Irecently found myself at a dinner in an upstairs room at a restaurant in San Francisco hosted by a venture capital firm. The after-dinner speaker was a tech veteran who, having sold his AI company for hundreds of millions of dollars, has now turned his hand to investing. He had a simple message for the assembled startup founders: the money you can make in AI isn’t limited to the paltry market sizes of previous technology waves. You can replace the world’s workers – which means you can capture their salaries. All of them.
In every generation, the enemies of democracy change costumes, but their playbook remains eerily familiar. They lie, divide, intimidate, and exploit every available tool to consolidate power. In the 1930s it was radio, in the 2010s it was social media, and now, in 2025, the newest and most dangerous weapon in the authoritarian arsenal is artificial intelligence.
The biggest news over the weekend was silence: the silence of Republicans. They refused to disavow White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s statement that the administration is looking at suspending the writ of habeas corpus, that is, essentially declaring martial law. They have also stayed quiet after the administration announced it was planning to accept a gift of a $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8 plane from the Qatari royal family. President Donald J. Trump would use the plane as Air Force One during the rest of his presidency and take it with him when he leaves office.
This is in keeping with the refusal of 53 Republican senators to answer questions from Rolling Stone’s Ryan Bort after NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump, “Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States, as president?” and he answered: “I don’t know.” Only Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) went on the record, posting on social media: “Following the Constitution is not a suggestion. It is a guiding force for all of us who work on behalf of the American people. Do you agree?” https://heathercoxrichardson.
You don’t bite back. That’s rule number one of the internet. How come the oldsters don’t know this?
Because they didn’t grow up online.
It’s not only Trump, but Gayle King… The dirty little secret is most people don’t know most things. We no longer live in a concentrated world. Rather we live in a land of infinity, and if you’re surprised by the record that’s number one, having not only never heard it, but never heard OF IT, you know this.
But readers hate when I rag on old people.
Everybody can do everything. It’s not only the left that are woke. Disillusion and orthodoxy rule the old. Just because you smoked marijuana and grew your hair long that does not mean you’re hip today.
And the dirty little secret is NEITHER ARE THE YOUNG! https://lefsetz.com/
I mean, sure, the internet’s still running. The grocery stores are mostly stocked. You can still get a pizza delivered in under an hour. But all of that exists in the same world where ecosystems are collapsing, authoritarianism is on the rise, and the temperature keeps creeping up like a pot you left on low heat. The illusion of normalcy is persistent, but it’s just that: an illusion. We’re the frog in the saucepan, cracking jokes while our legs slowly go limp. https://medium.com/edge-of-
9/. Spring reading....
10/. Confirmation the banks and every intelligent businessmen know what's coming.....
On 4 February 2025, Lucy Letby’s barrister, Mark McDonald, convened a press conference at the grand baroque Westminster venue One Great George Street. It became a landmark moment, the culmination of months in which a number of distinguished experts had spoken out to question the former nurse’s convictions.
The media were addressed for an hour by a Canadian medical professor, Dr Shoo Lee. He said that a panel of international experts disputed the prosecution case that had led to Letby being found guilty in two trials of murdering seven babies at the Countess of Chester hospital in 2015 and 2016, and attempting to murder seven others. She was sentenced to 15 whole-life orders, and the court of appeal unanimously refused her permission to appeal.
“We did not find any murders,” Lee said. “In all cases, death or injury were due to natural causes or just bad medical care.”
Soon after Elon Musk slapped the air with a double Nazi salute, his brother Kimbal went on X to say: “This is what success feels like.” And three months ago, he seemed to have a point.
The Trump administration, which appeared to have been co-led for a time by big brother Musk, is now in a period of retrenchment. Initiatives focused on Gaza, tariffs, spending, deporting millions of migrants and “government efficiency” have all deflated somewhat.
We are admittedly only a small fraction of the way through this second Trump term, but a pattern appears to be emerging: the president proclaims a big policy goal, Maga appointees scramble to interpret his objectives, and then the whole thing is abandoned in paroxysm. Which isn’t to say that real harm isn’t being caused – just less than might otherwise be.
Few had seen anything quite like the Cybertruck when it was unveiled in 2019. Wrapped in an “ultra-hard, 30X, cold-rolled stainless steel exoskeleton”, the Cybertruck was touted as the ultimate doomsday chariot – a virtually indestructible, obtuse-angled, electrically powered behemoth that can repel handgun fire and outrun a Porsche while towing a Porsche, with enough juice leftover to power your house in the event of a blackout. At the launch, Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, said the truck could tackle any terrain on Earth and possibly also on Mars – and all for the low, low base price of $40,000. “Sometimes you get these late-civilization vibes [that the] apocalypse could come along at any moment,” Musk said. “Here at Tesla, we have the best in apocalypse technology.” https://www.theguardian.com/
Ivanka Trump is one of those ladies who seems to be easy to hate. She’s a conservative icon molded after her own father’s fascist whims. She got everything handed to her on a silver platter — a lifestyle that was even casually referenced in the Home Alone series of movies.
Those of us who are truly lucky have more than one mother. They are the cool aunts, the elderly ladies, the family friends, even the mentors who whip us into shape. By my count, I’ve had at least eight mothers. One of the most important was Sally Adams Bascom Augenstern. https://heathercoxrichardson.
When it comes to the legendary American director John Ford, you either get it or you don’t.
If you connect with his work – and for me it’s a connection far beyond any other I have experienced through cinema, felt somewhere between the back of my throat and the depth of my soul – then nothing else matters. Not his films’ conflicted politics, their interludes of witless brawling, or those sequences of drunk comedy we can tactfully classify as “broad”.
Because the passages of pure poetry that litter his movies, lit by his staggering instinct for visual composition, and underpinned by a choking emotion, leave his rivals trailing in the desert dust. Simply put: if you can’t take him at his interminable Victor McLaglen punch-ups, you don’t deserve him at his heartrending graveside soliloquies. https://www.theguardian.com/
What do couples counseling, a reality-singing competition, three cloned Yorkies, the content moderation of Paramount+ Germany and aviation safety all have in common? Virtually nothing, except the interest of television mastermind Nathan Fielder, who braids such disparate concepts together in the galaxy-brained second season of The Rehearsal.
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Robert, 85, married Susan, a lovely 25 year old...since her new husband is so old, Susan decides that after their wedding she and Robert should have separate bedrooms, because she is concerned that her new but aged husband may over-exert himself if they spend the entire night together.After the wedding festivities Susan prepares herself for bed and the expected knock on the door. Sure enough the knock comes, the door opens and there is Robert, her 85 year old groom, ready for action.They unite as one... Allgoes well, Robert takes leave of his bride, and she prepares to go to sleep.After a few minutes, Susan hears another knock on her bedroom door, and it's Robert, Again he is ready for more 'action'.Somewhat surprised, Susan consents for more coupling. When the newlyweds are done, Robert kisses his bride, bids her a fond good night and leaves.She is set to go to sleep again but, aha you guessed, it Robert is back again, rapping on the door and is as fresh as a 25 - year - old, ready for more 'action'. And, once more they enjoy each other.But as Robert gets set to leave again, his young bride says to him, 'I am thoroughly impressed that at your age you can perform so well and sooften. I have been with guys less than a third of your age who were only good once. You are truly a great lover, Robert.'Robert, somewhat embarrassed, turns to Susan and says: 'You mean I was here already?'
Yossel Zelkovitz worked in a Russian pickle factory. For many years, he had a powerful, almost uncontrollable desire to put his penis in the pickle slicer.Unable to stand it any longer, he finally sought professional help from the factory psychologist.After six months of intense therapy, however, the frustrated therapist gave up. He then advised Yossel to go ahead and do it, otherwise he would probably never have any peace of mind.The next day Yossel came home from work very early. His wife, Sacha, became alarmed and wanted to know what had happened.For the first time, Yossel tearfully confessed to her his tormenting desire to put his penis in the pickle slicer. He went on to explain that today he finally went ahead and did it, and he was immediately fired.Sacha gasped and ran over to her husband. She quickly yanked down his pants and shorts only to find a normal, completely-intact penis.She looked up and said, "I don't understand. What about the pickle slicer?"Yossel replied, "I think she got fired, too."Today's Jewish jokeA Jewish man was leaving a convenience store with his espresso when he noticed a most unusual Italian funeral procession approaching the nearby cemetery.A black hearse was followed by a second black hearse about 50 feet behind the first one.Behind the second hearse was a solitary Italian man walking a dog on a leash.Behind him, a short distance back, were about 200 men walking single file.
The man couldn't stand the curiosity. He respectfully approached the Italian man walking the dog and said: "I am so sorry for your loss, and this may be a bad time to disturb you, but I've never seen an Italian funeral like this. Whose funeral is it?""My wife's."
''What happened to her?"
"She yelled at me and my dog attacked and killed her."He inquired further, "But who is in the second hearse?"
The Italian man answered, "My mother-in-law. She was trying to help my wife when the dog turned on her."A very poignant and touching moment of Jewish and Italian brotherhood and silence passed between the two men.The Jewish man then asked "Can I borrow the dog?"The Italian man replied, "Get in line."
