September 1, 2024

The Stuttering Lede, Vol. VIII

“All the months are crude experiments, out of which the perfect September is made.” Virginia Woolf

Today in History

• On this day in 1937, the 172,000 Soviet Koreans were deported from eastern Russia. More than 50,000 of them died.

• On this day twenty years ago the Beslan school massacre took place.

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• On this day in 1939 Nazi Germany attacked Poland launching the official start of the World War III.

Tech

• Dave Troy’s Sunday thoughts on crypto: “This is baked into the design, when you understand that it is the ideological successor to the Confederacy, the Klan, and the John Birch Society. 1.Bitcoin is a weapon…” yup and us being used by the fascists.

• Excellent new essay by Ted Chiang, who gets to the heart of why language and art are inherently about conveying meaning and experience, not just form.

  

• AI is cannibalizing itself. And creating more AI.

• Policy researcher at OpenAI admits they couldn't raise capital as a nonprofit. So now they're for profit, but attempting to still cosplay as a non-profit. Totally above board here, nothing the FTC should look into.

• OpenAI’s mega financing efforts come during a period of rapid growth and lingering questions over its leadership and structure. Plus, more on ton coin’s backers.

• AI was born at a US summer camp 68 years ago.

• Elon Musk's X is a town square where the only people with access to the loudspeaker are hate & disinformation spreaders. They now have a new tool to distort the truth: Grok AI.

2024 Elections

• Donald Trump’s campaign is intentionally visiting “sundown towns” which violated federal law to be “whites only.”

• GOP network props up liberal third-party candidates in key states.

Politics

• How to support unions on Labor Day.

• Charli XCX wanted the Kamala Harris “Brat” meme to happen—she didn’t plan on the politics.

• Haaretz Editorial: “It was Hamas terrorists who pulled the trigger, but it was Netanyahu who sealed their fate. The prime minister likes to think of himself as Mr. Security, but he will go down in history as Mr. Death and Mr. Abandonment, written in the hostages' blood."

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• J.G. Ballard's predictions keep coming true.

• “there is a reasonable fear that it was the IDF's latest operation in Rafah—scanning for hostages—that prompted Hamas to decide to execute the six hostages. One can assume this is already a mode of operation… by Hamas after several successful… rescues.”

• Americans have a very distorted perception of how safe a city is.

• Israel's labor federation announces general strike on Monday to protest against the Netanyahu government and call for a hostage deal. This is an unprecedented step that hasn't happened since October 7. Last time this happened was in March 2023 after Netanyahu tried to fire minister of defense Gallant. The general strike will start 6am local time Monday. Ben Gurion international airport will be shut down 8am local time Monday.

• AfD will likely win regional elections in Thuringia with 33% of votes. It's the first time for a German far-right party to win since 1945. The AfD also in close second in Saxony and likely to win Brandenburg on Sep 22. The mainstream parties are apparently convinced they can fight fascism by offering more racism, austerity and militarism.

• EEOC sues three employers for disability discrimination.

• An American teacher was shot in the West Bank three weeks ago by Israeli forces. He was there to help defend Palestinians and demonstrate against illegal settler activity.

Climate

• The raging wildfires in South America are truly mind-blowing and nary a word in the media as usual.

• Brazilian wildfires worsened by mega drought.

• Climate scientists’ taxpayer-funded plot to create ‘global cooling.

• It's not just the climate.

• Harris and Trump offer starkly different visions on climate change and energy. You don't say!

Russia

• Callback: Russia is buying politicians in Europe. Is it happening here too?

• Crazy story of the “Basque journalist” who turned out to be a Russian spy and all the people in the Russian opposition he informed on. One can never be too careful. I’m sure there are more of these fake journalists and fake opposition people out there.

• Bill O’Brien explains why so many media and doomers are wrong about the actual situation of the war, particularly when comparing Russian operations in Pokrovsk with Ukrainian operations in Kursk.

Misc.

• Zadie Smith has been nominated for the Booker Prize three times, and has appeared on Granta’s list of the Best of Young British Novelists twice, but which of her works of fiction should you read first?

• The epithet ‘quisling’ goes back to Vidkun Quisling, who was the Norwegian PM who collaborated with the Nazi invasion of Norway and presided over German occupation of his country. He was executed for treason in Oct. 1945.

Humor