The Bullshit Machine Did Some Bullshit

This is probably how AI destroys humanity.

The intelligence report, circulated across the US military this spring in the midst of the war with Iran, immediately set off alarm bells: A Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program.

The US military swung into action with plans to intercept the vessel, according to four sources familiar with the episode. According to two of the sources, armed members of the US military were preparing to board the ship. Military planes were in the air, one of those sources and another source familiar with the incident said.

It was only just before the planned operation that officials dug deeper into the report put together by a special operations command analyst and found it had been generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) — and that a chatbot the analyst had used inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying. CNN was not able to learn what the misidentified cargo was.

The report, according to one of the sources, was “entirely false.” But it also “almost started a war,” the source said. Any US operation against a Chinese vessel could have risked spiraling into an armed conflict between the two nations.

Likely this how they are choosing to kill people on "drug boats." (It would be dumbasses destroying humanity, of course, not the chatbots)

Failure To Catapult The Propaganda

I think it is the first visible "war" that I remember which wasn't accompanied by unified media screeching at anyone who dared to object to it. Ari Fleischer would've made sure all good patriots supported this.

Nearly seven months into the war with Iran, a new Fox News national survey finds views souring as voters feel the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy for ending the war, a growing number think the conflict will make the U.S. less safe and a majority believes the decision to take military action was wrong.

Seven in 10 voters think the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy for ending the conflict, including 95% of Democrats, 83% of independents and 43% of Republicans.

Speaking Of Burning It All Down

Who knows if this is just more bluster, but you know he keeps asking about the big red button.

President Trump told Axios Thursday that he's approaching a critical juncture in the Iran war over whether to restart massive attacks in an effort to bring the conflict to a close.

"I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them [the Iranian regime] or do I not? It's a big decision. Anything could happen with me."

Loopholes For The Lesser People

This is very funny. You can (do not take my legal advice) get around the Medicaid work requirements by gambling. And you just need to show $580 gross (not net!) winnings every 6 months, which you can get by taking both sides of a bet (minus the inevitable house cut).

Republicans, in their infinite wisdom, left a big gambling loophole in the Medicaid work requirements. I'm no fan of the gambling industry, but if you are on Medicaid and struggling to deal with the work requirements, taking a $580 bet on both sides of an outcome is one way of getting around them.

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— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock.bsky.social) September 17, 2026 at 11:52 PM

He'll Burn It All Down

Trump is an ageing malignant narcissist who cannot fathom the world going on without him. His monuments and desire to put his name on everything are the harmless manifestations of that. His desire to knock down the Kennedy Center could extend to everything.

Cheery Friday thoughts!

Morning

Fatal Friday.

Happy Hour

get happy

Bret's Friends In New York

Well ok then.

Bret: Millions of Americans, including me, not only hate the parties but also hate the party for which we typically vote. That means there’s a market of the dissatisfied. I hear this all the time among my friends in New York City: They can’t believe they’re stuck with Zohran Mamdani as mayor, and they felt the same way about Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio before him. But when you ask them if they voted in the primaries, the usual answer is: Uh, no — we were on the Vineyard or in Greece. The point is that it’s on them, or us, and the remedy is some civic entrepreneurship, philanthropically funded, to change this.

Shorter Bret: my friends are unrepresntative and too lazy to be in charge, but nonetheless they of course should in charge.

Shithole State

When I am president, I will also travel the country telling people that they live in disgusting hellholes.

But Trump said North Carolina was one of the worst. “Nobody use to think of North Carolina as a dangerous state,” Trump said. “It was like North Carolina, it was beautiful, it was apple pie. Right? And now it’s the worst in the whole nation, and it all started with Cooper and you have a lousy governor right now too.”

And he contradicted what his attorney general, Todd Blanche, said before he took the stage.

“North Carolina is ground zero for exactly what is working,” Blanche said. “Communities are safer, families are stronger, and side by side with your local county sheriffs, police officers and state partners, people are able to go to bed at night and feel safer than they did just two years ago.”

Good Democrats

Sometimes the centrist-coded ones surprise.

With no news release and little ceremony, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration has killed an anti-transgender regulatory effort launched during the waning months of former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s term.

The proposal would have used the Virginia Board of Health to bar transgender women and girls from women’s-only athletic teams and competitions, bathrooms, locker rooms, and other spaces where people may be undressed. The state’s regulatory docket records the outcome in bureaucratic language: “Withdrawn.” The action was terminated July 30, after its public comment period had ended and 321 comments had been submitted. No preliminary regulation was ever drafted.

 

Innovations In Economics

Forget the Peace Prize, the man deserves the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Trump: "If we lose $50 billion a year with a country, and we say 'we're not going to trade with you anymore,' we don't lose $50 billion a year. It's very simple. Right?"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 17, 2026 at 12:03 AM

I agree with you, Mr. Trump, just stop trade! It's very simple! 

To be fair, this isn't any nuttier than "expansionary austerity" and plenty of other nutty economics ideas which are accepted as unquestionable fact.

Snorts and Giggles Until Real Americans Take It Seriously

Not that long ago, skepticism about AI, opposition to data centers, and concerns about the Flock surveillance system were dismissed as absurd lefty (ONLINE LEFTY, even WORSE) issues, equivalent with being concerned about 5G cell towers.

The people hanging on out Elon's Nazi CSAM site were convinced these were BLUESKY issues, which is their code for "too stupid to even consider."

Now that they are heartland (real American) issues, suddenly they are real, though the centrist discourse factory is so corrupted with tech money that they are slow to catch up.

What do you think Abundance is/was? Just the "left" conduit for tech VC money/influence.

Speaking of 5G cell towers, never forget this Naomi Wolf banger.

Monuments To The Trump Presidency

I'm not going to say it will be good if, as seems likely, Trump turns the Kennedy Center into a giant crater, but it would be a fitting monument to the era.

I'm placing my bets on them trashing the place inside so that it will have to be demolished, leaving that task to someone else.

Future administrations could arrest everyone involved, of course.

Could.

People don't need to fear actual prison. They need to fear a Justice Department dedicated to making them suffer and draining their savings for attorney fees.

I don't think anyone fears that.

They should.

Also, the bulldozers should travel the inauguration parade route to the Supreme Court building in 2029.

Morning

Lower those rates, Mr. Warsh!

Happy Hour

get happy

Oh No Stonks

There is no clever Fed action that can fix inflation caused by rising oil prices.

America's Worst Police Commissioner

Jessica Tisch.

Run Away

I, too, am going to go away for 2 months. Later, suckers.

The House is going home again—this time to avoid a vote on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s impeachment.

House GOP leadership announced Wednesday morning that they will end their current slate of votes early and head home until the midterms, a nearly two-month break.

One for the THERE'S NOTHING THE DEMS CAN DO crowd (Massie did this).

Cost-Push Inflation

I admit it will be funny in that "haha orange man" sense if the Fed raises interest rates, but I'm also pretty sure Trump is right (for the wrong reasons) that raising interest rates is a bad idea.

At least it would not be the ideal policy response if we didn't have stupid psychos running the country.

It will do little to reduce price increases and could cause a recession!

How Much Does Ground Beef Cost, Michael, $2?

I don't buy a lot of ground beef but I suspect this is not true.

Emmer says Republicans need to talk more about grocery prices that aren't expensive: "Eggs are at pre-pandemic prices. Ah, beef is at, ah, less than $2 a pound for ground beef ... I think we have a lot to run on."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 16, 2026 at 12:59 PM

Doesn't seem like you're getting below $6/lb anywhere...