Similar to the compensation allotted to sports stars. NAV for top-of-the-line engineer catching up is a move in the right direction.
jimg
July 9, 2025 8:37 am
#47538
Originally a web design and marketing company, Smarter Web began accepting Bitcoin payments in 2023 and adopted a Bitcoin treasury strategy as part of a 10-year corporate roadmap.
“In this piece, Gioia explores the collapse of traditional systems of knowledge and authority, arguing that society is undergoing a cultural transformation on par with the Renaissance or Enlightenment”
I wonder who Trump is trying to scare with his 50% tariff on copper decree? Can’t be Chile since the trade balance is net positive for US. Canada? Japan? Would Trump really risk inflation in housing, autos, EV, Solar and Semis? TACO is wearing thin already. Too bad the lazy media doesn’t call him out on it.
jimg
July 8, 2025 11:11 am
#47519
Planeloads of Russians’ Touch Down in Iraq as Moscow Eyes Oil, Nuclear Deals
Russia eyes new oil deals in southern Iraq to expand its influence beyond Kurdistan and replicate Iran-style long-term energy pacts.
Iraq helps disguise Iranian oil as its own, aiding sanctions evasion via shared reservoirs and covert cross-border drilling.
Talks on nuclear cooperation with Russia and China raise Western concerns about dual-use tech and regional power shifts.
EU weighs skeleton US trade deal with 10 percent tariffBrussels seeks backing from member countries, with days to go before Donald Trump’s deadline to do a deal or face 50 percent tariffs.
There is certainly no truth in Truth Social or out of the mouth of Donald Trump.
There were no 90 trade deals in 90 days, and this so-called beauty of a trade deal with Vietnam is one more lie in the tens of thousands coming from the delusional President.
Like the majority of developing countries worldwide, Vietnam cannot afford retail and wholesale US products. Their 2024 trade with the US was $136.6 billion to the US and just $13.1 billion in return. In relative terms, the Vietnamese are considered poor. Their month cell phone bill is $6. So when Trump boasts of a great trade deal, we know he’s lying. Vietnam has no tariffs on US products, and the US consumer now pays 20% to 40% on all products imported from the US, mostly cheap clothing. The American consumer was just ripped off for another $27-$42 billion in taxes.
There is no way that factories in Vietnam, which pay their workers US$0.88/hour, will move to the US, and there is no way America will ever regain its greatness by making cheap goods to compete with the developing economies of the world.
On another matter, I read the US Jobs Report this morning and knew it’s just one more lie being fed to the world today.
Trump has ended trade talks with Canada this hour. Says new tariffs are coming.
Trump has no clue. Of the 41.6 million Canadians, almost 90% or approximately 36 million reside within 100 miles of the US-Canada border. On the US side, there are roughly 12 to 15 million Americans, which is between 4 and 5%. So, who gets the worst hit by tariffs? All the resorts, hotels, motels, Airbnb listings, and ski hills in Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, upper New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Alaska are currently suffering and facing worsening conditions. Moreover, Canadians are already selling their US real estate, which is pushing prices lower in Florida and elsewhere. US farm and manufactured products are being refused throughout Canada. US liquor has been removed from the shelves. As a result. American families are losing jobs, and small companies are going bankrupt. The US dollar is in rapid decline.
Meanwhile, Canada has signed multiple trade and security agreements with the EU, the UK, Australia, South Korea, and other countries. Regardless of what I think of his social views, the Prime Minister has shown he is uber competent. I will say now that he is soon to be the most successful Prime Minister in Canada’s history.
USD to Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate Since Trump’s Inauguration.
I put this blog in ‘Life & Politics’ because this isn’t about investing or trading. It makes me sad what Trump is doing to America. Trump has filed for business bankruptcy in every major business he operated: the Trump Taj Mahal in 1991, Trump Plaza Hotel in 1992, Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts in 2004, and Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009. The United States of Trump is next.
From the New Yorker: “Based on Internal Revenue Service transcripts of Trump’s tax returns from 1985 to 1994, the Timesreport said that Trump’s core businesses racked up losses of more than a billion dollars in a ten-year period. During 1990 and 1991, the story said, Trump’s losses were so large that they “were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.” Moreover, the records “show that, between 1985 and 1989, a period when the economy was forging ahead and Trump was busy portraying himself as a billionaire with the Midas touch, his core businesses—apartment buildings, hotels, and casinos—somehow managed to lose $359.1 million. That was only the beginning. As the economy weakened in 1990 and 1991, Trump’s core businesses racked up losses of $517.5 million. And, between 1992 and 1994, as the economy recovered, they lost another $286.9 million.”
Trump bankrupted so many companies while telling people he is a financial genius. Now he’s stripping the US treasury and telling people to trust him. Well, Canadians, for one, don’t trust him. They already quit the relationship and, for reliable partners, have turned to the world.
This is victory for Trump. As long as the check to himself clears, His business model has always been to borrow, borrow, borrow, pillage and onto the next thing, i.e. Real Estate, Hotels, Golf Courses, Steaks, Trump University, TV, President, Trump Media, Crypto and back to President. He is a champion at the Art or not Giving a F*ck. He just keeps moving and grifting.
I must be in a good place, as my dreams have been amusing.
Power naps during the day have enabled me to work until 2 am most nights lately. Today, I awoke after I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was a police officer who asked me where I was going. I replied that I was looking for a toilet. He replied, “Here in Dordogne?” “Oh,” I asked, “Am I in France?” Then my eyes opened.
Trying to survive this God-blamed heat wave; hit 102 yesterday they said it feels like 110 and I believe it
Bill Cara
June 25, 2025 9:24 am
#47313
Shooting the messenger does not allow one to escape accountability.
When the President of the United States explodes in an “F* Bomb” tirade, literally screaming into the cameras, calling the US media “scum” and “fake news,” enough is enough. Opinion pieces as follows will now haunt the man until there are worldwide demands for a US regime change.
Voices: Trump’s refusal to accept unwelcome reality is his greatest weakness of all
Opinion by Sean O’Grady
“Fake news!” It’s been a while since we last heard that phrase from Donald Trump – this time, in response to a leak from the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that Operation Midnight Hammer had not, after all, “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear drive.
Trump is not happy and has said as much. On the White House lawn he told reporters that: “CNN is scum and so is MSDNC [his favorite insult for MSNBC, referencing the Democrat National Committee]. And frankly, the networks aren’t much better. It’s all fake news!”
Even more touchy than usual, he also threw in an F-bomb, a little bunker buster of his own about the Iranians and the Israelis. On social media, he went full caps lock: “FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY. THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!”
All very shouty, all very Trumpian, as if he were back on the campaign trail. He’s always been like that, like Humpty-Dumpty up on his wall, claiming that the truth is whatever he wants it to be, and that also happens to be what the public wants it to be – except here, of course, some 56 per cent of Americans disagreed with the bombing raids. It ain’t enough for him to just claim the obvious success of the raids, which did damage the Iranian facilities, even if they haven’t been “completely destroyed”, or just to refuse to comment on leaks. The White House released a tetchy statement that the DIA’s assessment was “flat-out wrong” and had been leaked by “a low-level loser in the intelligence community”.
For Trump, everything is personal, and nothing is ever dignified. The anger is palpable, the tantrum real, and yet another sign that this personality isn’t able to cope with alleged facts. He is one of those strange people who tries to make the world as he would wish it to be rather than accept it for what it is. Not unlike the now resurgent false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election, or that foreign countries pay tariffs, his seeming refusal to accommodate reality is doing vast damage to the fabric of American life, not least because he’s created a cult following who are prepared to take his every word as gospel. For them, the world is whatever Trump would like it to be.
Common sense dares not intrude in such circumstances, and certainly not in this administration. Question Trump, as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard inadvertently did the other day, and you’re bawled out or fired. Gabbard stated to Congress that Iran wasn’t that near to making a nuclear bomb, and found herself publicly upbraided by the president. It would not be surprising that some public-spirited DIA official knew how Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would react to the news about the alleged partial success of the mission, and suppress and deny it. The American public needs to know, and the president needs to be confronted with it, even when his first reaction is to shoot the messenger.
But common sense does tell us Operation Midnight Hammer wasn’t a complete success, nor could it ever be. The Iranians knew it was coming, or might be, and the known nuclear sites had already been bombarded by the Israelis. The prudent thing in such circumstances would be to move whatever can be moved to safer and more secret places.
There were satellite images of long queues of lorries at the mountain site of Fordo, maybe waiting to extract those 400 kilograms of precious enhanced uranium. That material may well have escaped total destruction. And the know-how and expertise embedded in the brains of the Iranian scientists and technicians have also mostly escaped the American and Israeli attacks.
There is no complete military solution to the Iranian nuclear threat that could ever be achieved militarily. It could be done by encouraging a counter-revolution in Tehran and installing a more friendly government, as the Israelis wish, but regime change doesn’t seem that inevitable, at least not imminently, and it would require further US intervention, which Trump has widely ruled out.
Operation Midnight Hammer was a success, but not the solution to the problem, as it could never be. Trump knows this, which is why he initiated the negotiations with the Iranians a few months ago. His instinct for a new deal was correct, even if things stalled and were then wrecked by the Israeli bombing attacks. Trump is so cantankerous and so vain that he seems unable to enjoy his victories for what they are and constantly has to exaggerate them, gold plate them – quite literally, in the case of the Oval Office – and make claims for them that are so extreme they can never be true in the real world. Everything has to be complete, total, 100 per cent, utter, and anyone who contests that is a liar and a traitor.
He is ridiculously insecure and disconcertingly haunted by his rivals, the Clintons, Barack
Obama, who has won the Nobel Peace Prize that Trump so longs for, and Joe Biden, who did beat him in 2020. He prefers to live in a fantasy world and parades the cynical royal fawning he gets from Sir Keir Starmer and NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, as genuine love and respect. He’s a man-child, and a dangerous one. We knew all that, of course, but he’s just reminded us about it yet again. We’ve got the best part of four years of this, you know.
Sort of reminiscent of George Bushs “mission accomplished” speech. I think Trumps action were largely supported, but he should have just come out and said “we gave it our best shot and are waiting on military assessment”.. It is just not possible for him to be “normal”. I wouldn’t pass blame on not being able to blow up a mountain. It’s the lies that I have a problem with.
After 5 grinding, frustrating days with ChatGPT, I finally gave up. I submitted the issue to their help desk. The answer I received explains why I have totally wasted five days of my life:
Here’s what I can clarify about how ChatGPT works and why you might be running into these inconsistencies:
1. Output Variability is a Known Limitation
ChatGPT (including GPT-4o) does not always generate exactly the same output—even if you use the same prompt. The underlying AI model is designed to be creative and flexible, which can be an advantage, but it does mean that formatting, wording, or even table structures may change from run to run. This “randomness” is a standard feature of how the AI generates responses.
2. Prompts Don’t “Lock In” Formatting
Unlike a spreadsheet or a programmatic script, ChatGPT does not “remember” how you want a table to look from previous prompts or sessions. Each new prompt is treated like a blank slate, and even within the same conversation, the AI can shift formatting decisions.
Formatting a table using a reusable perfect prompt is impossible. ChatGPT will format every table randomly, regardless of how many times the system assures you that your prompt is precise.
If anybody is looking for a nervous breakdown, try ChatGPT to do anything more than to produce random, and often meaningless, output. In the end, the user becomes the computer, and ChatGPT enjoys breaking it. Keep trying for a different (correct) result is the definition of insanity. You will always receive whatever ChatGPT decides it’s going to give you.
This is why a lean model like Deepseek provides will win in the end. If a LLM doesn’t fune tune its experience to the user, then you are essentially the “product” being harvested to further train the algorithm.
I predict a future where corporations will have their own, finely-tuned LLMs and we will start to see Balkanization and paywalls erected in the future.
Right now, we are in the wild west. With I’d say 95% of the population blissfully unaware of productivity and knowledge management features at their disposal.
As I noted earlier today, the majority of my time now is creating my own LLM.
jimg
June 20, 2025 9:49 am
#47263
Oil is holding above $73/barrel, but there haven’t been any implications for supplies of oil related to this slugfest between Israel and Iran. Trump’s strategy for global peace seems to be taken from the pages of a boarding school headmaster: letting them fight it out. When they finally get sick of it, they’ll stop.
Oil prices were predictably responsive to Trump’s decision to wait for two weeks. In Bloomberg’s “Most Read” news feed, there is only one item on Iran and the war, which is #11 of 40:“[Iran] is rapidly exporting oil, filling storage tanks at Kharg Island, and sending as much crude as possible to the global market.” What the article does not say is, the world is giving them a golf clap for doing it. OPEC and Russian ships are loading and exporting as usual.
Calculator exercise! US debt 37 Trillion; gold allegedly held by the US Treasury stated at 8000 tons; that’s roughly 247,210,000 troy oz; multiply by 3400 = 840 Billion. Approximately 2.2% of total debt held in gold.
Using money supply M2 = 21.5 Trillion (Mar 2025) yields a 3.9% coverage. Total bank reserves of 3.35 Trillion added in lowers it to 3.4%.
Gold price needs to be about 3x higher than where it is now, call it 9500 USD, to provide a “standard” 10% reserve in gold to back the US money supply.
Fed speak today and Trump couldn’t resist another attack on Jay Powell. He actually called the man “a stupid person”. And is asking for a 250 basis point cut! It would be comical if it wasn’t so ridiculous. The man understands nothing of economics.
In other news, his BBB is now estimated to add additional Trillions to the debt.
A NYC comptroller and mayoral candidate was kind of brutally manhandled and cuffed at a Manhattan court. He said “I just want to see the judicial warrant”, and as they cuffed him “You can’t arrest a US citizen just for standing here”. Charges later dropped.
Thanks to all of you for keeping the discussions going. I have run out of bandwidth to accomplish all the tasks on my plate as the techies and I try to meet a deadline, which is now the end of June.
When I took my car in for servicing, the mechanic, whom I know, shouted out when I entered the busy garage, “Hey Bill, how’s your friend Trump!” That got a few people laughing. But why me, I’m not a Trumper, and why is he joking; he’s Iranian.
It’s a crazy world.
The truth is that any words I express here that upset Trumpers are almost nothing compared to what I hear and read in correspondence from my associates in Canada and Europe. The anti-Trump negativism has now reached the point, I tune out. Whenever I say anything to anybody that I agree with some of Trump’s policies, I’m immediately branded MAGA — not as somebody interested in finding middle ground.
I used to think the ideological margins were like 10%, with 80% the silent majority. No longer. It’s hard to find anybody who is silent these days.
jimg
June 18, 2025 9:25 am
#47234
Victor Davis Hanson Interviews David Mamet
“The Disenlightenment Politics, Horror, and Entertainment”
Mamet’s concept of the Open City and Hansen’s perspective on Trump vs. Iran
Trump via Truth Social: “We now have complete control of the skies over Iran. Iran has good sky trackers (in other words, radar systems), but it doesn’t compare to American made and manufactured “stuff”. Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA”.
So he’s basically admitting they we participated in this attack, however indirectly. ‘We’ now have control of the skies…’ uh that’s an admission of a US-Israeli war coalition.
Well that is obvious, I mean we have been Israel’s arms dealer and greatest supporter from day one. I don’t actually have an issue with that. I don’t think we can plausibly deny it. The real issue comes when our friend and customer starts doing some unhinged and down right bad stuff. I wish it wasn’t so, I think Netanyahu has probably done more to generate anti-Israel and anti-Semitic feelings than just about anyone else in history, aside from Hitler. I just wish we had put more pressure on them to stop all the needless killing. Not sure it would have worked but perhaps we could have at least loudly condemned these actions.
jimg
June 17, 2025 7:15 am
#47198
Doomberg: Latest commentary on Israel/Iran war: A Catastrophic Miscalculation
China will not allow Iran to be defeated Iran’s Hypersonic Missiles & Israel’s Weak Spots
I don’t have time at the moment to listen to this but will try to at some point. Personally I can’t see an outcome favoring Iran. I think this is going to go pretty quickly. Just think what happens when you lose control of the air space over your country to an enemy. Your basically done. Israel is going to just continue to destroy all relevant military targets. I think the Iranian white flag will be raised before China would even have the chance to assist.
My gut feel is a China/Russia coalition eventually goes to war with America.
What did I read yesterday. Something about an Israeli operation “Samson” and a plan to nuke EU capitals if the EU agrees to the two-state solution Israel + Palestine.
Pakistan later came out with a statement that they would nuke Israel if Israel first nuked Iran.
Sabre-rattling maybe, but when a sovereign nation starts bandying the nuke word around, it’s concerning.
Forgetting for a moment Russia, which appears completely impotent. Based on their performance over the last few years and their depleted military. However, I do believe we would lose to China in a war. Certainly without assistance from many others. Which is why I am deeply concerned about this current administration and how they seem set on flushing our alliances down the toilet. We need every friend we can get. The statement that Israel would nuke EU capitals is so ridiculous it doesn’t warrant trying to rebuff the comment. Talk of a country Nuking others is really off the chart. The consequences of such an action can not even be calculated. I think Russia understands that, as does North Korea and Israel. It would be the end of their administration and society as they know it.
200 million for one engineer
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/telcos-media-tech/meta-poached-apples-ai-engineer-pang-pay-package-over-us200-million-sources
Similar to the compensation allotted to sports stars. NAV for top-of-the-line engineer catching up is a move in the right direction.
Originally a web design and marketing company, Smarter Web began accepting Bitcoin payments in 2023 and adopted a Bitcoin treasury strategy as part of a 10-year corporate roadmap.
The company’s stock price experienced extreme volatility, surging nearly 20,000% before correcting.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/crypto/article-14832533/British-bitcoin-company-goes-4M-1BILLION-just-two-months-stock-market.html
Our Knowledge System Has Collapsed. Can We Survive Without It?
https://www.thefp.com/p/the-knowledge-system-collapse
“In this piece, Gioia explores the collapse of traditional systems of knowledge and authority, arguing that society is undergoing a cultural transformation on par with the Renaissance or Enlightenment”
Goia is a polymath and writes on The Honest Broker: https://www.honest-broker.com/
Scary and terrifying…from the developers of AI
The AI 2027 scenario is the first major release from the AI Futures Project.
AI-2027.com
About the authors:
https://ai-2027.com/about
Summary:
https://ai-2027.com/summary
Research:
https://ai-2027.com/research
I wonder who Trump is trying to scare with his 50% tariff on copper decree? Can’t be Chile since the trade balance is net positive for US. Canada? Japan? Would Trump really risk inflation in housing, autos, EV, Solar and Semis? TACO is wearing thin already. Too bad the lazy media doesn’t call him out on it.
Planeloads of Russians’ Touch Down in Iraq as Moscow Eyes Oil, Nuclear Deals
https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Middle-East/Planeloads-of-Russians-Touch-Down-in-Iraq-as-Moscow-Eyes-Oil-Nuclear-Deals.html
EU weighs skeleton US trade deal with 10 percent tariffBrussels seeks backing from member countries, with days to go before Donald Trump’s deadline to do a deal or face 50 percent tariffs.
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-us-skeleton-trade-deal-10-percent-tariff/
The Agenda: Their Vision – Your Future (2025) | Full Documentary
“The Agenda is a feature-length independent documentary produced by Mark Sharman; former UK broadcasting executive at ITV and Sky (formerly BSkyB)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFHHOBiUrkg
Medicaid-Related Provisions in the Congressionally Approved Budget Reconciliation Bill Updated: July 3, 2025
https://www.sellersdorsey.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Congressional-Approved-Reconciliation-Bill_070325_FINAL.pdf
Happy 4th of July! We Love You, America, Get Well Soon!
The headline in a Honolulu Tourism Magazine caught my attention.
Where is the truth in the world today?
There is certainly no truth in Truth Social or out of the mouth of Donald Trump.
There were no 90 trade deals in 90 days, and this so-called beauty of a trade deal with Vietnam is one more lie in the tens of thousands coming from the delusional President.
Like the majority of developing countries worldwide, Vietnam cannot afford retail and wholesale US products. Their 2024 trade with the US was $136.6 billion to the US and just $13.1 billion in return. In relative terms, the Vietnamese are considered poor. Their month cell phone bill is $6. So when Trump boasts of a great trade deal, we know he’s lying. Vietnam has no tariffs on US products, and the US consumer now pays 20% to 40% on all products imported from the US, mostly cheap clothing. The American consumer was just ripped off for another $27-$42 billion in taxes.
There is no way that factories in Vietnam, which pay their workers US$0.88/hour, will move to the US, and there is no way America will ever regain its greatness by making cheap goods to compete with the developing economies of the world.
On another matter, I read the US Jobs Report this morning and knew it’s just one more lie being fed to the world today.
Trump has ended trade talks with Canada this hour. Says new tariffs are coming.
Trump has no clue. Of the 41.6 million Canadians, almost 90% or approximately 36 million reside within 100 miles of the US-Canada border. On the US side, there are roughly 12 to 15 million Americans, which is between 4 and 5%. So, who gets the worst hit by tariffs? All the resorts, hotels, motels, Airbnb listings, and ski hills in Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, upper New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Alaska are currently suffering and facing worsening conditions. Moreover, Canadians are already selling their US real estate, which is pushing prices lower in Florida and elsewhere. US farm and manufactured products are being refused throughout Canada. US liquor has been removed from the shelves. As a result. American families are losing jobs, and small companies are going bankrupt. The US dollar is in rapid decline.
Meanwhile, Canada has signed multiple trade and security agreements with the EU, the UK, Australia, South Korea, and other countries. Regardless of what I think of his social views, the Prime Minister has shown he is uber competent. I will say now that he is soon to be the most successful Prime Minister in Canada’s history.
USD to Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate Since Trump’s Inauguration.
Looks like Trump gave Iran “the business” last weekend and now it’s on to Canada.
Hope we don’t run out of popcorn before Monday morning …
I put this blog in ‘Life & Politics’ because this isn’t about investing or trading. It makes me sad what Trump is doing to America. Trump has filed for business bankruptcy in every major business he operated: the Trump Taj Mahal in 1991, Trump Plaza Hotel in 1992, Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts in 2004, and Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009. The United States of Trump is next.
From the New Yorker: “Based on Internal Revenue Service transcripts of Trump’s tax returns from 1985 to 1994, the Times report said that Trump’s core businesses racked up losses of more than a billion dollars in a ten-year period. During 1990 and 1991, the story said, Trump’s losses were so large that they “were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.” Moreover, the records “show that, between 1985 and 1989, a period when the economy was forging ahead and Trump was busy portraying himself as a billionaire with the Midas touch, his core businesses—apartment buildings, hotels, and casinos—somehow managed to lose $359.1 million. That was only the beginning. As the economy weakened in 1990 and 1991, Trump’s core businesses racked up losses of $517.5 million. And, between 1992 and 1994, as the economy recovered, they lost another $286.9 million.”
Trump bankrupted so many companies while telling people he is a financial genius. Now he’s stripping the US treasury and telling people to trust him. Well, Canadians, for one, don’t trust him. They already quit the relationship and, for reliable partners, have turned to the world.
Trump: “We will let Canada know the tariff they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period.”
The man is delusional. American individuals and companies pay one hundred percent of the tariffs.
Sounds like Carney got a ‘Big Head’ while drinking with his WEF buddies and Trump is moving to ‘Reset the battlefield’
This is victory for Trump. As long as the check to himself clears, His business model has always been to borrow, borrow, borrow, pillage and onto the next thing, i.e. Real Estate, Hotels, Golf Courses, Steaks, Trump University, TV, President, Trump Media, Crypto and back to President. He is a champion at the Art or not Giving a F*ck. He just keeps moving and grifting.
I must be in a good place, as my dreams have been amusing.
Power naps during the day have enabled me to work until 2 am most nights lately. Today, I awoke after I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was a police officer who asked me where I was going. I replied that I was looking for a toilet. He replied, “Here in Dordogne?” “Oh,” I asked, “Am I in France?” Then my eyes opened.
Maybe I’ve been drinking too much Cab Sauvignon.”
You can never drink too much Cabernet as long as you are walking 5000+ steps per day.
Trying to survive this God-blamed heat wave; hit 102 yesterday they said it feels like 110 and I believe it
Shooting the messenger does not allow one to escape accountability.
When the President of the United States explodes in an “F* Bomb” tirade, literally screaming into the cameras, calling the US media “scum” and “fake news,” enough is enough. Opinion pieces as follows will now haunt the man until there are worldwide demands for a US regime change.
Sort of reminiscent of George Bushs “mission accomplished” speech. I think Trumps action were largely supported, but he should have just come out and said “we gave it our best shot and are waiting on military assessment”.. It is just not possible for him to be “normal”. I wouldn’t pass blame on not being able to blow up a mountain. It’s the lies that I have a problem with.
Cheers!!!! Good to see that you’re not too busy to Piss-on-Trump.
His comments were Funny-as-Hell AND there’s even a MEME … Enjoy!!! …
Trump’s rant has become a meme on social media.
https://x.com/nexta_tv/status/1937870897660019033
A ChatGPT 4o disgusting discovery.
After 5 grinding, frustrating days with ChatGPT, I finally gave up. I submitted the issue to their help desk. The answer I received explains why I have totally wasted five days of my life:
Here’s what I can clarify about how ChatGPT works and why you might be running into these inconsistencies:
Formatting a table using a reusable perfect prompt is impossible. ChatGPT will format every table randomly, regardless of how many times the system assures you that your prompt is precise.
If anybody is looking for a nervous breakdown, try ChatGPT to do anything more than to produce random, and often meaningless, output. In the end, the user becomes the computer, and ChatGPT enjoys breaking it. Keep trying for a different (correct) result is the definition of insanity. You will always receive whatever ChatGPT decides it’s going to give you.
This is why a lean model like Deepseek provides will win in the end. If a LLM doesn’t fune tune its experience to the user, then you are essentially the “product” being harvested to further train the algorithm.
I predict a future where corporations will have their own, finely-tuned LLMs and we will start to see Balkanization and paywalls erected in the future.
Right now, we are in the wild west. With I’d say 95% of the population blissfully unaware of productivity and knowledge management features at their disposal.
I do think DeepSeek is a superior service.
As I noted earlier today, the majority of my time now is creating my own LLM.
Oil is holding above $73/barrel, but there haven’t been any implications for supplies of oil related to this slugfest between Israel and Iran. Trump’s strategy for global peace seems to be taken from the pages of a boarding school headmaster: letting them fight it out. When they finally get sick of it, they’ll stop.
Oil prices were predictably responsive to Trump’s decision to wait for two weeks. In Bloomberg’s “Most Read” news feed, there is only one item on Iran and the war, which is #11 of 40: “[Iran] is rapidly exporting oil, filling storage tanks at Kharg Island, and sending as much crude as possible to the global market.” What the article does not say is, the world is giving them a golf clap for doing it. OPEC and Russian ships are loading and exporting as usual.
https://x.com/CraigTaylorViz/status/1935683595278127322
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/robinhood-founder-might-just-revolutionize-231928770.html
Calculator exercise! US debt 37 Trillion; gold allegedly held by the US Treasury stated at 8000 tons; that’s roughly 247,210,000 troy oz; multiply by 3400 = 840 Billion. Approximately 2.2% of total debt held in gold.
Using money supply M2 = 21.5 Trillion (Mar 2025) yields a 3.9% coverage. Total bank reserves of 3.35 Trillion added in lowers it to 3.4%.
Gold price needs to be about 3x higher than where it is now, call it 9500 USD, to provide a “standard” 10% reserve in gold to back the US money supply.
Fed speak today and Trump couldn’t resist another attack on Jay Powell. He actually called the man “a stupid person”. And is asking for a 250 basis point cut! It would be comical if it wasn’t so ridiculous. The man understands nothing of economics.
In other news, his BBB is now estimated to add additional Trillions to the debt.
A NYC comptroller and mayoral candidate was kind of brutally manhandled and cuffed at a Manhattan court. He said “I just want to see the judicial warrant”, and as they cuffed him “You can’t arrest a US citizen just for standing here”. Charges later dropped.
Thanks to all of you for keeping the discussions going. I have run out of bandwidth to accomplish all the tasks on my plate as the techies and I try to meet a deadline, which is now the end of June.
When I took my car in for servicing, the mechanic, whom I know, shouted out when I entered the busy garage, “Hey Bill, how’s your friend Trump!” That got a few people laughing. But why me, I’m not a Trumper, and why is he joking; he’s Iranian.
It’s a crazy world.
The truth is that any words I express here that upset Trumpers are almost nothing compared to what I hear and read in correspondence from my associates in Canada and Europe. The anti-Trump negativism has now reached the point, I tune out. Whenever I say anything to anybody that I agree with some of Trump’s policies, I’m immediately branded MAGA — not as somebody interested in finding middle ground.
I used to think the ideological margins were like 10%, with 80% the silent majority. No longer. It’s hard to find anybody who is silent these days.
Victor Davis Hanson Interviews David Mamet
“The Disenlightenment
Politics, Horror, and Entertainment”
Mamet’s concept of the Open City and Hansen’s perspective on Trump vs. Iran
First 5 min is commercials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg2oEuBHcK4
Trump calls for Iran’s unconditional surrender.
Trump via Truth Social: “We now have complete control of the skies over Iran. Iran has good sky trackers (in other words, radar systems), but it doesn’t compare to American made and manufactured “stuff”. Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA”.
So he’s basically admitting they we participated in this attack, however indirectly. ‘We’ now have control of the skies…’ uh that’s an admission of a US-Israeli war coalition.
Well that is obvious, I mean we have been Israel’s arms dealer and greatest supporter from day one. I don’t actually have an issue with that. I don’t think we can plausibly deny it. The real issue comes when our friend and customer starts doing some unhinged and down right bad stuff. I wish it wasn’t so, I think Netanyahu has probably done more to generate anti-Israel and anti-Semitic feelings than just about anyone else in history, aside from Hitler. I just wish we had put more pressure on them to stop all the needless killing. Not sure it would have worked but perhaps we could have at least loudly condemned these actions.
Doomberg: Latest commentary on Israel/Iran war: A Catastrophic Miscalculation
China will not allow Iran to be defeated
Iran’s Hypersonic Missiles & Israel’s Weak Spots
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/israel-to-lose-against-iran-oil-alert-doomberg/id1509863714?i=1000713105282
I don’t have time at the moment to listen to this but will try to at some point. Personally I can’t see an outcome favoring Iran. I think this is going to go pretty quickly. Just think what happens when you lose control of the air space over your country to an enemy. Your basically done. Israel is going to just continue to destroy all relevant military targets. I think the Iranian white flag will be raised before China would even have the chance to assist.
My gut feel is a China/Russia coalition eventually goes to war with America.
What did I read yesterday. Something about an Israeli operation “Samson” and a plan to nuke EU capitals if the EU agrees to the two-state solution Israel + Palestine.
Pakistan later came out with a statement that they would nuke Israel if Israel first nuked Iran.
Sabre-rattling maybe, but when a sovereign nation starts bandying the nuke word around, it’s concerning.
Forgetting for a moment Russia, which appears completely impotent. Based on their performance over the last few years and their depleted military. However, I do believe we would lose to China in a war. Certainly without assistance from many others. Which is why I am deeply concerned about this current administration and how they seem set on flushing our alliances down the toilet. We need every friend we can get. The statement that Israel would nuke EU capitals is so ridiculous it doesn’t warrant trying to rebuff the comment. Talk of a country Nuking others is really off the chart. The consequences of such an action can not even be calculated. I think Russia understands that, as does North Korea and Israel. It would be the end of their administration and society as they know it.