Right to worry

 

Investors are right to worry. In Texas, the destination for around a third of the new capacity planned for America over the next two years or so, the Democratic governor-elect, Gina Hinojosa, has endorsed an extended moratorium on approving new construction until lawmakers can work out how to wring concessions from tech firms. She will have allies in the state capitol, where the Democratic Party wrested control of the lower house for the first time in more than two decades. Democrats also took the governorships in Georgia and Ohio, two other states for which AI builders had big plans, and kept it in a third, Pennsylvania.  (From The Economist, the only media outlet explaining the situation clearly).

Still, I don't understand why the left is against industry and growth. They fight for deindustrialization and a return to "nature." They are against order and progress. The DSA webpage explains that AI produces profits for the billionaires, and they want to destroy that class. 

Spies everywhere

 Katalin Karikó is a Hungarian-born biochemist who shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Drew Weissman. They were recognized for discoveries about nucleoside base modifications in mRNA, which made effective mRNA vaccines possible, including the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

She was born in 1955 in Szolnok and grew up in Kisújszállás. She studied at the University of Szeged and moved to the United States in 1985. For years, she struggled to get funding at the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked with Weissman.

The new Hungarian government is opening the Security Services' top-secret files, and her file shows she had been working for them all along. Code name: Lengyel Zsolt; job: discover spies; position: secret officer in charge; motivation: patriotic. 

I remember that during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the AVO's secret files were also opened. My father went to see his own file (we lived in Budapest's center; the AVO HQ, the central security organization, was nearby). Somebody had informed on him that he was "clerical," that is, a religious person, which I assume meant a very black mark in the Communist regime. A few days later, my Father took the train to Zalaegerszeg, arranged with a local peasant to guide us to the frontier, we and my uncle Gyuri and his wife Ella took the train from Budapest, and we waited at the frontier until there were no patrols in sight, walked to Austria, and became penniless refugees. It was December 1956 and very cold. 

Progress a-la-American

 
Throuples, foursomes and other multi-partner relationships can now register as domestic partners in Los Angeles County, with unanimously approved new legal protections for polyamorous couples.

The measure allows people in relationships involving multiple partners to officially register with the city. The ordinance allows three or more individuals to formally register their relationship with the city. Some Massachusetts municipalities already recognize multi-partner domestic partnerships, and cities like Berkeley and Oakland have taken steps to ban discrimination based on family structure. Everything goes. 

I looked up the family backgrounds of the new Democratic winners and didn't find traditional father-mother-children families. Talarico, the new Senator of Texas, was adopted by his stepfather. One Somalian married her gay brother. Maybe it was always like that, but we didn't know.

Confidence in the Future of Tel Aviv

A French Jewish high-tech entrepreneur has purchased two floors in a luxury residential tower under construction on Tel Aviv’s beachfront for NIS 119 million ($38 million).

The buyer, a Paris resident, acquired the properties in the Daniel Tower project (pic), in a deal signed one day before the election.

The deal comes as demand for luxury housing in Jerusalem and central cities rises, partly due to fears of rising antisemitism abroad. Uncertainty in France and other European countries has made such acquisitions more attractive for wealthy Jewish buyers from abroad.

When Hannibal stood at the gates of Rome, the Romans took great heart from the fact that the very ground on which his army was camped sold at auction for its full value. Hannibal ante portas auctioned the shops surrounding the Forum. Psy-op was not invented today.

IDF recreates the Zion Mule Corps

The IDF began as a British Army mule transport corps in Egypt (pic). They even fought in Gallipoli. Today, the IDF has established a new AI and Unmanned Systems Branch, an Artificial Intelligence Brigade, and a Spectrum Brigade within the C4I and Cyber Defense Directorate. "As part of an innovative operational concept, the IDF will strengthen and develop its approach to integrated human-machine warfare. Manned units will operate in coordination with unmanned systems to achieve an operational advantage and superiority on the battlefield."

America is the world

 → There is no country but America: The new measure of industrialization is who uses the most artificial intelligence. Who has the largest AI capacity. The biggest, sexiest data centers. Since that’s going to determine power in this coming era. And the answer is clear: it’s robust, and it’s the US of A:

Ozempic vagina

 
We've all seen the Ozempic Face: a skull-like, frightening appearance of people who lost weight with Ozempic. No one mentions the other side of the effect: the scary loss of fat from the vulva, especially the inner labia. The vulva sags and produces no friction or sense of warmth to the male organ, and it is useless for bringing orgasm to older males. The female body needs fat and a well-rounded camel toe to satisfy a man.  

Me fear?

 

Dario is selling shares of Claude and, in the prospectus, he writes extensively about how dangerous the AI could be. Potentially, it could exterminate humanity. Good selling point. Dario is a bona fide genius and potentially the second richest man in the world, after Elan. He looks like a very nervous, neurotic Jew. 

Paris Anti-Mascu

 

Comment le masculinisme se manifeste-t-il aujourd’hui, notamment sur les réseaux sociaux ? Quels mécanismes alimentent le cyberharcèlement et les violences faites aux femmes ? À travers des témoignages et des éclairages sociologiques, cette première table ronde propose de mieux comprendre le phénomène et ses conséquences.

Cyberharcèlement is French for cyber-harassment or cyberbullying: repeated hostile, humiliating or threatening behavior aimed at a person through digital means such as social networks, messaging apps, email, forums, gaming platforms, or SMS. Common forms:

• Insults, threats or mockery sent repeatedly by message or posted publicly
• Spreading rumors, or sharing private photos or information without consent (including “revenge porn” and doxxing, i.e., publishing someone’s address or personal details)
• Impersonation or fake accounts used to humiliate the victim
• Deliberate exclusion from online groups
• “Raids” (harcèlement en meute): many people pile onto one target, even if each sends only one or two messages

Cyberharcèlement is a criminal offense under the harassment provisions of the Code pénal (article 222-33-2-2). The use of an online service is an aggravating circumstance. Since 2018, the law also covers coordinated group attacks: each participant can be liable even without acting repeatedly themselves, as long as they knew they were part of a concerted campaign. Penalties are heavier when the victim is a minor.

Las Malvinas Son Argentinas

 
Israel changed its position in the Falklands conflict and now supports the Argentine side. The English colonizers need to vacate the islands immediately. Should the Europeans keep attacking Israel, they will be reminded of other issues pending: Sahara Occidental, Ceuta, Melilla, Scotland, Wales, and the list goes on endlessly.

New Alliance

The Abraham Alliance of Sunni regimes plus Israel is close to receiving another member: Arabia. Saudi Arabia. So predicts Eliezer Marom (Chayney), former head of the Israeli Navy. They have no choice; the neighbours are eyeing their fabulous wealth, and their historic protectors have lost interest. Thank the Almighty that we have reached the point where WE are a candidate to take over the role of regional hegemon. Marom predicts it will happen near the American midterm election.  

Panic in Iran

 U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Iran is in a financial crisis, threatening prison for publishing exchange rates.

He claims no oil has been loaded at Kharg Island since August and no Iranian oil is currently headed to customers by sea.

Performative Olive Harvesting

Hundreds are coming to guard the olive harvest in the Shomron. The idea is to combine nature tourism with a strong political statement. It reminds me of the sugarcane harvest in Cuba, with thousands travelling to Communist Cuba to enjoy socialism in the tropics. The difference is that cutting sugarcane is hard work, while "protecting Palestinian farmers against the colonizers" needs no physical exertion or risk of encountering a Bothrops snake (“barba amarilla”). After a two-hour walk and selfies in Samaria, rented air-conditioned buses bring them back to their luxury hotels in Tel Aviv, all under the protection of ZAHAL and the American Embassy. Israeli volunteer NGOs provide free tour guides and coordinate with Palestinian counterparts to ensure that a short fake confrontation will take place for pictures. The operation "Protecting the Olive Harvest" is documented by dozens of foreign journalists, so it can be seen on millions of TV screens all over the world. 

BTW, world markets are flooded with olive oil; bulk olive oil is a commodity, and the price is set by mechanised Andalusian groves. A small producer on rain-fed hill terraces cannot compete at that price.  The EU limits oil imports, and the oil from Tunisia and Morocco cannot find a market. The World Bank estimated West Bank production costs at 20–30% above Jordan and 35–40% above Turkey. Palestinian olive plantations cannot compete with imported oil, and following the reduction of customs, 35% of the area planted with olive trees was uprooted in the Galilee. Total production in the Palestinian Authority was about 15,000 tons, which is half of previous years. Yields are cyclical, and one dunam yields about 400 shekels (130 US$) per year (in a good year), less than a day's salary as a construction worker. 

Inflation?

 "As far as I can tell, Trump doesn’t believe that there is such a thing as objective truth, there’s only what he wants to be true. Trump doesn’t have the full powers of a totalitarian ruler, but often behaves as if he did (and is enabled in that behavior by almost the entire GOP.) And Orwell wrote about the mutability of history under totalitarian regimes:If the Leader says of such and such an event, ‘It never happened’ – well, it never happened. In this case what never happened was surging nflation."

 Paul Krugman is an unabashed liberal, and there is no crime in an economist having such persuasions. For that matter, many economists have a bit of that streak, too. ...However, the agreements end where Krugman begins to view U.S. economic history from a distorted lens, one in which all administrations run by Democrats are Good and Virtuous, and all Republican administrations are governed by Beelzebub himself. (By William L. Anderson, Senior Editor at the Mises Institute).