Happy Hour

 Get happy

Kill'Em All

Pete's a real man, unlike you.  He's willing to push the big red "kill innocent people" button.  Everybody respects Pete now, and that empty hole inside of him is filling up with warmth.

The longer the U.S. surveillance aircraft followed the boat, the more confident intelligence analysts watching from command centers became that the 11 people on board were ferrying drugs.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. “The order was to kill everybody,” one of them said.

A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

But spicy chatbot is so useful.

On November 20th American statisticians released the results of a survey. Buried in the data is a trend with implications for trillions of dollars of spending. Researchers at the Census Bureau ask firms if they have used artificial intelligence “in producing goods and services” in the past two weeks. Recently, we estimate, the employment-weighted share of Americans using AI at work has fallen by a percentage point, and now sits at 11% (see chart 1). Adoption has fallen sharply at the largest businesses, those employing over 250 people. Three years into the generative-AI wave, demand for the technology looks surprisingly flimsy.

Whether AI adoption is fast or slow has profound consequences. For the world to reap productivity gains from AI, normal businesses must incorporate the tech into their day-to-day operations. It is also the most important question in determining whether or not the world is in an AI bubble. From today until 2030 big tech firms will spend $5trn on infrastructure to supply AI services. To make those investments worthwhile, they will need on the order of $650bn a year in AI revenues, according to JPMorgan Chase, a bank, up from about $50bn a year today. People paying for AI in their personal lives will probably buy only a fraction of what is ultimately required. Businesses must do the rest.

They are not designed to do the things their boosters have pretended they are good for.  We went from curing cancer to handling scheduling to 'horny computer friend.'

(yes I know the Shakespeare is 'double' not 'bubble')

Lunch

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I am sure there are many fine Black Friday deals.

If The President Says It, Then It Is News

I would accept that more if news outlets published his more obviously batshit stuff without qualification or attempt to explain, along with the more plausible-sounding stuff.

PALM BEACH, Florida, Nov 27 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday his administration may slash income tax completely over the next couple of years because of government revenue generated from tariffs.

"Over the next couple of years, I think we'll substantially be cutting and maybe cutting out completely, but we'll be cutting income tax. Could be almost completely cutting it because the money we're taking in is going to be so large," Trump told U.S. military service members on a video call.

This is batshit too, of course, but it's the kind of thing that sounds plausible if Reuters and others news outlets bless it.

Fundamentals

Denaturalization is something Dems have to come out against. They'll start with someone unsympathetic, someone with a murder conviction, and they'll keep going. A poll will come out with a majority supporting "removing citizenship from people guilty of the worst crimes." Dems will cower. David Shor will tell them it is a winning issue (for Trump).

The line needs to be drawn before that.

Yes there are Dems speaking out on these issues generally, but leadership is wedded to the "talk about health care and affordability and nothing else" strategy.

Denaturalization

I won't post the latest rant from gramps, but the desire by Miller (and him) to engage in mass-denaturalization is, actually, Nazi shit.   

Morning

Smell the Glove Friday!

Holiday weekend posting might be less than normal, or not! We will see!

Dinner

eat

If You're A Star They Let You Do It

It is hardly hidden that certain "journalists" have a bit more license to get away with certain things, but it isn't aways clear just why some are treated like "stars" and some aren't. Sure the person getting paid millions to sit behind the anchor desk is a "star" whether or not they deserve to be there, but there are some people who aren't really "stars" - like Lizza, like Nuzzi - who keep bouncing back from scandals. Neither is a household name. No one is clamoring for them. And yet...

Oh Dear

Time for another blogger ethics panel.

We Are Aware Of All Internet Traditions

 Happy Turkee Day!

Nothing like an impossible-to-explain-you-had-to-be-there joke being your major life's legacy.

Morning

Don't forget to take the turkey out of the freezer.

Happy Hour

Holiday weekend begins.

Sleepy Donald

Not bringing his best, anymore.

The Great Noticing

The elite press chooses to notice things when the time is right (according to them).

And when he is in public, occasionally, his battery shows signs of wear. During an Oval Office event that began around noon on Nov. 6, Mr. Trump sat behind his desk for about 20 minutes as executives standing around him talked about weight-loss drugs.

At one point, Mr. Trump’s eyelids drooped until his eyes were almost closed, and he appeared to doze on and off for several seconds. At another point, he opened his eyes and looked toward a line of journalists watching him. He stood up only after a guest who was standing near him fainted and collapsed.

Though even in this piece, it takes them awhile to get there, perhaps realizing he reads 3 paragraphs at most.

With headline-grabbing posts on social media, combative interactions with reporters and speeches full of partisan red meat, Mr. Trump can project round-the-clock energy, virility and physical stamina. Now at the end of his eighth decade, Mr. Trump and the people around him still talk about him as if he is the Energizer Bunny of presidential politics.

Sure.

Lunch

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Sounds Deliberate

Nasty people.

Earlier this month, Bruna Ferreira was leaving her home in Revere to pick up her 11-year-old son, Michael Leavitt Jr., from school in New Hampshire when her car was suddenly swarmed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. They demanded her name and driver’s license, but Ferreira did not have the document on hand, her sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, recounted.

The father is the press secretary's brother.

After Ferreira was detained, Dos Santos Rodrigues said Michael Leavitt Sr. and his father, Bob Leavitt, reached out to her.

“They just kept saying, ‘Tell her to self-deport,’” she recalled. “Self-deport to where? Brazil is not her home. They’re trying to push it off as a vacation. That’s not a vacation. Bruna barely speaks the language.”

Despite their protestations otherwise, the collective press corps (and I don't just mean opinion pundits) are capable of getting mad about something and expressing it. That these are hideous, nasty people reveling in their power to ruin lives doesn't seem to bother most of them!

Rolling Back

If our long national nightmare ever ends, and Dems take control of everything, there will be tremendous resistance within Dem power circles on rolling back literally everything that Trump has done. Oh no Fox News might yell at us if we let foreigners into our parks again!

Status quo bias is is extremely strong and it cannot be acceptable to maintain this status quo

Papers, Please

Having special deals for residents/citizens and soaking international tourists is a common practice, but most places have easy definitive ways to prove you are, in fact, a resident/citizen and the US has no such method that people are used to.

WASHINGTON — The National Park Service said Tuesday it is going to start charging the millions of international tourists who visit U.S. parks each year an extra $100 to enter some of the most popular sites, while leaving them out of fee-free days that will be reserved for American residents.

Also that's a not a minor fee increase.

About half of Americans have valid passports, according to the internet.