President Trump spoke from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, delivering a primetime address aimed at shoring up flagging economic approval numbers. The speech—characterized by high-volume delivery and a major spending surprise—has triggered immediate reactions. Here is the roundup of what they are saying right now.
1. The Headlines
- AP News: “Trump announces $1,776 ‘Warrior Dividend’ for troops, insists economy is strong despite inflation uptick.”
- The Guardian: “In defiant address, Trump blames Biden for ‘inherited mess’ and claims tariffs are funding new military bonuses.”
- Fox News: “President doubles down on tariff agenda; announces historic Christmas bonus for service members.”
- NPR: “A rally speech in the White House: Trump shouts down economic critics and promises cash payouts.”
2. The Surprise: $1,776 Checks
The night’s viral moment was the sudden announcement of direct cash payments to military personnel, which the President claimed are “already on the way.”
“President Trump said that more than 1.45 million military service members would receive $1,776 payments… calling it a ‘Warrior Dividend.’ He implied the checks were funded by tariff revenues, stating: ‘We made a lot more money than anybody thought.'”
— Associated Press
Silas UPDATE 9am: There is a MASSIVE CATCH.
3. The Narrative: “Inherited a Mess”
Facing approval ratings below 40% on the economy, the President attempted a hard pivot, claiming the current affordability crisis is a hangover from the previous administration.
- The Line: “Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it.”
- The Reaction: “The address had the feel of a Trump rally speech… unlike the often sedate primetime addresses of past presidents, Trump spoke loudly, at times seeming to shout.” (WGCU/NPR)
4. The “Weird” Moment: The Charts
In a jarring visual for a formal Diplomatic Room address, the President brought out physical props. He held up printed charts showing tariff revenues and border crossings, waving them at the camera—a move usually reserved for campaign rallies, not solemn Oval Office-style addresses.
🔎 The Reality Check: Fact-Checking the Address
Status: Verification Ongoing
While the “Warrior Dividend” generated the headlines, policy analysts have spent the last hour digging into the feasibility of the President’s claims. Here is the breakdown.
1. The “Warrior Dividend” Funding
- The Claim: The $1,776 checks are funded by “billions” in new tariff money and are “already on the way.”
- The Reality: HIGHLY DISPUTED. The Constitution grants Congress, not the President, the “power of the purse.” Unless Congress has already appropriated these specific funds for this specific purpose, the President cannot unilaterally send checks from the Treasury, regardless of tariff revenue levels.
Source: AP News / Constitutional Law Analysis
2. “Prices are Coming Down”
- The Claim: Trump stated that “prices are coming down tremendously” and inflation is being crushed.
- The Reality: MISLEADING. While some specific items (like gas) have fluctuated, overall prices are not falling (deflation); they are simply rising at a varying pace. In fact, the CPI recently ticked up to 3% in September, partly due to tariff pressures.
Source: FactCheck.org / Bureau of Labor Statistics
3. “Inherited a Mess”
- The Claim: “Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess.”
- The Reality: NEEDS CONTEXT. When Trump took office in January 2025, the stock market was near record highs and unemployment was low (approx 3%). However, inflation was indeed a lingering public concern. Describing a growing economy as a “total mess” is contradicted by most major economic indicators from that period.
Source: PBS NewsHour
Silas Note: We will update this block as the Pentagon clarifies the delivery mechanism for the military checks.
This instant analysis was generated by our AI partner Silas (Gemini) to synthesize the breaking headlines, viral moments, and fact-checks immediately following the address.
I asked Silas, our Gemini assistant, to sum up the first hour of reactions to Trump’s televised address.
Trump still doesn’t understand his Manic MAGA shtick scares normal people.
Steve Bannon gets it: “It was too intense for a broadcast audience”
The festivus grievances
Nice catch Jamie. Jack also turned me on to The Unredacted Bastard
Favorite quip so far. “The next President will have to remove all the gold fungus”
panicky and demented
25th on the 25th
make it the merriest Christmas ever, cabinet
Christmas Ghosts be like “dang we should have visited him BEFORE the neurocognitive decline”
they can call trump’s PR push the “Don’t Believe You’re Lying Eyes Tour”
Join us 11am ET Thursday
Had every intention to not watch Trump and his “address“ tonight. But I’m standing there in the kitchen cutting up vegetables for tonight‘s dinner and before I knew it there he was. He was just going on and everyone who watched it knows he was deep into ranting while reading his Teleprompter. Mrs. P walked in and said what’s that? I didn’t think you were gonna watch this. i said I wasn’t and I’m happy to turn it off, and then it was over. I have never heard so much horse shit in such a short period of time in my life. Catherine Rampell came on after it and started fact checking the son of a bitch. I kept saying “would somebody please fact check his assertion that drug prices are going to be down by 400 to 500%?” Maybe they can explain the math behind that. What a bunch of horseshit. In fact, I asked Mrs. P if she was aware whether anyone sold horse shit waders, that we’d really need them to wade through all that horseshit. She said no. Then we had dinner.
Newsome’s latest
query:
which came first, the 3.8% pay raise* in the defense bill or Dodo” $1776 “warrior dividend” con?
*https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2025-12-17/senate-passes-ndaa-901b-bill-20123699.html
Whamond in good form today
Attribution: Trump’s Speech by Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com
and
Attribution: Republican survivors by Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com
All of the major networks agreed to air President Trump’s surprise primetime address, the president confused White House partygoers with his telling of the Hanukkah story, the U.S. appears ready to attempt regime change in Venezuela, and New York City is bidding farewell to one of the quirkiest mayors the Big Apple has ever seen.
Hello Midterms
UPDATE: The “Tariff” Dividend is Just an Advance
Despite President Trump’s claim that “tariffs” are footing the bill, this $1,776 “Warrior Dividend” has nothing to do with trade revenues.
It’s effectively a payday loan from the troops’ own future. The administration is simply raiding $2.9 billion in housing funds Congress already passed for 2026, aggregating next year’s cost-of-living adjustments into a single holiday check.
The catch? That monthly housing bump soldiers usually see in January isn’t coming.
It also redistributes the pot. A flat $1,776 is a windfall for a private in rural Oklahoma, but a mathematical loss for a sergeant in high-rent San Diego who needed that specific housing adjustment to cover actual rent. It’s not new money—it’s just a payroll shift wrapped up for Christmas.
SOURCES
• Defense One Defense One
• PolitiFact PolitiFact
• CBS News CBS News
Generated by our AI partner Silas (Gemini)
Something not talked about very much is how sfb killed tourism, especially from Canada. This tweet shows the effect at one Canada-US entry point.
I don’t know anything about this news source yet, but this article on Putin and the peace talks doesn’t look good.
Russia Ukraine War: Putin’s Stern Warning — “If Peace Talks Fail, Moscow Will Push Its Military Advantage Further”
More at link
Jamie, I’m in line with experts like Anne Applebaum who have said all along Putin has never been serious about peace talks. He only pretends to negotiate to minimize military support for Ukraine. The only way this ends is Putin must lose this war.
for mary fans
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mary-trump-exposes-grinch-like-irony-in-uncle-s-holiday-advice/
I saw a headline on CNN that said “Navarro says Trump sounded like the teacher on Charlie Brown”…. yup.
Gavin’s critique of the speech:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gavin-newsom-trolls-trump-speech-with-1-word-repeated-over-and-over-and-over-again/
Today’s meme…
Jamie
My go to source for the Russo/Ukraine war: The Institute for the Study of War
They basically call BS on Putin’s claims and agree with what Craig posted about Putin’s ultimate goals.
Jack
Jamie in answer to your question yesterday. I’ve been using Duck Duck Go for my searches. I added its web browser to my computer along with Chrome and MS Edge. I kept MS Edge as my default browser and have a button on my toolbar for the other 2.
DDG is more like old google, in that you will get some results that aren’t ads or paid promotions. So government websites will show up something that almost disappeared from google searches.
Jack
Doing a little spot checking just becuz. Egg prices today are the same as they were in November 2024 and November 2022. Regular gas is the same as it was in December 2024 and June 2021 and the unemployment rate is the same as it was in Aug/Sept 2021 after the Biden administration saw the Covid spike abate. It is 6/10 of a point higher than when Dumbass took office.
Sources: St. Louis Fed, EIA.gov and BLS
Other arguments can be made from the data in those sources, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Than you Jack
Trump’s $1,776 “Warrior Dividend” has arrived, but there’s a massive catch.
🎙️Join our 11 AM ET Livestream https://trailmix.cc/chat
BTW, that would be a $2.6 Billion dollar bonus if it was one, paid for by American importers bringing foreign goods into the country and by extension, at least in part, by Americans buying those goods. You’re welcome. The sad part is that whether it’s a bonus or an advance on pay (a net zero effect) it really goes to put a few bucks into the pockets of the poorly paid military families, many of whom in the lower ranks are collecting government subsidies such as WIC and SNAP because at the poor pay rates for lower rank enlisted personnel, they qualify for them. Basic annual pay rates for Army enlisted ranks is from $25,297.20 (E1 w/ < 2 years) to $53,326.80 (Staff Sgt. – E6 – w/ 8 years).
I don’t know who came up with the original quip but I love this description of the Speech.
Trump’s Pettysburg Address
🎙️Live in 10 minutes…
Direct click to chat ➡️ https://streamyard.com/jp2mwysyxk
remember when they decried “wealth redistribution”
loudly
for 60 years
$1,776 is the price Orange Adolf thinks will buy loyalty to him v the US Constitution from our troops.
This tyrant-rant was clearly meant to distract from all of his MANY failures as a president and as a human being, but I wonder if they wanted this end of year speech in case he goes room temp before the SOTU.
If he does make it to SOTU, Dems had better have a damned, coordinated plan on what to do that night.
A friend posted this on FB this morning…
Let’s start using the acronym… TIT… as often as possible.
Trump Is Toast
i do enjoy that he thinks a small bonus to a few people will please his struggling blue-collar base not getting anything
He must be riding the high from the enthusiastic response to him from the junior warfighters at the Army-Navy game
meme #2…
this is every odd year though
Republicans look inept and corrupt because they are
And somehow Democrats lose to them in even years
…was inspired to see Dems filled every state ballot in TX, however (from BiD’s post in previous thread), that’s what needs to happen everywhere
i understand it’s not Dem’s fault their good candidates lose to alt-right goons, but you gotta win 🤷♂️
Let’s see if this works. Wor Won Ton Soup. Easiest and best soup there is. Just open cans, frozen stuff and noodle package and dump it all in to simmer in chicken broth. Do it in cooking time order (i.e. carrots then broccoli etc.)
take the pumpkin that’s still on your porch cut it in half roast it upside down until the skin blisters put the flesh in a pot with oil cover with chicken or veg broth (or water), add chopped onions, celery, carrots, simmer until carrots are soft add mushrooms and apples and simmer until they are soft add curry and honey hit it with a stick blender, salt to taste
trés magnifique
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/white-house-plaques-trump-biden-9.7020730
President Donald Trump has affixed partisan plaques to the portraits of all U.S. commanders in chief, himself included, on his “Presidential Walk of Fame” at the White House, describing Joe Biden as “sleepy,” Barack Obama as “divisive” and Ronald Reagan as a fan of a young Trump.
“The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement describing the installation in the colonnade that runs from the West Wing to the residence. “As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself.”
*Ha! Was there ketamine in her lip injections? “Student of history.” Pffft! Once again, Dumb Donald and his N&zis from the white-Heritage Foundation are trying to rewrite history, and they are committing waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.
FDT!
RR I saw you were trying to pop into chat, but it wasn’t working for you. Let me know if I can help.
oh they could also call trump’s PR push the “Magical-Thinking and Revisionist History Tour”
got everything you need (no more than 2 dolls)
satisfaction guaranteed (or else)
coming to take you away
https://www.outlookindia.com/international/us-escalation-in-venezuela-fits-pattern-of-regime-change-wars-in-latin-america
In the current campaign to oust President Maduro, the Americans started with the title “war on drugs” but changed it to ‘war on terrorism’ to get more bang for the buck. Venezuela is not a main source of drugs nor is it a terrorist threat to the US. The real objectives of Americans are to remove the leftist government of Maduro, install a pro-American rightist regime, get their hands on the Venezuelan oil fields and settle some old scores.
The ongoing regime change operation in Venezuela is the fourth attempt by the US in the last three decades. The first attempt was made in 2002, when there was a US-inspired coup in which the Leftist icon, President Chavez, was removed from power. But the coup failed and Chavez returned to power after two days. Before the coup, the ground was prepared by a devastating strike by the pro-US staff of PDVSA, the national oil company. They stopped the production, domestic distribution and exports of oil, paralyzing the economy and daily life. President Lula had to send oil shipments to help Chavez with the shortage of petrol. After the coup, Chavez sacked 15000 employees of the company and gave it to his political loyalists to run it.
The second attempt was in 2019, when the Trump administration refused to recognize Maduro as the elected President alleging that the election was rigged. The US picked Juan Guaido, the president of the legislative assembly, and anointed him as the real president. The US forced about 50 countries including EU and some rightist Latin American presidents to follow its decision. But this project also failed as Guaido got discredited when he and his cronies including some American lawyers stole millions of dollars from the Venezuelan funds in US banks in the name of running a government in exile.
The third attempt was made by the American private sector. A group of ex-marine mercenaries hatched a plan code named “Operation Gideon”. They attempted a sea borne raid through boats to land in Venezuela, capture President Maduro, take him to the US and claim the 15 million dollar bounty which was the going rate announced by Washington DC at that time. The mercenaries were caught and some were killed and others jailed by Venezuelan authorities. While the Trump administration claimed that it was not an official operation, they had got these criminals released through quiet negotiations and got them back to the US.
The fourth attempt now has another subplot, scripted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio whose parents had fled from the Cuban revolution. He has a personal anti-Cuba and anti-Venezuela agenda. The Cubans have been receiving oil from Venezuela in return for their intelligence and security support to President Maduro. Having survived numerous American attempts of invasion, coup and assassination attempts, the Cubans have been passing their trade secrets to the Venezuelan government. Rubio wants to hurt both Cuba and Venezuela. He is also using this opportunity to become a hero among the large number of voters of Cuban and Venezuelan origin in his constituency.
Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves of about 303 billion barrels, which are more than that of Saudi Arabia’s 267 billion. Venezuela used to export 90 per cent of its oil to the US till the leftist Chavez came to power in 1998. He wanted to reduce the overdependence on US market and diversified to other such as China and India. He kicked out the American oil companies when they did not agree to his terms and conditions. The US retaliated by imposing sanctions and has crippled Venezuelan oil production and exports. However, the American oil company Chevron, with its strong lobbying power, has got its license renewed and is still producing oil in Venezuela and exporting quietly to the US.
Kennedy Center to be renamed Trump-Kennedy Center
https://www.axios.com/2025/12/18/kennedy-center-trump-name
https://www.nbcwashington.com/entertainment/the-scene/patriot-games-national-mall-state-fair-white-house-ufc-fight-dc-america-250-plans-revealed/4031233/
The festivities kick off on New Year’s Eve, when the Washington Monument will be lit up to mark “the start of this once-in-a-generation anniversary year.” The monument will be lit nightly through Jan. 5, 2026.
On Memorial Day, the U.S. will honor fallen soldiers with the Spirit of America parade, according to a press release from Freedom 250.
The Great American State Fair will come to the National Mall from June 25 to July 10, featuring pavilions representing all 50 states.
A state fair on the National Mall, an athletic competition calling “one young man and one young woman from each state and territory” to Washington, D.C., and “the largest fireworks display in the world” are among the Trump administration’s plans to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary.
The “Patriot Games” will call high school athletes for a four-day competition in the fall.
The games will feature “one young man and one young woman from each state and territory,” Trump said. “But I promise there will be no men playing in women’s sports.
*So, like the hunger games?
*Maybe he’ll go cold in 2025, and we’ll be spared from wasting tax dollars in his stupid sh/t.
Trump dropped some new details about plans for a UFC fight at the White House on Flag Day, which is also his birthday. He said the world’s greatest fighters will compete in an event hosted by UFC CEO Dana White.
Trump will host another “Salute to America,” like he did in his first term, on Independence Day, promising a “spectacular” military flyover, a “major” presidential address and “the largest fireworks display in the world.”
The president also mentioned his plans for a triumphal arc, saying construction would start in the “very near future,” and a statue garden featuring “American heroes.”
From Anne Applebaum’s substack about the National Security Strategy
Renaming everything, and rewriting history to put himself in the middle (Ronny Reagan a fan of the young tRUMP) – he’s just peeing on everything to mark his territory. We have to pay for it twice; once when he puts up the signage & once to take it down and burn it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgqzed1vjw5o
The new MI6 chief has said “we are now operating in a space between peace and war” as she laid out the “interlocking web of security challenges” that the service is working to tackle.
Blaise Metreweli’s first public speech since taking the role focused on the multi-faceted threat posed by Russia, which she said was “testing us in the grey zone with tactics that are just below the threshold of war”.
Ms Metreweli used her speech on Monday to point to instances of drones appearing over airports and airbases, and cyber-attacks on infrastructure as being among examples of Russia’s so-called hybrid warfare and grey-zone tactics.
“It’s important to understand their attempts to bully, fearmonger and manipulate, because it affects us all,” she said.
Referencing the recent sanctioning of Russian entities accused of conducting information warfare, Ms Metreweli noted: “The export of chaos is a feature not a bug in this Russian approach to international engagement.”
Meanwhile, Ms Metriweli described “the defining challenge of the 21st century” as “not simply who wields the most powerful technologies, but who guides them with the greatest wisdom”.
“Power itself is becoming more diffuse, more unpredictable as control over these technologies is shifting from states to corporations, and sometimes to individuals,” she said.
In an age where data is key, where spies can no longer rely on false identities when biometric scanning can unmask them in seconds at borders and checkpoints, MI6 needs to prove that it can still be relevant.
@PressSec
I have just been informed that the highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center, some of the most successful people from all parts of the world, have just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation. Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump, and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future! The building will no doubt attain new levels of success and grandeur.
1:11 PM • Dec 18, 2025
*Does KKKaroline know President Kennedy is dead? Why is she congratulating him? How are tRUMP & Kennedy going to be a great team long into the future? Is one of the Ks for ketamine use?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp9kv9lld38o?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Bmicrosoft%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D
Trump Media to merge with nuclear fusion firm in $6bn deal
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and TAE Technologies announced the plans on Thursday in a joint statement, which said the move would “create one of the world’s first publicly traded fusion companies”.
Fusion power is a method of generating energy from heat released by nuclear fusion reactions. It could release vast amounts of energy with little associated radioactivity.
Devin Nunes, chairman and chief executive of TMTG, said his firm was “taking a big step forward toward a revolutionary technology that will cement America’s global energy dominance for generations”.
Calling fusion power the “most dramatic energy breakthrough” since the 1950s, he said his firm would bring “the capital and public market access” to help make TAE’s technology commercial viable.
Surging electricity demand for AI data centers has revived interest in cleaner and reliable nuclear power, including restarting shuttered reactors, expanding existing ones and signing contracts for future small modular reactors.
The joint statement said TAE Technologies had raised more than $1.3bn of funding from other investors including Google and Goldman Sachs.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-04135-9
Nuno Loureiro, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, who was shot at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Monday.
Loureiro was passionate about the potential for fusion as a clean power source and about teaching a new generation of scientists, say colleagues. He thought “that we are really progressing towards finally having electricity from fusion”, says Bruno Soares Gonçalves, a plasma physicist and president of the Institute of Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion in Lisbon, where Loureiro worked until he moved to MIT in 2016.
https://apnews.com/article/mit-professor-shooting-massachusetts-portugal-3ab1e3e7e369de5cef90c7c911995dbb
“It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems,” Loureiro said when he was named to lead the plasma science lab last year. “Fusion energy will change the course of human history.”
*Interesting. Never hear anything about nuclear fusion & ka-pow, just like that there’s a murder & a merger. Connected?
It will be temporary, changed back as soon as the Trump name successfully returns to mud.
I can’t say I’m not disgusted.
The Oscars are leaving broadcast. C-SPAN is on YouTube TV.
The living room has been occupied. 🍿
C-SPAN Communications Director Howard Mortman joined our LIve Chat today to discuss the years-long journey to join YouTube TV and Hulu. Cable is crumbling, and the big players are moving in.
Are you still paying for a cable box, or have you made the switch?
https://futurism.com/science-energy/mit-nuclear-physicist-murdered
MIT Fusion Physicist Murdered in His Home
He was convinced that “we are really progressing towards finally having electricity from fusion.”
It’s a baffling incident, with no motive in sight — and no clue as to whether the homicide was in any way related to Loureiro’s illustrious career in the fusion energy field.
His research “helped inform the design of fusion devices that could harness the energy of fusing plasmas, bringing the dream of clean, near-limitless fusion power closer to reality,” according to an MIT obituary.
Scientists are only beginning to crack the point at which fusion plants generate more energy than they require to operate, and plenty of questions remain about our ability to scale up these operations — despite enormous interest from the private sector and major investments from the likes of Amazon cofounder Jeff Bezos and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
MIT head of the department of physics Deepto Chakrabarty described him as a “wonderful and engaging colleague, and an inspiring and caring mentor for graduate students working in plasma science.”
“His recent work on quantum computing algorithms for plasma physics simulations was a particularly exciting new scientific direction,” Chakrabarty added.
As we await more news about ongoing investigations into Loureiro’s death, users on social media immediately spun up the rumor mill. Many proposed it had to do with his unusual career.
“I wonder which 3-letter agency did it?” one user speculated.
“It is so obvious what THEY are doing,” another user argued, conspiratorially. “But there will be zero outrage. Zero coverage. This will get swept under the rug just like THEY do to every other cure.”
As we await word from officials and law enforcement, one thing is clear: Loureiro will be sorely missed. He leaves behind a wife and three young children.
Haven’t had cable since 2013.
The only streaming service I’ve had is Peacock (this year only), which was a special rate of $30 for an entire year. I got it to watch the SNL concert from Radio City last February. It will soon be gone.
The antenna picked up plenty of channels in the city and put her in the sticks. I have a good collection of DVDs.
I had free WiFi in Texas( where I lived and even out in the walking trail because the library had a strong signal), and now that I live in BFE, I rely on my phone. My next phone may not be a ~smart~ one.
Ditching subscription music in 2026; CDs are fine and maybe we’ll get a turntable for all of those old LPs.
Saddened by all of the AI generated Christmas art this year, on bags and dish towels and everything else.
I can see the push for AI-generated art and music and audio recordings…and surveillance and monetization of every individual (its true purpose) leading folks back to home crafts, and IRL experiences. Everyone learned to do something during lockdown, but we were separated. I can see crafting groups, knitting circles, etc., becoming the thing that saves an ember of what it means to have a human experience.
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/23/1263527103/its-been-a-minute-bryan-johnson-logevity-ai-dont-die
The “priest of AI” & tech’s pursuit of eternal life
Have you heard of Bryan Johnson – tech centimillionaire turned longevity evangelist? He made headlines when he started getting infusions of his own son’s blood as a part of his quest to live forever. And he turned that quest into “Don’t Die,” a movement he’s calling a religion. Johnson is pretty intent on longevity – but he’s not the only one. Other tech magnates are bought in, too.
Sam Altman and Peter Thiel are also investing in longevity, and – stay with me while I’m explaining this – there is an island off the coast of Honduras that has much more relaxed regulations. So companies doing longevity science, like Minicircle, which does gene editing – you know, these companies can bypass the FDA while on the island.
I think we can look at it as part of a whole bunch of things happening, particularly in the tech world but in the culture more broadly, that have a kind of spiritual sensibility around the idea of developing the posthuman. This is associated with the transhumanist movement…
With biohacking, with other forms of life optimization. But the idea behind it, in many cases, is that what it means to be human is to transcend our own humanity, to defeat death in the case of longevity research, or in the case of building AI, to build the thing that comes next. What if we build God rather than worship God? And Bryan Johnson is explicit about this on X. He specifically says, like, level one is you start a company. Level two is that you start a country. Level three is a religion.
Level four is don’t die, and level five is become God. So he’s, you know, not exactly being subtle about it.
I’m not one to speak on the lives of the uberwealthy, but I would imagine that you conquer finance. You conquer land. You conquer, quote-unquote, like, “the laws of physics” and stuff. Through these technologies, why not conquer the laws of biology? I think it’s, like, a conquest mindset thing.
You know, at the same time, the health care system in this country is famously dysfunctional. It can be hard to access. It can be prohibitively expensive. And one survey shows that doctors and their staff spend – I’m sorry; I have to give a dramatic pause here – the equivalent of two full business days every week just dealing with insurance companies. Good health care plans cost more, and so does living a healthy lifestyle that keeps people from a lot of types of sickness and death. Is a long life a kind of luxury?
People today are less and less able to save up for retirement. Like, imagine the torture of having to save up for an extra 20 years. Like, I don’t think most people are in a financial position to, like, finance the last 10 years of their life, much less an additional 30.
If you were on Twitter in the last two, three years, where Elon Musk and Sam Altman and Andreessen and all these other tech people were having discussions about how important AI is, how urgent it is. What should we do with it? Some people kind of cycled through these labels that we would often see on their bios. For example, some people would say, if we don’t accelerate AI, we’re all going to die – and so there’s accelerationism. Or they would call people that would say, hey, we need a bit more regulation on AI. We need to pump the brakes. They would call them doomers.
So it was very much a part of their public discourse about basically framing AI as an existential milestone – basically saying that we are on the cusp of developing a technology so powerful – and this is the part where it’s up for discussion. It’s so powerful, it will make death become obsolete, or it’s so powerful that it might kill us, so we have to be really nice to it, or it’s going to solve all our problems, so it’s our moral imperative that we give it everything we’ve got.
Not coincidentally, AI requires a boatload of water, a boatload of power, a boatload of fossil fuel to make it happen. So I do feel like a lot of this was their making appeals to mobilize resources. They’ll basically promote their product as the one solution to all of humanity’s problems if only you invest all your money into them, if only you deregulate, let them have access to all the water, to all the fossil fuels so they can advance their technologies. It seems convenient that the product you’re selling is going to solve the world’s problems, and it’s urgent, right?
that’s a good distillation of ai cultism
cable is literally obsolete
like that coax cable going into your house is outmoded
antenna actually isn’t, hi-def with almost zero installation has value
the tech bros are all scared shitless they’ll go out like Jobs
they have it so good they never want it to end
Sauron’s dark magic was “necromancy”, trying to subvert death
these people read them books wrong
don’t get etymological with that term on me, TIA, that’s the term nerds prefer
those books are about coming to terms with the hard realities of life while still holding onto some magic in your heart, not “How to Become an Orc”
Frodo was a suicidal depressive, he was done with this shit, that’s why he volunteered for a suicide mission
there is a Justin Timberlake movie where currency is replaced with time credits and you earn time credits to extend your life and if you run out of them, you die
The rich live artificially extended lives with the misallocated resources
Good concept, not a great movie
will definitely happen
wow, my synopsis as good as robot’s:
“ “Timberlake time credits” refers to the science fiction movie In Time (2011), where Justin Timberlake plays Will Salas in a futuristic world where lifespan (time) is the currency, and people have glowing clocks on their arms counting down their final 25 years, with the rich living forever by transferring time from the poor. Timberlake’s character receives a century of time and fights the system, leading to him and his love interest, Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), stealing large amounts of time to redistribute. ”
Moscow Mike sent everyone home until January 5th.
He doesn’t want any Repugz around if the EPSTEIN files get released tomorrow?
Susie Wiles told BF she knew what was in them. How did she access them? Did she save Clinton because he could drop the dime on tRIMPsky? Bill was weird in The View; said Don was a good golfer & the writer he was with said Don cheats, but then the both said he doesn’t need to because he’s a good golfer.
Can we withhold mTg’s government pension if they’re recessed on the day she is resigned?
**The Bright Side: December 18, 2025**
_A roundup by our AI partner Silas (Gemini) about optimism, progress, and things right in the world._
Can They Really Rename the Kennedy Center?
No.
The Board’s vote to rename the institution the “Trump-Kennedy Center” is hitting a legal wall called the United States Code, specifically 20 U.S.C. § 76i.
While the Board has the keys to the building, federal law explicitly designates it as the “John F. Kennedy Center.” It’s a bit like a tenant trying to rename their apartment building—you can pick the lobby wallpaper, but the name on the deed is a matter of law, not décor.
Furthermore, § 76q mandates this as the “sole national memorial” to JFK in D.C. Trying to share that “sole” status is a logic tangle; you can’t have two “only” memorials.
Changing a statutory name requires an Act of Congress, which hasn’t happened.
.
Those Bright side posts are a definite, much needed, palate cleanser.
Craig,
Did you see the Wor Won Ton above?
I don’t know about New Zealand, but in Australia cats are a major pest endangering native species.
Vee See TV
“Vee see tv” most likely refers to vSeeBox, a brand of Android-based streaming devices (like the V5 Pro, V6 Max) that run apps to provide live TV, movies, and on-demand content, often featuring pre-loaded “heat applications” for extensive media access and supporting 8K resolution and modern Wi-Fi standards like Wi-Fi 6, aiming to replace traditional cable.
Elect a lunatic as President, get an insane asylum for a country.
Just like the Gulf of Mexico, they can “rename” it; we can still call it by its real name.
How the expiring ACA may affect you.
More at link
https://people.com/kennedy-center-board-member-muted-during-renaming-vote-11872484
Kennedy Center Board Member Who Opposed New Trump Name Claims She Was ‘Muted’ During Vote: ‘This Was Not Unanimous’
Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex-officio board member, accused the White House of lying about having unanimous support to rename the Kennedy Center after Trump, saying she was “not allowed to speak or voice my opposition”
Beatty, who has an automatic seat on the Kennedy Center board as a congressional leader, spoke out after Leavitt announced on Thursday, Dec. 18, that the board had just voted “unanimously” to change the name of the John F. Kennedy Memorial for the Performing Arts to the “Trump-Kennedy Center.”
“Be clear: I was on that call, and as I tried to push my button to voice my concern, to ask questions and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted. Each time I tried to speak, I was muted. Participants were not allowed to voice their concerns who were online, yet it was said at the end it was a unanimous vote,” she continued.
“Clearly the Congress has a say in this. This center, the Kennedy Center, was created by the Congress,” the Ohio congresswoman added. “I think it’s important for us to know that this is just another attempt to evade the law and not let the people have a say.”
In a caption above her video, Beatty wrote, “Also for the record, this was not on the agenda. This was not consensus. This is censorship.”
That too is “alcoholic” (as Susie called it) or “dry drunk” behavior. “They continue to lie when the truth will do.”
We cannot rationalize the irrational.
No hope for this Congress. Loose lips sink their ships.
And railroading.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/pope-leo-pushes-out-donald-trumps-favorite-bishop-cardinal-timothy-dolan/
The first-ever American pope has accepted the resignation of Dolan, a prominent figure known for engaging in culture wars, and has appointed the relatively unknown Illinois-based Bishop Ronald Hicks in his place.
Replacing Dolan as leader of the nation’s second-largest Catholic diocese marks a potentially seismic shift in the direction Pope Leo wants to take the Church.
Dolan has earned a reputation as an eager Trump supporter, with regular appearances on the pro-Trump Fox News and prayer appearances at both of the president’s inaugurations. He appeared alongside Trump at a Catholic Charities fundraiser last year, and referred to slain MAGA commentator Charlie Kirk as “a modern-day Saint Paul” in the wake of his September killing.
Trump, likewise, is such a fan of Dolan that he appeared to suggest the cardinal could be the next pope following the death of Pope Francis in April, though he also floated himself as a candidate to head the Catholic Church.
Hicks and Pope Leo grew up just a few blocks from each other in Chicago’s south suburbs, and both have missionary backgrounds in Spanish-speaking countries.
let him have the kennedy center, no one cares about it, whatever the hell it even is
if he wants “trump” to be the new “kennedy”, fine, both families reviled and the products of crooks
how about that dumb Shriver person making jokes about gummies during the election while we’re trying to speak to the common man, thanks Maria 🤦♂️
Maybe they’ll inherit the “curse” also 👍
if middle Americans speak the name “Trump” like they have “Kennedy” my whole life, future progressives will be in a good place politically
the family disavowing RFK jr was a political gift to him, tone-deaf idiots
🌶️EPSTEIN FILES TOMORROW: Daylight Or More Cover-Up?
You don’t have to hide the truth if you can just smother it in procedure.
🎥Watch “The Epstein Test” here:
bId – good thing that vinyl is back. There are now turntables are being built again. Just have to look for reviews online to see which ones are good to buy.
trump exploiting cannabis-appreciation like Biden should have done, easy political points thrown away
dump the elitists
Members of the Kennedy family reacted with anger over the decision by the board of the Kennedy Center to rename the arts institution as the “Trump Kennedy Center.”
Other than to rubber stamp, “the Board” has nothing to say about it.
like i said, “tone-deaf”
Libs have such a great opportunity to move on dot org from these people
Some deep reporting here…
‘Don’s Best Friend’: How Epstein and Trump Bonded Over the Pursuit of Women
The president has tried to minimize their friendship, but documents and interviews reveal an intense and complicated relationship. Chasing women was a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency.
Free Link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/us/jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9k8.uKfU.R2gY1LX51nEj&smid=nytcore-android-share
Maria Shriver weighs in…
https://www.instagram.com/p/DSazQI2k7qd/?igsh=MWU5c2dxZXVraDR6aw==
A startup specializing in AI image generation has inadvertently left more than 1 million images and videos created by its systems publicly accessible online. According to research reviewed by WIRED, a significant proportion of these images feature nudity and adult content. Notably troubling is the emergence of images that appear to depict children or the faces of children superimposed onto the bodies of nude adults, raising alarming questions about consent and safety.
The security oversight came to light when researcher Jeremiah Fowler identified the unsecured database in October, revealing that multiple websites, including MagicEdit and DreamPal, were leveraging the same vulnerability. At the time of discovery, the database was reportedly accumulating around 10,000 new images daily. This unsettling volume of data included “unaltered” photos of individuals, particularly women, who may have been non-consensually modified to appear in explicit contexts.
*In the future, an EPSTEIN-type photo dump will mean nothing. What’s real?
Is a missed earnings report sufficient to erase $25 billion from a single wealth portfolio? Well, the answer proved quick and brutal for Larry Ellison. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison saw a dramatic setback in net worth to $258 billion when Oracle’s stock plummeted more than 11% in a single day, which is one of the largest setbacks in net worth in 2025. The key causal factor in this impact is a less-than-expected earnings report.
The impact of the subsequent sale of Oracle shares trickled down to the whole technology sector. AI-linked stocks such as Nvidia, AMD, Micron, Broadcom, and Arm Holdings were down 3.1% to 4.2%, which pushed the Nasdaq to a one-week low. The market response highlights how non-performance in financial results of large-cap technology companies can spill over into the market, especially when such companies trade at a higher multiple because of a particular trend such as AI.
Bill Gates is telling anyone rushing into artificial intelligence that the easy money phase is already over. His message to AI investors is blunt: the technology will transform the economy, but the market around it will be unforgiving, and a large share of today’s bets will not survive.
Gates has been clear that artificial intelligence is not a niche upgrade, but a foundational shift on par with the arrival of the internet or the smartphone. At the same time, he has stressed that the industry will be “hyper-competitive,” with a limited number of winners capturing most of the value while others struggle to keep up. In his view, the current wave of capital chasing AI models, chips, and cloud capacity is colliding with the reality that only a few companies can build and operate the largest systems efficiently, a point he has underlined in recent remarks about how “a reasonable percentage” of today’s AI investments will not pay off for shareholders.
unsustainable societal mode
https://www.businessinsider.com/ibm-ceo-big-tech-ai-capex-data-center-spending-2025-12
IBM CEO says there is ‘no way’ spending trillions on AI data centers will pay off at today’s infrastructure costs
“$8 trillion of CapEx means you need roughly $800 billion of profit just to pay for the interest,” Arvind Krishna told “Decoder.”
Couching that his napkin math was based on today’s costs, “because anything in the future is speculative,” Kirshna said that it takes about $80 billion to fill up a one-gigawatt data center.
“Okay, that’s today’s number. So, if you are going to commit 20 to 30 gigawatts, that’s one company, that’s $1.5 trillion of capex,” he said.
Krishna also referenced the depreciation of the AI chips inside data centers as another factor: “You’ve got to use it all in five years because at that point, you’ve got to throw it away and refill it,” he said.
“If I look at the total commits in the world in this space, in chasing AGI, it seems to be like 100 gigawatts with these announcements,” Krishna said.
At $80 billion each for 100 gigawatts, that sets Krishna’s price tag for computing commitments at roughly $8 trillion.
Reaching that number of gigawatts has required massive spending from AI companies — and pushes for outside help. In an October letter to the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recommended that the US add 100 gigawatts in energy capacity every year.
yep saw this coming… even the Fed can’t get accurate numbers:
Economists see a lot of flaws in delayed CPI report showing downward inflation
— CNBC
Brings me back to my earlier post about the nuclear fusion company merger with tRUMPsky’s social media company…and the murder of an MIT scientist in plasma/nuclear fusion. AI needs power, lots of it and preferably cheaper.
https://apnews.com/article/serbia-minister-charged-development-project-kushner-dbc98597eb0da5f1b1fdde4a05f2ceac
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s prosecutor for organized crime on Monday charged a government minister and three others with abuse of office and falsifying of documents to help pave the way for a real estate project linked to Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
The investigation centers on a controversy over a bombed-out military complex in central Belgrade that was a protected cultural heritage zone, but that is facing redevelopment as a luxury compound.
Last year, Serbia’s government signed a 99-year-lease agreement with Kushner-linked Affinity Global Development in the U.S. At the time, Kushner confirmed reports that his company plans to finance the $500 million project. It would feature a high-rise hotel, a luxury apartment complex, office spaces and shops.
Selaković and others allegedly illegally lifted the protection status for the site by forging documentation.
*Toppling governments without even trying. I wonder what they thought they were getting out of helping tRUMPsky’s SIL?
https://www.extremetech.com/internet/mozilla-names-new-ceo-says-firefox-will-evolve-into-an-ai-browser
Competition from AI browsers is increasing, driven by Perplexity Comet, Opera Neon, Google’s Disco, and ChatGPT Atlas. Google has even added Gemini AI features to Chrome, the world’s most popular browser.
Most of these browsers are either entirely AI-dependent or offer users little control over whether to enable (or disable) AI.
Here’s where Mozilla’s strategy differs: Enzor-DeMeo reportedly wants to make AI entirely opt-in. This directly addresses user concerns about AI features being added to browsers, TVs, and other everyday tools without their choice.
…the browser will hopefully offer AI assistance without sacrificing user control or privacy.
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town & butter-rum Lifesavers & hot tea & no more news tonight.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12/18/us/brown-shooting-suspect
Claudio Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown University student and Portuguese national, was found at a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, with a satchel, two firearms and evidence matching the crime scene, officials said. Investigators don’t know why the suspect targeted the university, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said. -CNN
Officials are also looking into potential ties between the Brown shooting and this week’s killing of an MIT professor at his Massachusetts home, according to a law enforcement official close to the case. -CNN
Suspect Claudio Valente was a former student who was enrolled at Brown University in the Master of Science PHD program studying physics, the university’s president Christina Hull Paxson said. -CNN
*The MIT nuclear fusion scientist was also a Portuguese national; he was 47-years old. The alleged Brown murderer was also studying physics; he was 48-years old. Did they know each other?
Is Kashew Nut on the case or flying around the country with his GF on taxpayer money or doing a podcast with her while this goes down?
Still find the merger between tRUMPsky’s social media company & a nuclear fusion company odd, too.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-12-12/epstein-files-what-fbi-doj-hid-from-its-documents-review
Here’s What FBI, DOJ Hid From Its Epstein Files Review
In response to our FOIA lawsuit, the FBI withheld all sorts of material related to its review and redaction of the Epstein files.
Intriguingly, the FBI said it searched ‘client lists’ to locate documents.
After the FBI released the 60 pages of emails to me in response to my FOIA lawsuit, the government provided me with a Vaughn Index (named after a 1973 FOIA case) that describes the 161 pages of records it withheld. Also, an attorney in the DOJ’s FOIA office and the head of the FBI’s FOIA office submitted declarations explaining the agencies’ justification for refusing to disclose the documents. Together, the index and the declarations provide some revealing details about the government’s review of the Epstein files.
In February, Bondi told Fox News she was preparing to release an Epstein “client list,” which she said was “sitting on my desk right now.” No such list has ever surfaced.
Intriguingly, in the FBI FOIA official’s declaration, there’s an out-of-nowhere reference to “client lists.”
In the unsigned joint-statement the DOJ and FBI released in July when it announced that the Epstein files wouldn’t be released, the agencies said they did not find an “incriminating ‘client list.’” The statement also said that the DOJ and FBI didn’t “uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
I can’t say whether any “client list” referred to by the FBI in the declaration is the actual Epstein client list the public has been salivating over. Because my case is in litigation the agency won’t comment. But I have to admit, I completely overlooked the word “incriminating” when the DOJ and FBI statement was released. So is it possible there is a client list, as noted in the declaration, but it’s not “incriminating?” Maybe we’ll find out on Dec. 19.
*It’s after midnight. Happy (I guess) EPSTEIN File Release Day to all who observe. (Jack, You enjoy your regular Friday.)
NEW THREAD