Society's ChildS


Bell

Why I changed my mind on Trump

trump
Like many others, including J.D. Vance, I'm very much on record in warning about Donald Trump from 2015 onward, including articles and an entire book (which is still valuable) on the Rightist version of collectivism.

As we approach election day, my opinions have undergone a shift, particularly in the last three years watching as Biden/Harris marshalled a massive ruling class propaganda and compulsion machine to push everything I oppose the most: state consolidation, corporatism, censorship, inflationism, central planning and compulsory injections of experimental medical products.

It all seems surreal to me. I think back to what worried me the most about Trump: demagogic nationalism, nativistic protectionism, executive centralisation and the leadership cult. Features of his last term confirmed my worst fears, particularly his green lighting of lockdowns for Covid and disregard for religious and personal freedom in the period. He also has a terrible record on spending, mitigated in part by solid efforts toward deregulation and higher quality picks on the bench.

USA

Meta allows US military to use its AI

meta
© Jonathan Raa/Getty Images
Meta will permit US government agencies and contractors working for the needs of national security to use its AI models for military purposes, the tech giant announced on Monday. The move should help American open-source models to excel over those from China and elsewhere, the tech giant has said.

The move is a departure from the company's "acceptable use policy," which states that its artificial intelligence models are forbidden from being employed in "military, warfare, nuclear industries."

Meta is "pleased to confirm" that it will share its AI models, named Llama, with federal agencies and defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen, as well as defense-oriented tech firms such as Palantir and Anduril.

A Meta spokesman confirmed to the New York Times on Monday that the firm will also provide access to its AI models to the members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which besides the US includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

Comment: Is this news or a nod to what is already standard practice?


Cross

American who worked for Russia in Donbass speaks exclusively to RT

Martindale
© RTMissionary Daniel Martindale
RT has spoken exclusively with a US citizen who spent months secretly collecting intelligence on the Ukrainian military in Donbass and handing it over to Russia.

Daniel Martindale, who was there as a missionary, revealed that before moving to Ukraine in February 2022, he had resided in a "small Polish village where there's a Protestant church, and I was working with children in summer camps, teaching them English, but of course with the whole Christian theme."

When asked what prompted him to move to the neighboring country, he said: "Probably the biggest motivation was my desire to be in Russia if and when World War III starts."

Martindale stayed in Ukraine for two years, spending most of his time in a village located not far from the front line in Donbass which has since been liberated by the Russian military.


No Entry

'Murderers!': Spanish royals leave flood-hit town after heckling by angry crowd

King Felipe VI of Spain n the region of Valencia, eastern Spain, November 3, 2024, in the aftermath of deadly floods.
© Manaure Quintero, AFPKing Felipe VI of Spain is heckled by angry residents throwing mud and objects during his visit to Paiporta, in the region of Valencia, eastern Spain, November 3, 2024, in the aftermath of deadly floods.
During a visit to flood-ravaged Paiporta near Valencia on Sunday, King Felipe VI and government officials faced angry survivors who hurled mud and shouted insults. Police intervened to control the crowd, which expressed outrage following the deaths of more than 200 people.


Furious locals pelted Spain's royals and premier on Sunday with mud and cries of "murderers!", forcing officials to cut short their visit to the town worst hit by the floods which have killed more than 200.

The angry crowd in the town of Paiporta focused most of its wrath on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the head of the Valencia region, both of whom were whisked away by security.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were hit in the face and clothes with mud as they tried to calm the angry crowd, AFP journalists saw.

Comment: See also:


Cult

Creepy gov't-funded 'anti-hate' group run by a weird Egyptian man is now Germany's first official internet censor under the Digital Services Act

internet censorship
These Trusted Flaggers are charged with eradicating "hate speech" and "fake news" from social media; platforms that ignore their Trusted Flagging can be fined or face other serious sanctions.

Are you one of those schoolmarm hall-monitor types?

Do you have a screechy voice and do you enjoy looking down your nose at other people?

Do your favourite pastimes include complaining to the manager, telling teenagers not to say bad words and levelling self-superior moral disapproval at everything you don't like?

Well, then the European Union is just the place for you! Under our fantastic new Digital Services Act (DSA), you can engage in all these recreations, and what is more, you can do so in an official capacity, as a Trusted Flagger!

In places like the United States, censorship is a thing that the three-letter agencies and the major social media platforms have to hash out among themselves behind closed doors. Things are different here in Europe, where the DSA has imposed upon all of us a totally legal censorship regime for the purposes of cracking down on notionally "illegal" internet content. Any censorship regime of course requires censors, and that's where you, the aspiring Trusted Flagger, come in. This is your golden opportunity.

Whistle

SOTT Focus: Underwater: Many North Carolinians Don't Trust Official Death Toll From Hurricane Helene

helene hurricane north carolina
Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina before dawn on Friday, September 27. A month later disagreements about the true loss of life and number of missing persons are widespread, especially at the epicenter of the devastation.

The 4-day deluge first filled creeks and saturated the soil with 10 to 30 inches of rain, increasing in power before the worst part of the hurricane reached the region at Category 4 strength, culminating in an atmospheric river, forty to a hundred mile per hour winds, and tornadoes that residents say passed over the mountains making a "snap, snap, snap" sound as they broke trees like matchsticks.

The worst part of the storm hit between 4am and 7am, when people were fast asleep.

The Cane, Toe, French Broad, Swannanoa and Green Rivers inhaled communities, and by the time they reached inhabited areas, the rivers were cresting as much as 25 to 35 feet above ordinary levels. Floodwaters literally submerged towns Marshall, gutted Biltmore Village, and totally destroyed the River Arts District in Asheville. Elsewhere, thousands of mudslides took out homes and communities.

Comment: Incompetence and negligence, or criminal conspiracy and cover-up? Probably a mix of both. Authoritarians aren't wrong to place their trust in an orderly, methodical process of search-and-rescue and clearing/clean-up, but we all know by now that there are unscrupulous actors in all levels of government, and that they're not beyond lying about the death toll in a natural disaster for a whole host of motivations - political, ideological and/or personal.


Quenelle

Best of the Web: Squirrel!

peanut squirrel
© Mark Longo/TikTokPeanut the squirrel
Safety first means nothing is safe

It's just days to the election, and by the way Americans did you vote yet? and I have decided to talk to you about a dead rodent.

Seven years ago Mark Longo found a baby squirrel orphaned when someone ran a car over its mother. Longo brought him into his home and named him Peanut. Peanut imprinted on Longo as his new mother; when Longo tried to release him back into the wild, the little guy had no idea how to survive in the wild, returned frightened and injured to the only home he knew, and thus their relationship became permanent.

Here, watch this, it will melt your heart.

NPC

Boeing abandons DEI division, reverts back to merit-based system

Boeing
Will this be the straw that breaks the DEI camel's back?

Bloomberg reports that Boeing just became the latest big corporate entity to abandon the DEI debacle amid growing pressures to perform and be woke.

Anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck, who claims credit for convincing Toyota and Harley-Davidson to scale back DEI, said he had reached out to Ortberg and board chair Steve Mollenkopf by e-mail earlier this month to alert them he was considering an online campaign against their diversity programs.

Bloomberg reports that the planemaker has dismantled its global diversity, equity and inclusion department, making it the latest high-profile corporation to make changes to its DEI policy as its new top leader oversees a broader revamp of the company's workforce.

Attention

ABC station "accidentally" aired election results showing a Harris win in Pennsylvania

2024 US election Harris Trump
ABC affiliate WNEP "accidentally" shows Harris winning Pennsylvania during Formula 1 broadcast.
Huh. Well look at that.

ABC affiliate WNEP says the whole thing was just a big mistake.
Test results for the upcoming November 5 general election mistakenly appeared on WNEP-TV early Sunday evening during a broadcast of the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix.

Those numbers should not have appeared on the screen, and it was an error by WNEP that they did.

The numbers seen on the screen were randomly generated test results sent out to help news organizations make sure their equipment is working properly in advance of election night.

The numbers were not reflective of any actual vote count.

X

"It did occur" - Kentucky county clerk confirms voting booth 'glitch' shifted Trump votes to Kamala

Earlier in the day, a video went viral of voters in Kentucky having 'issues' with an electronic voting machine that selected "Kamala Harris" when the voter had pressed on "Donald Trump"...



Admittedly, we have seen a few of these style of clips over the past few weeks and viewed it with the same level of skepticism we usually do. However, this time is different because the local County Clerk just issued a statement on Facebook confirming the issue "did occur"... but not before he had denied it occurred.

Comment: This voting finger points to human error...and do-overs.