babysmokesalot

but I connect the dots... What do the movie "There will be blood", AI data centers, Iraq, Kuwait and the imperial boomerang have in common? I think a lot.

Cross posted from https://sh.itjust.works/post/60948229

A bill that would allow cameras inside nursing homes is waiting for Arizona lawmakers in the senate to bring it for a debate and vote.

Cross posted from https://sh.itjust.works/post/60948229

A bill that would allow cameras inside nursing homes is waiting for Arizona lawmakers in the senate to bring it for a debate and vote.

Cross posted from https://sh.itjust.works/post/60948229

A bill that would allow cameras inside nursing homes is waiting for Arizona lawmakers in the senate to bring it for a debate and vote.

Drop Site News: Leaked audios reveal Israeli-backed effort behind President Trump’s pardon of Honduran ex-president Leaked WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram recordings published by Spain’s Canal RED and Hondurasgate indicate that an Israeli-backed lobbying effort—reportedly involving Trump ally Roger Stone and supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—helped secure President Trump’s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced in the U.S. to 45 years for drug trafficking. According to the recordings, the arrangement involved trading the pardon for a package of concessions in Honduras. The audios reference plans for a new military base and expanded access for foreign partners, alongside the expansion of semi-autonomous ZEDE zones and major AI and infrastructure contracts tied to U.S.-linked companies. The recordings do not clearly delineate which concessions are assigned to which actor, but frame them as part of a joint U.S.- and Israel-aligned agenda in the country. In one audio, Hernández says: “The prime minister of Israel…had everything to do with my release and negotiation.” In another, he claims the money tied to his release came from “a group of rabbis and people who supported Israel.” The recordings, dated Jan–Apr 2026, also show Hernández coordinating with newly elected President Nasry Asfura on a plan to remove legal obstacles and clear the way for Hernández’s return to power. Hernández has publicly dismissed the recordings as fabricated, calling them part of a “campaign of disinformation” by “the radical left,” and insisting the voice in the audios is not his. Drop Site News has not independently verified the authenticity of the audio recordings.

Companies told us AI would replace human workers and cut costs. Turns out the math doesn’t work. An Nvidia VP just confirmed that compute costs for his team exceed what they pay their employees. Uber burned through its entire 2026 AI budget in four months. And a startup CEO ran up a $113,000 monthly AI bill, with a four-person team.

This episode breaks down exactly why AI is costing companies more than the humans they laid off, what “tokenmaxxing” is and why engineers are doing it, and whether any of this spending is actually returning anything. Because at some point the ROI question stops being awkward and starts being a board-level emergency.

Open source just scored a massive win against age verification laws, California is following Colorado in carving out Linux and other open source operating systems from its Digital Age Assurance Act. Plus AI cameras on school buses being repurposed for police access, a bipartisan amendment to end nationwide license plate tracking, and the open source supply chain under unprecedented attack.

https://nitter.tiekoetter.com/HalaJaber/status/2056138392543396144#m

Pulled alive from beneath the rubble in Teirfalsiyeh, South Lebanon. Dust in his eyes, blood on his face, terror far too big for a child that small.

This is what Israel’s “ceasefire” looks like in south Lebanon!

altr

The economy isn't splitting because of AI. It's been splitting since 1973 — two years after Nixon took America off the gold standard, a full decade before the personal computer arrived. Every technology wave since has followed the same pattern. Productivity goes up. Workers get more efficient. And a larger share of that productivity goes to whoever owns the technology rather than whoever operates it.AI didn't create this. It's accelerating it.The labor share of American income has fallen from 70 cents of every dollar produced in 1947 to 53.8 cents today — the lowest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started measuring it. The top 10% now drive nearly half of all consumer spending. Goldman Sachs individual-level data shows displaced workers suffer earnings losses that compound over a decade — delayed home purchases, lower marriage rates, real earnings growing nearly 10 percentage points less than workers who were never displaced.The aggregate story looks fine. The transition story isn't. And you are living in the transition.Every AI displacement report you've read is measuring the wrong thing. Exposure scores cannot tell you what actually happens to employment without price elasticity data we don't yet have. The spread between Goldman's 7% GDP boost projection and Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu's sub-1% estimate is the difference between a productivity revolution and a historical footnote — and nobody, including the people building the technology, can tell you which one you're living through.What history does tell us is this: technology has never produced permanent mass unemployment. But the gains go to the aggregate and the costs land on specific people. The workers who adapted in every previous transition captured most of the value. The ones who didn't saw their earnings compress permanently.So the question isn't whether AI is taking jobs. The question is the same one that has determined outcomes through every technology wave for the last 50 years: do you have leverage, or are you the leverage?