group tested Profanity Offensive. They're routinely using f-bombs in their public statements and even in congressional speeches. Of course Congresswoman Jasmine Ratchet joins in. Remember when they all piously moaned that Trump was "coarsening our precious civil discourse" by dropping his own (authentic) profanities from time to time?
Jasmine Crockett "liked" a comment on Facebook that referred to Greg Abbott as "hot wheels." That same month, Crockett reacted with a heart emoji to a comment that said, referring to Abbott, "When I say I sick of hot wheels....I am SICK OF HIM."
Five years ago this past Tuesday, celebrities and former celebrities united to sing "Imagine" to us because thinking of a nationless world prepare us to obey the government's demands about the covid crisis that world governments foisted on us. White liberals explain that Voter ID laws are racist because black people can't get to the DMV. One totally non-racist White Girl whitesplains that black people "really don't have the knowledge of how it works." Mother: We told the Fairfax School Board we didn't want them to trans our children behind our back so they voted 16-to-0 to do it anyway. British policewoman demonstrates perfect Retreat Maneuver against aggressive male suspect. Remember when we used to compare ourselves favorably to the Soviet Union by noting how bountiful our food stores were?
This judge worked at the UN on their slavery committee. She was just arrested for... slavery and human trafficking. She also worked at, get this, Columbia University, in the field of human rights advocacy. Woke waitress tells MAGA voters they're not allowed to eat tacos. She's then fired. She says it's no big deal, she'll just get another job. Will you though? Who'd want to hire you? You're bragging about driving customers away based on your puerile politics and tantrums. Who's going to sign up for that?
We're all waiting to find out how this is all our fault. You know, the very fact that this woman felt she had to fake a hate crime proves how serious hate crimes are, Bigots.
Collin Rugg
@CollinRugg NEW: Allentown, Pennsylvania employee LaTarsha Brown charged after placing a noose at her own desk to stage a hate crime. Jussie Smollett would be proud. About two months ago, Brown reported finding a noose at her desk at City Hall. Police requested DNA samples of people who were working in the office at the time of the incident. According to Capt. Steve Milkovits, every employee at the office agreed except for Brown. The Pennsylvania State Police Forensic DNA Division later released a report revealing that the DNA on the noose matched Brown's DNA. Brown worked for the city's community and economic development department. She faces misdemeanor charges including making false reports and fabricating physical evidence.
Posted by: Ace at 06:45 PM | Comments (165) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Elon Musk Explains and Defends DOGE's Work
Below, Musk explains that the entire Democrat attack line that he's "cutting Social Security to make poor old people go to Social Security offices to make changes" was a lie. What is going on, he says, is that fraudsters, many being foreign criminals working for foreign mafias, call into Social Security posing as retirees and con SS workers into re-directing their direct deposit checks into different accounts -- accounts controlled by the fraudsters, of course. He's not stopping the use of phones to change where direct deposit payments go to save money or hurt seniors -- he's trying to make it harder for fraudsters to just get on a phone and get grandma's social security payments directed into his own account.
He says it's a very reachable goal to cut $1 trillion from the budget, per year. Not fake savings over the course of ten years as most GOPe fake-out plans promise.
No, $1 trillion cut, this year. He says it's "very doable" and doesn't even involve the controversial calls and hard stuff, like cuts to Social Security.Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk and seven members of the team shed light on the department's cost-cutting mission in an exclusive sit-down interview with "Special Report" Thursday. "We want to reduce spending by eliminating waste and fraud and reduce the spending by 15%, which seems really quite achievable," Musk told "Special Report" executive editor Bret Baier. "The government is not efficient, and there's a lot of waste and fraud. So we feel confident that a 15% reduction can be done without affecting any of the critical government services."How sad is it that 15% of one year's budget is $1 trillion.
... "This is a revolution. And I think it might be the biggest revolution in government since the original revolution. But at the end of the day, America's going to be in much better shape," he said. "It's going to be a fantastic future." As of March 27, DOGE claims on its site it has saved Americans $130 billion, or $807.45 per taxpayer. ... During the "Special Report" exclusive, Musk and the seven DOGE members illustrated key efforts of the department to achieve Trump's goal. Davis brought up federal credit cards, which he labeled a "mundane" but "illustrative" example of DOGE's work. "There are in the federal government around 4.6 million credit cards for around 2.3 to 2.4 million employees. This doesn't make sense. So one of the things all of the teams have worked on is we've worked for the agencies and said, 'Do you need all of these credit cards? Are they being used? Can you tell us physically where they are?'" Davis explained. "Clearly there should not be more credit cards than there are people," Musk responded. ...
The top DOGE official also argued that when critics "attack DOGE, they never attack any of the specifics." "They'll say what we're doing is somehow unconstitutional or illegal or whatever. We're like, 'well, which line of the cost savings do you disagree with?' And they can't point to any."
Below, Musk explains that the entire Democrat attack line that he's "cutting Social Security to make poor old people go to Social Security offices to make changes" was a lie. What is going on, he says, is that fraudsters, many being foreign criminals working for foreign mafias, call into Social Security posing as retirees and con SS workers into re-directing their direct deposit checks into different accounts -- accounts controlled by the fraudsters, of course. He's not stopping the use of phones to change where direct deposit payments go to save money or hurt seniors -- he's trying to make it harder for fraudsters to just get on a phone and get grandma's social security payments directed into his own account.
Posted by: Ace at 05:43 PM | Comments (194) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Trump Celebrates Women's History Month By Proclaiming That Only Women Are Actual Women
President Donald Trump hosted a celebration of Women's History Month at the White House on Wednesday. He recognized Susie Wiles, the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, as "the most powerful woman in the world," and he said Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to be press secretary, was "knocking them dead." Trump mentioned "legends" like Harriet Tubman and Amelia Earhart and recognized many women lawmakers at the event. When he got to Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Trump said, "I owe you a call. I'll call you." Trump also criticized Democrats' record on transgender issues at the event, saying the previous administration wanted to "abolish the very concept of womanhood." "No matter how many surgeries you have or chemicals you inject, if you're born with male DNA in your body, you can never become a woman," Trump said.Video below the jump. This is a hard truth that those made insane by trans propaganda don't want to grapple with, but it's high time someone disabused them of these harmful fantasies by giving them a reality check. Trump is also ending woke programs at the Smithsonian -- and ordering them to return "#Cancelled" statues to the museum floor.
Normalcy Advocate -- I like that.
Trump is flushing woke out of America's premier museums and bringing back the monuments radicals wanted forgotten. The left's long march through the institutions was a resounding success. Numerous businesses, churches, libraries, law enforcement agencies, schools, and other organizations have for decades served as incubators for radical activists and amplifiers for pernicious ideologies. Leftist marchers are, however, now being routed. Conservatives and other normalcy advocates have in recent years undertaken a reconquest, enjoying success with certain academic institutions such as the New College of Florida as well as major businesses including Walmart, Harley-Davidson, and John Deere.
... Trump intends to rid the Smithsonian Institution, its 21 museums and 14 education and research centers, and the National Zoo of radical leftist programs, policies, and installations. In an executive order titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," the president noted, "Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth." 'Museums in our Nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn -- not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination.' "This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light," continued Trump. "Under this historical revision, our Nation's unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed." Trump slammed the Biden administration for advancing this "corrosive ideology" and cited the following as examples of the anti-American propaganda at issue. ...
Cognizant and critical of the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum's initiative to feature male cross-dressers in future exhibits, Trump also insisted that the museum does "not recognize men as women in any respect." ...
Trump directed Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to figure out whether public monuments, memorials, statues, or other properties within the Interior Department's jurisdiction were removed or changed during this radical campaign "to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology." The president demanded further the reinstatement of pre-existing monuments that were removed.
Posted by: Ace at 04:52 PM | Comments (166) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Audacity: Hillary Clinton, Who Kept Classified Information on an Unsecured Server to Hide Her Communications from Congress and the Public, Attacks Trump's Team for Using Signal to Communicate
Hillary Clinton lambasted the Trump administration over its Signal chat leak and repeatedly called its policies "dumb" in a blistering essay published Friday in the New York Times. The former Democratic presidential candidate and secretary of state assailed President Donald Trump and his team as careless and stupid over its short tenure in office so far. "It's not the hypocrisy that bothers me; it's the stupidity. We're all shocked -- shocked! -- that President Trump and his team don't actually care about protecting classified information or federal record retention laws," Clinton wrote.This drunken Satanic sow illegally used her own server so that her communications would be protected from exposure by records retention laws. This was a secret server until someone discovered it -- she did not disclose it so that the federal government could copy all of these messages. She did not disclose it so that people fililng FOIAs would even know what records to request. And she sits her in Her Satanic Hubris and accuses others of using Signal to "avoid records retention" laws. By the way, in case you don't know this, Biden approved the use of Signal for communication precisely because it was more unhackable than the easily-hackable federal systems.
"But we knew that already. What's much worse is that top Trump administration officials put our troops in jeopardy by sharing military plans on a commercial messaging app and unwittingly invited a journalist into the chat. That's dangerous. And it's just dumb." ... Clinton boasted in the Times essay that she employed "smart" power as the first secretary of state under President Barack Obama. "The Trump approach is dumb power. Instead of a strong America using all our strengths to lead the world and confront our adversaries, Mr. Trump's America will be increasingly blind and blundering, feeble and friendless," Clinton wrote. Among Clinton's complaints were the Trump administration's gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), closing embassies and consulates, and layoffs within the government hitting intelligence agencies. Clinton hammered away at the theme that Trump's team was unintelligent, calling various Trump administration moves "not smart," "dumb power," "dumb," and "dumb and dangerous."Cirrhosis isn't just a river in Egypt. Unrelated: Justice Roberts has finally asked a district court judge to respond to Trump's demand to explain where the judge thinks his authority to usurp the president's sole authority to conduct foreign policy comes from. Roberts ordered the court to respond by Tuesday.
Posted by: Ace at 03:48 PM | Comments (279) | Trackbacks (Suck)
AOC Tops CNN Poll As Best Representing "Core Democrat Principles"
I'm glad to have that confirmed.
Matt Taibbi discusses the very real chance that this psychopathic nitwit could be the Democrat Party's nominee in 2028.
Thus the "aristocratic niche politics" that are driving them into the grave. They stopped being the party of "the workin' man" and became exclusively the party of neurotic, bored, listless Affluent White Female Liberals looking for some great cause to bring passion and purpose to their lives. Eat. Pray. Vote Democrat.
A new poll suggests Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) best reflects the Democratic Party's principles. The CNN survey conducted earlier this month handed Ocasio-Cortez the highest ratings when voters were asked which Democratic leader "best reflects the core values of the Democratic Party." Ten percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents polled picked the New York lawmaker, the most of any candidate, with former Vice President Kamala Harris placing second at 9%, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at 8%, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) at 6%. The survey painted a pessimistic picture for the Democratic Party as its members continue to debate about how to recoup from devastating losses during the 2024 elections. The Democratic Party's favorability rating hit a historic low with the public, 29%, marking a decline of 20 percentage points since January 2021 and coming 7 points short of the Republican Party's 36% approval rating. A majority of Democrats surveyed said their leaders are taking the party in the wrong direction, as the share of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents with a favorable view of the party is down by 18 points since 2021 -- to 63% from 81%.
Matt Taibbi discusses the very real chance that this psychopathic nitwit could be the Democrat Party's nominee in 2028.
Taibbi talks about what brought the Democrats to their lowest point in 100 years. His answer? Hillary Clinton. The "aristocratic niche politics" that are the Democrats' whole agenda arose from Hillary Clinton's thirst for power in 2015-2016.
The AOC Train Wreck is Coming, and it's Going to Be Spectacular Nationwide rallies are spurring "Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez 2028" whispers, and it's already clear: the CIA couldn't do a better job of discrediting the American left From the New York Times Sunday article, "As the Left Looks to 2028, It Waits on Ocasio-Cortez's Big Decision."Hoo, boy. Making Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (a.k.a. Vogue's "Consummate Power Dresser") the face of a left populist movement is the latest episode of the longest-running television show in history, How Will the American Left Screw Up This Time? ... Legacy outlets are already boosting the notion of AOC as a 2028 contender, which itself should scare Sanders, but somehow doesn't. Why would the same press goons who smeared him for years suddenly embrace his successor?
As Democrats find... their party's popularity at a generational low, progressives are also staring down the prospect of a post-Bernie future... The 83-year-old Mr. Sanders has signaled that he does not intend to run for president again. The question now is who will lead the network he built from scratch into the next presidential election... Virtually everyone interviewed said there was one clear leader for the job: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
The Clintons' avaricious embrace of corporate donations and Wall Street money required them to embrace radical social policies. This became the agenda of the Democrat Party: Greedy, shameless corporate cash-grabs plus rancid identity politics pandering.
The Democrats' move toward what we now think of as social justice politics started in the early nineties, when Bill Clinton and his Democratic Leadership Council began running on social issues like abortion and gay rights after opening their doors to Wall Street money, forcing a move away from hardcore labor and economic issues. The original Clintonian idea was a move to the middle (and specifically toward a "forgotten middle class" of white swing voters), but Hillary Clinton was forced to rebrand during the 2016 primary. The upstart Sanders was drawing blood via complaints about Hillary's obscene fees for bank speeches; she fought back by picking at his lack of fluency with justice lingo, attacking "Bernie Bros" as angry white men, and asking "if I broke up the banks tomorrow... would that end racism?" Clinton followed up by tweeting a chart showing that "We face complex, intersectional challenges" that put "investments in communities of color" at the center, along with goals like "investments in underserved communities." In a flash Hillary's banking-relationships problem became Bernie's race problem, with interviewers spending much of the rest of the campaign pushing Sanders to recite required liturgical terms like "black lives matter."
Thus the "aristocratic niche politics" that are driving them into the grave. They stopped being the party of "the workin' man" and became exclusively the party of neurotic, bored, listless Affluent White Female Liberals looking for some great cause to bring passion and purpose to their lives. Eat. Pray. Vote Democrat.
AOC's tweaking of the Hillary and Bill Clinton Corporatism + Social Marxism fusion involves doubling down even harder on noxious identity politics, while also promising to ravage the economy through Marxist revolution.
As Ryan Grim later wrote in his excellent book The Squad, the jargon-bombs might have been effective at knocking Sanders out in the primary, but hurt Hillary overall:
To the extent that the campaign tactic moved the needle at all, it likely pushed moderate voters paying only marginal attention to the campaign toward Sanders, who spoke like a normal person, while Clinton began ascending into what her ally James Carville would later call "faculty lounge speak..." Former president Bill Clinton, surveying the landscape and the ham-handed efforts at identity politics, was bereft, lamenting to a longtime friend in the fall of 2016 that Hillary's campaign "could not sell pussy on a troop train."
Modern Democrats didn't agree with once-sainted Carville and Bill, though, and spent eight years betting heavily on "faculty lounge speak." No one exemplified the trend more than Ocasio-Cortez, who was elected in 2018 and along with three fellow congresswomen (Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tliab, and Ilhan Omar) soon made up a famed progressive quartet called "The Squad." AOC's rapid identification with social-justice gobbledygook was a bit of a stunner, because as Grim's book explains, the Bernie-backed group Brand New Congress supported the first run of the former waitress precisely because she seemed like a "normal person" who "didn't have the vibe of an activist who would turn off voters."
Also clearly running for president: Tampon Timmy Walz.
Before long AOC mostly became famous for her "tweetstorms," which sometimes at night, thumb-typing seemingly randomized piles of jargon, at the end of which she'd usually endorse whatever the maximalist version of the SJW position on any issue was. She planted flags in Abolish ICE, Defund the Police, Trans Girls Are Girls, Indigenous Peoples' Day, Censorship ("We're going to have to figure out how we rein in our media environment"), and a long list of other once-fashionable positions. She even reamed fellow Democrats on Instagram for not using "Latinx"... For all this, AOC's goofy takes need not be fatal to an economic populist enterprise. What is fatal is economic populism that doesn't know anything about economics. Unlike European counterparts, the American left doesn't want to go full Lenin and call for seizing of the means of production. That's a good thing, but it also means a person inheriting a Sanders-type movement needs to have some kind of plan for coexisting with the market. That's tough to do when you don't have a clue about it. ... AOC has shown time and again she resents having to make the numbers work at all. Her stump address on this tour is full of lines like, "We deserve better than this," and "You deserve better now" and "We just deserve so much better" and "Our lives deserve dignity" and "Our work deserves dignity" and "We have to commit to building the country we all deserve" and on and on. ... I'm no socialist, but I think working-class people need serious political representation and governments tend to run better when there's at least one legitimate labor party with influence. But instead of putting forward someone who can express the common-sense frustrations [Bill] Maher references, what remains of the left is putting its hopes in a politician whose three areas of expertise are intersectional bosh, regulations, and taxes, a chemical combination known as Voter Repellent. An AOC presidential run would obliterate progressive politics for a generation, making George McGovern seem like Kennedy. Every dipshit legacy pundit in the country is cheering the AOC rallies as the beginning of something special, which is how you know it will end in tears; when The New Yorker says the rallies are proof "the left still has a pulse," you know it's really on its deathbed. I guess it deserves to be, but man, how do they not see it?
Posted by: Ace at 02:30 PM | Comments (441) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Trump Targets "Solar for All," Biden's $7 Billion Boondoggle for Rich Democrat Cronies
Endless, fathomless corruption.
Fresh off its decision to claw back $20 billion in "greenhouse gas reduction" money the Biden Environmental Protection Agency parked at Citibank, the Trump administration is setting its sights on another massive chunk of planned green spending receiving less attention.
The $7 billion Solar for All program -- part of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund -- is meant to "enable over 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities to benefit from distributed solar energy," according to the EPA's website. ... While Solar for All (and much else) remains in limbo, supporters continue to defend it as essential to fight climate change. But critics are denouncing it as a green boondoggle aimed at lining progressives' pockets. Sixty Solar for All grants have been earmarked for various state and tribal agencies, as well as other green energy nonprofits that rely on public funding for much of their work. A RealClearInvestigations review of Solar for All's records reveals a tight circle of publicly funded environmental outfits and government agencies, with the lion's share of the now-frozen funds slated to go to Democrat-run states. So far, $30.8 million of Solar For All grants have been distributed, according to the EPA. "These grant programs are the most blatant instances of self-dealing I've ever witnessed," said Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, one of 50 free market-oriented groups that called on Congress to repeal the IRA's climate spending. "The Biden administration and Democrats in Congress loaded the IRA with billions of dollars of walking around money to fund organizations -- some of which didn't even materialize until after the bill was passed -- to promote and advance the green agenda at the expense of American taxpayers and families," Pyle said. Almost $450 million of Solar for All was supposed to go to various Native American groups. A group called Three Affiliated Tribes was set to receive $135.2 million, while another $304.4 million was to be divided between four other Native American entities, records show. The biggest award to a green nonprofit, $311.4 million, was won by Grid Alternatives, an Oakland-based nonprofit that said it would use the money to help 37,000 households gain access to solar energy. Prior to the Solar for All freeze, Grid Alternatives had received $756,791 from its grant, records show. "This groundbreaking program, funded by the EPA and led by Grid Alternatives, is designed to bring the benefits of clean energy to income-qualified and environmental justice communities across America," it announced on its website. Tax-exempt since 2014, Grid Alternatives' work notably includes government contracts with the state of California and the District of Columbia. The company's website states its four guiding principles are "equity, anti-racism, economic justice (and) environmental justice." One of its founders, Tim Sears, was named a "White House Champion of Change for Solar Deployment" during the Obama administration in 2014. ...
The second largest batch of awards involved nearly $1 billion divided among four recipients. Those four grants -- all for the same amount, $249.3 million -- were awarded to entities in Democratic strongholds. Three went to the California Energy Commission, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and Harris County, Texas' deep blue 18th Congressional District in Houston, according to the Treasury Department's usaspending.gov. The fourth award of $249.3 million went to Inclusive Prosperity Capital in Hartford, Connecticut. That nonprofit provides financing for "traditionally underserved markets" and lists as one of its partners Inclusiv Inc. in New York City, which itself was given a separate award of $1.9 billion from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund money deposited in Citibank. Inclusive Prosperity Capital, which did not respond to a request for comment, has been tax-exempt since 2014, and in 2022, its salaries and compensation exceeded its revenue, according to its tax return. All told, a half dozen people at Inclusive Prosperity make more than $200,000 annually, and another five make more than $100,000, tax records show.
Posted by: Ace at 01:19 PM | Comments (365) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Trump Plans to Drain Universities of Their Pipleline of Foreign Radical Campus Operatives By Cutting Off All Foreign Student Visas to Pro-Hamas Schools
Want to get Academia's attention? A president has three options, all within his executive authority: Cut off grants and other federal research moniesYears and years ago, UNLV's basketball team was given, I think, the so-called NCAA "Death Penalty" for various infractions. I forget the details. Stuff like paying "student" athletes to come to the school, probably. The "Death Penalty" forbade UNLV from participating in NCAA tournaments for like ten years, basically destroying its program. What top athlete wants to go to a college if you know in advance you can never compete in March Madness? I bring that up because Trump must now be considering something like the "Death Penalty" for Columbia University, an executive order forbidding any federal funds to the school for ten years or more. Because, reports David Strom, Columbia made promises to Trump to get its federal funding restored. And the president just publicly stated she lied and had no intention of honoring those promises. It was all a lie to get the money back, and then keep on doing what they're already doing.
Aggressive use of Title VI, VII, and IX investigations to ensure proper compliance
Sever income streams from abroad via visa management
You could add "tax endowments" to that list, but that would require Congress to act. As Donald Trump is demonstrating, a president can use the three steps above to make universities and colleges know he's serious about cleaning up campus unrest, especially that fomented by terrorist organizations abroad. According to Axios' Marc Caputo, Trump has already begun planning Step 3:The Trump administration is discussing plans to try to block certain colleges from having any foreign students if it decides too many are "pro-Hamas," senior Justice and State Department officials tell Axios. Why it matters: The effort -- which could include grand jury subpoenas --marks another escalation of Trump's aggressive crackdown on immigration and antisemitism that civil libertarians say stifles campus speech and has led to several lawsuits. ... At the heart of the plan is the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which certifies schools to accept student visa-holders. Institutions have been decertified in the past if the government determines they have too many student-visa holders who are using the education system as a ruse to live and work in the U.S., officials say. Now, the Trump administration is threatening to apply that decertification framework to the post-Oct. 7 demonstrations on college campuses.
[I]magine my shock and horror to discover that the President of Columbia University, AWFL Katrina Armstrong, held a Zoom meeting with her faculty to assure them that all the changes they promised they would make in a letter to President Trump were not going to happen. It was a ruse, a lie, a total falsehood, and that things would go on as before.Eliana Johnson of the Free Beacon:
Nothing to see here. That's what Columbia University president Katrina Armstrong told approximately 75 faculty members who assembled on a Saturday morning Zoom call to hear from her about a letter sent by the school to the Trump administration on Friday outlining a series of steps Columbia says it is taking to address "legitimate concerns raised both from within and without our Columbia community, including by our regulators" about the eruption of anti-Semitism on campus in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. Throughout the conversation, which lasted approximately 75 minutes and included Columbia provost Angela Olinto and general counsel Felice Rosan, Armstrong and Olinto downplayed or denied that change was underway, particularly when it came to meeting the Trump administration's demand to put the school's Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department under academic receivership. "This is not a receivership," Olinto told the group. "The provost will not be writing or controlling anything. It's the faculty," she continued, adding, "Your department is totally independent." Columbia's Middle East Studies department has been a flashpoint in the disputes that have roiled the university since Oct. 7, with critics citing its faculty members as a leading source of anti-Semitism. One of them, Joseph Massad, described the Hamas massacre as "awesome." Armstrong went on to say the school had made "no changes" to rules surrounding the sorts of masked protests that plagued the university last year, though Friday's letter announced that masks are no longer allowed "for the purpose of concealing one's identity in the commission of violations of University policies or state, municipal, or federal laws." The Washington Free Beacon obtained a transcript of the meeting, which seems to have been created because Columbia administrators were unable to disable the Zoom function that generates an audio transcript. The transcript itself captures administrators struggling to prevent the software from creating a transcript and then moving forward without success.Perfect -- they tried to hide the admission of their lies, but they were too incompetent to figure out how to turn off the auto-transcript feature.
"I am unable to turn it off, for technical reasons, so we're all just going to have to understand," an unnamed administrator said at the outset. "This meeting is being transcribed. If you are the requester of this, I would ask you to turn it off." "Yeah, that seems to be the default. I keep telling my people to stop this thing," Olinto, the provost, responded.They all wanted the transcription turned off so that no one would know what was said on the call. The Death Penalty is needed. Schools throughout America are in nearly-open defiance against the Supreme Court's ruling that discrimination against whites and Asians is just as illegal as discrimination against the left's favored "BIPOC" groups. But they've all conspired to continue this discrimination by requiring "diversity statements" from students, which are just essays wherein minority students tell the school they're minorities so that the schools can give them DEI advantages while claiming "We never demanded anyone tell us their race!" At some point, the Death Penalty has to start coming down, and banning these schools from receiving any taxpayer dollars for 20 to 50 years. Whatever we do, we can't eject these Scholars contributing so much to Humanity:
Posted by: Ace at 12:08 PM | Comments (356) | Trackbacks (Suck)
THE MORNING RANT: Regarding Harvard and Its “Introductory” Math Course for its Students Who Can’t do 9th Grade Math
What is Harvard's 3% admissions rate selecting for �� pic.twitter.com/N9bpOd36IB
— Elad Gil (@eladgil) March 19, 2025
Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (286) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Mid-Morning Art Thread
Edward Biberman
Edward Biberman
Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (368) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Processing 0.01, elapsed 0.013 seconds.
15 queries taking 0.0076 seconds, 25 records returned.
Page size 59 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.