President Donald Trump expressed disappointment Sunday that nobody has thanked him for sending money meant to go toward food aid for Gaza, as Palestinians continue to die every day — either by starvation or by Israeli gunfire at U.S.-backed aid sites.
Appearing in Scotland alongside EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Trump was asked if Israel should do more to get sufficient aid into the Palestinian territory it has nearly flattened. The president responded with a bizarre complaint.
“We gave $60 million two weeks ago for food for Gaza, and nobody acknowledged it, nobody talks about it. And it makes you feel a little bad when you do that, and you know, you have other countries not giving anything,” he said, later specifying European countries.
“Nobody said, ‘Gee, thank you very much,’” he continued. “And it would be nice to have at least a thank you.”
[continuing from https://www.huffpost.com/ piece]
as the door hit him on the way out, we heard in the distance a fond farewell from Scotland
last night’s colbert
President Trump’s tariffs are set to kick in on August 1st, school kids will soon be required to pass a new Presidential Fitness Test, the musical tastes of some well-known people were leaked after a Spotify hack, and disgraced lawyer Alan Dershowitz was denied service by a pierogi vendor on Martha’s Vineyard.
May I Talk to a Human Please
Some exciting news for those who find themselves getting a little irritated when “talking” to customer service robots: A new bipartisan bill aims to protect American call center jobs and make sure customers know whether they’re talking to a real person or artificial intelligence (and ultimately, avoid frustrating scenarios like this).
“People want to have the option of speaking to a human or AI,” Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, who is introducing the bill alongside West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice, told CBS MoneyWatch. “This isn’t new — who hasn’t pressed zero repeatedly to try to skip the automated systems because they want to talk to a human? This is a consumer check people want to see.”
Under the bill, named the Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025, call center employees must disclose their locations at the beginning of all interactions, and share whether any AI technology is being used. Callers would also be entitled to ask for a transfer to a U.S.-based customer service rep.
The bill takes several steps to prevent the offshoring of these types of jobs, protecting the roughly 3 million Americans who work at call centers across the country. This includes requiring businesses that plan on moving call center jobs overseas to notify the Department of Labor at least 120 days in advance and giving preference for federal contracts to companies that keep call center operations in the U.S.
Loved the Colbert line about having the pro football reps on the new fitness council being of the two most exciting aspects of the NFL – extra points and cocaine. And his riff on Lawrence Taylor was classic, tying it into Epstein. He gave LT a break, failing to mention tax fraud, DUIs, failure to report address change as a registered sex offender. I guess Steven didn’t have enough time in the monologue for all that.
jamie,
sometimes though it’s easier and less frustrating to understand what a robot says/asks than to try to interpret what that human being who has a very heavy dialect says/asks. along with bad mics, it’s especially hard when the person on the other side speaks too fast. often have to ask them to slow down and not speak so close to mic. the “Callers would also be entitled to ask for a transfer to a U.S.-based customer service rep” won’t help in many of those circumstances. Chatting online with consumer service rather than calling has been my backup solution after hours and on weekends.
I like the trend of online chat customer service with actual humans. Much shorter wait times, no accent issues and you can upload documents, screenshots, images if needed. Works well with Medicare and Social Security too.
The Labor Dept. strips its May, June employment figures wallpaper off the wall. WaPo.
“Job creation in those months were revised down by a combined 258,000 jobs — bringing June job creation down to 14,000 and May to 19,000, both very low levels.”
AYFKM? This is the shit you get when Sycophants and Donors are given the keys to Executive departments.
I have had a bit of experience with online human customer service over the past few years, and at least with CS for my CC bank, computer or internet issues, when I talk to a human when I’m dealing with functionality of our little home network or questionable charges or delayed application of payments to my card, most of the time I’m definitely dealing in most cases with someone in Mumbai or somewhere in that corner of the globe. I’ll be delighted if some of that gets onshored.
When I moved to TX in the early 80s, I worked in a smoke-filled call center for a short while. Of the 300 folks who worked there, only a few didn’t smoke and they were my roommates. We all smelled like smoke when we got home from dealing with humans on the phone all day…and customers were not nearly as hostile as they are now.
I thought about a part-time, remote, customer support job after retirement, but I’m at the point where I would match their energy or be even worse to them.
Chatbots rarely work right, and I end up trying to get a human. I am nice to the humans because I was on the other end, once upon a time.
I do need something to do after the garden is done. I wish someone would pay me to drive around the county and put mosquito dunks into every pond and puddle.
today’s meme…
📉 NEW: White House says job losses due to success in deporting so many people???
We’ve reached full spin cycle.
👉
Jamie, per our discussion online yesterday I got a note from YouTube that the Billy Joel clip we played was copyrighted but the owner (Billy Joel) gives permission for its use. Otherwise I assume they would have blocked the entire video. That’s why I’ve got to be careful. But, Thanks Billy!
yesterday’s Chat. Anyone up for chat today, just raise your hand.
Our permanent chat room is
https://streamyard.com/tx2pfxverm
A whole lot of “smart people” whose job is to look at numbers and whether the numbers are good or wrong were just made to look as stupid as mangomoron. I remember when the CNBC staff included at least one analyst who would say the numbers do not look right, either low or high. But, that was back at least two decades ago.
For the last several months many non-smart people kept saying the numbers do not look right. They probably shorted the market yesterday and bought today. (shorting means selling what you do not own at a high price and buying back at a low price to repay the loan)
Craig,
I’ve heard Garth Brooks is even tougher on copyright. He wouldn’t even allow YouTube use for the longest time only covers. He’s gotten on their bandwagon now, but it took hearing a very loud noise from his fans to make it happen.
It would be nice if you could get some sort of waver from YouTube or Spotify for being such a fine, upstanding music lover.
For chatting just send up a flare when you expect to be recording.
As a chat subject, we might discuss “woke” and the GOP talent for renaming benign things to sound menacing. i.e. Death Panels, DEI etc.
https://apnews.com/article/census-bureau-data-doge-trump-statistics-4af6380f23dc9878c76515d5626baffd
The data nerds are fighting back.
After watching data sets be altered or disappear from U.S. government websites in unprecedented ways after President Donald Trump began his second term, an army of outside statisticians, demographers and computer scientists have joined forces to capture, preserve and share data sets, sometimes clandestinely.
Their goal is to make sure they are available in the future, believing that democracy suffers when policymakers don’t have reliable data and that national statistics should be above partisan politics.
***
https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/07/28/federal-data-has-been-disappearing-under-trump
The diversity module, which included all the racial and ethnic breakdowns — that has disappeared,” DeSilver said. That, combined with the fact that the database hasn’t been updated since the administration took office (the latest data is for September 2024), makes it more difficult to figure out how massive federal job cuts initiated by DOGE are impacting Black and Latino workers.
***
Yestetday, I saw an ICE video from a Mexican restaurant where Ive eaten. The kitchen and dining room were emptying but patrons coming in asked for ID, badge numbers, a warrant signed by a judge, and kept on questioning them until they retreated to their vehicles (license plates were video taped) and fled the scene. If they weren’t doing the devil’s work, if they didn’t know they were doing something inhumane/unethical/illegal, those bounty hunters in their tiny Temu vests wouldn’t have run away.
https://www.newsweek.com/ice-recruitment-campaign-student-loan-forgiveness-2106477
In an effort to attract more recruits, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is touting its student loan forgiveness program, along with up to $50,000 in signing bonuses.
*That’s why they couldn’t let POTUS Joe’s student loan forgiveness stand. Orange Adolf wants to make folks kidnap and traffic humans to forgive student loans…but who will forgive them for being monsters who hunt humans?
Wow, the shit just hit the fan.
All those rosy job reports the last 2 months were fake. Or something like that.
May’s job report went from 139 thousand new jobs is now revised down to a mere 19 thousand.
Maxwell has been moved from Florida to Texas. Wonder what’s up with thay?
Craig
The discussion we have had about beef prices and the non answer you got from your AI stat bot caused me to entertain myself by doing a little research. The amazing thing about researching anything dealing with agriculture is the tremendous amount of information out there. It is part of the basic culture of agriculture, from the very beginning there has always been a push to keep the local farmer as informed as the “big city” trader. That just got better with the internet as the ag department put all of its data online. There is also a media tradition of synthesizing the raw numbers into understandable narratives. Back when I was young it was the noon market report on the radio. For some reason it never made the jump to TV but the smarter of those radio folks took to the internet and never looked back. I guess what I’m say is There is a lot of information out there. BTW my go to search engine now is Duck, Duck, Go. It is more like the old google but with tracking blockers.
So It looks like the smart response to your question yesterday should have been “It depends”
Where is the tariff applied and what type of beef. If it is Brazil and your McD’s hamburger then yeah you would see a drastic raise in price.
If it is British beef then not so much.
Jack
If it helps anyone, I just discovered I can access the Streamyard link with my Kindle Fire. I look like i’m 99 with one foot on a banana peel, but it works.
meme #2…
here’s my perspective…
I might be interested in joining the discussion if it took place once a week.
Everyday is a bit much, IMO.
Renee, Agree about fewer appearances. I’m just there for now t help out. Once there is a group, then twice a week would be good for scheduling.
We can set a day and time for group chat no prob.
Or alternate regulars to give you material. Tuesdays and Thursdays work best for me if that works for you.
Today’s Chatroom topic:
Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/bureau-prisons-moves-ghislaine-maxwell-prison-camp-texas/story?id=124281887
“We can confirm Ghislaine Maxwell is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan in Bryan, Texas,” a BOP official said.
The reason for the move was not made clear.
FCI Tallahassee in Florida, where Maxwell had been held, is a “low security” prison for men and women, while FPC Bryan is a “minimum security” camp just for women.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/ghislaine-maxwell-texas-prison-move/287-bdeccdcd-6d9b-4aa9-b49f-8811a8681df3
According to the the Bureau of Prisons, FPCs are “minimum security institutions…[that] have dormitory housing, a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio, and limited or no perimeter fencing. These institutions are work- and program-oriented.”
Maxwell is not the only high-profile inmate at FPC Bryan, either. Former Real Housewife Jen Shah and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes are also at FPC Bryan.
*Ah, so it’s country club prison for the elites.
minimum security for the inmate too? don’t forget what happened to jeffrey
HA!
https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/breaking-news/article/no-more-chains-nfl-debuts-new-virtual-measurement-at-hall-of-fame-game-011737098.html
The NFL announced in April it will begin using Sony’s Hawk-Eye technology as the primary way to measure the line to gain, rather than the chain system that has been in place for decades.
…the league initially announced it would keep a traditional chain crew in reserve for games..
The replacement of chains with cameras is unlikely to improve the accuracy of these calls, as the spotting of the ball by officials has always been the bigger issue when trying to figure out if a runner got enough distance for a first down. The chains were actually pretty good at telling officials how long 10 yards is.
Rather, the virtual measurements are intended to save time, with decisions reached in seconds rather than making everyone wait for the officials to drag the chain out to midfield. We’ll see how much fans notice as the regular season begins, with the opener scheduled for Sept. 4.
*They used this at the Hall of Fame game last night. I like the anticipation of bringing out the chains.
Nothing nefarious will happen to Maxwell. It would set off sirens. (Three unalived in this web; one victim and two predators.)
Heard she didn’t like the grub in Tallahassee. Not enough assault, er, salt. This transfer to a nicer place with a more tony clientele was just the first part of the deal.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-name-redacted-epstein-files-public-figures-2107647
The FBI redacted Donald Trump’s name, along with the names of other prominent public figures, from references in the Jeffrey Epstein files, three people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg’s Jason Leopold.
*We knew this would happen. I want to see the money trail Senator Wyden had talked about.
*Vintage South Park
I’ll be talking to former federal prosecutor about Maxwell’s prison change — 4pm ET.
Here is the permanent address for our chat page (it switches to the studio once I turn it on)
🗓️ Next Chat Session:
TODAY, Friday Aug. 1 at 4pm ET
Maxwell Moved To Country Club Prison
(Recording, not live. Pajamas welcome.)
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-job-numbers-revised-down-fires-appointee-2107768
President Donald Trump on Friday fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics, after July’s U.S. job numbers were revised down.
“I was just informed that our Country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Growth in March 2024 by approximately 818,000 and, then again, right before the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000. These were Records — No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers.”
He added: “I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.
*Because nobody will know if they, or their friends and family, have become unemployed under tRUMPsky.
🚨 Foxanne Fury Returns 🚨
Another day, another distraction. While the real stories stay buried, Foxanne delivers the noise you never asked for—but can’t look away from.
Maybe by winter when I’m snowed in.
We have to get Starlink for the mountains.
https://meidasnews.com/news/gop-mocked-after-american-car-post-features-trump-with-soviet-vehicle
The official GOP account was hit with a community note after posting an image meant to promote Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful” bill for American car manufacturing. The post featured Trump standing in front of a bright yellow vehicle under the slogan “Making Automobiles Great Again.”
However, the car in question — identified by readers as a Soviet-made Lada 1200 (VAZ 2101) — is decidedly not American. It’s a Russian stock image, widely available online, and its use undercuts the post’s message about revitalizing U.S. manufacturing.
*Intentional distraction? Sabotage from within? Epstein money trail!
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/epstein-bank-records-ron-wyden-leon-black-b2799888.html
An investigation, from the office of Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, uncovered more than 4,700 transactions dating to 2003, including payments to women from Russia and eastern European countries.
More than $158 million came from Wall Street financier Leon Black between 2012 and 2017 for Epstein’s alleged tax support, according to Wyden’s report, and ultimately helped Black avoid more than $1 billion liabilities.
“None of these tax transactions Epstein performed were audited,” Wyden told reporters at a briefing Thursday. “It could have blown the lid off Epstein’s cover of being a financial genius … It looks like none of that ever happened … A bunch of federal officials were sleepwalking through this.”
In a letter to Donald Trump’s recently-appointed IRS Commissioner Billy Long, Wyden demanded a list of any and all audits involving Epstein, and whether the agency ever evaluated “the full scope” of his alleged tax planning services.
“I want the IRS to go back and make sure that there was actually tax advice being given rather than what I suspect was going on, which is a lot of payments revolving around sex trafficking,” Wyden said.
Wyden’s office uncovered “inexplicably large” sums that were funneled into Epstein’s accounts as well as “suspicious activity reports,” or SARS, which are recorded by banks as a means of detecting signs of illegal activity for federal law enforcement.
Bank of America reported potentially suspicious payments involving Black in February 2020 and October 2020, following Epstein’s death, according to Senate investigators.
“We’ve got paper trails, we’ve got account numbers, we’ve got federal files from where it all began with Leon Black,” Wyden told The Independent Wednesday.
Confidential bank reports, filed with the Treasury Department and IRS, could provide a vital look at the massive financing machine behind Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, which spanned New York City, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Insights have previously been limited to testimony and filings in litigation against him.
Filings uncovered by the senator’s office include $1.5 billion in transactions through four big banks, including wire transfers from wealthy figures over the sales of artwork, fees paid to Epstein, and payments to several women. But the banks appeared to have waited until Epstein’s arrest on federal charges to flag the transactions.
The largest suspicious activity report was filed in 2019 by JPMorgan for $1.1 billion, according to the senator’s office.
Other suspicious activity reports include a payment through Deutsche Bank totaling $400 million, $78 million from Bank of New York Mellon and Bank of America’s logs on Black’s payments to Epstein.
In 2023, JPMorgan paid $290 million to Epstein’s victims and Deutsche paid $75 million to settle lawsuits that claimed the banks ignored red flags surrounding trafficking allegations.
Wyden’s office also laid out steps for the Department of Justice to begin investigating “hundreds of millions of dollars in wire transfers” that passed through “several now-sanctioned Russian banks.”
“It appears that these wire transfers were correlated to the movement of women or girls around the world,” Wyden recently wrote to the Justice Department.
“At a time when so many Americans think that the political system is rigged, this is about whether there’s going to be accountability for the people who were involved and who enabled it, and the fact that so much money was being spent indicates that this was a global sex trafficking ring,” he added.
*Can’t find a recording of last night’s YouTube live.
Melania was trafficked?
we’re talking Maxwell now at
did try, must have missed it
Why Did the DOJ Move Ghislaine Maxwell? | Campfire Chat: Carolyn, Jamie, Renee & Foxanne
NBC News called tRUMP “Mr.”, not President.
Mr. tRUMP is saying don’t trust the jobs numbers because the government can’t be trusted.
Epstein!
Newest attempt by the Pedodent to distract from Eppy…nuclear subs.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-deploying-two-nuclear-subs-provocative-statements-russia-rcna222520
President Donald Trump said Friday that he has ordered the deployment of two U.S. nuclear submarines in response to what he called “highly provocative statements” from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about Russia’s nuclear capabilities.
Tension between the U.S. and Russia has escalated this week as Trump and Medvedev have exchanged threatening statements.
Trump added, “Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
In another post Friday, Trump spoke about the Russian and Ukrainian death tolls during their conflict and reiterated that it’s a war “that should have never happened — This is Biden’s War, not ‘TRUMP’s.’ I’m just here to see if I can stop it!”
The president’s pointed comment at Medvedev appeared to be in response to the Russian official’s Telegram post on Thursday in which he wrote that Trump should “revisit his favorite movies about the living dead and recall just how dangerous the mythical ‘Dead Hand’ can be.” Russia’s so-called Dead Hand system is a secret automatic or semiautomatic nuclear weapons control system developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Medvedev’s post seemed to respond to a Trump Truth Social post earlier in the day that said he doesn’t care if India and Russia “take their dead economies down together.”
“Tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!” Trump wrote.
Hair Hitler ain’t foolin’ nobody but the most foolish fools.
It’s not the wind turbines. The whales are starving.
https://futurism.com/scientists-alarmed-whales-silent
Elect a pervert, get perversion.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/cpb-says-it-is-shutting-down-after-being-defunded-by-congress-targeted-by-trump
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a cornerstone of American culture for three generations, announced Friday it would take steps toward its own closure after being defunded by Congress — marking the end of a nearly six-decade era in which it fueled the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content and even emergency alerts.
The demise of the corporation, known as CPB, is a direct result of President Donald Trump’s targeting of public media, which he has repeatedly said is spreading political and cultural views antithetical to those the United States should be espousing. The closure is expected to have a profound impact on the journalistic and cultural landscape — in particular, public radio and TV stations in small communities across the United States. CPB helps fund both PBS and NPR.
The corporation said its end, 58 years after being signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, would come in an “orderly wind-down.” In a statement, it said the decision came after the passage of a package that included defunding and the decision Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee to exclude funding for the corporation for the first time in over 50 years. The corporation had hoped that the new budget might restore its funding, but that did not happen.
Federal money for public radio and television has traditionally been appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes it to NPR and PBS. Roughly 70% of the money goes directly to the 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations across the country, although that’s only a shorthand way to describe its potential impact.
Trump, who has called the CPB a “monstrosity,” has long said that public broadcasting displays an extreme liberal bias, helped create the momentum in recent months for an anti-public broadcasting groundswell among his supporters in Congress and around the country. It is part of a larger initiative in which he has targeted institutions — particularly cultural ones — that produce content or espouse attitudes that he considers “un-American.” The CPB’s demise represents a political victory for those efforts.
*Elmo isn’t the only one who is pissed off.
I scored 11 out of 11 on the NYT news quiz even though I haven’t had time to read the NYT. Must be thanks to you guys.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/08/01/briefing/quiz-tsunami-nyc-shooting-tariffs.html?
Coming tomorrow in Chat Studio
Join the chat with your WHAT THE… recipes.
Once again, Microsoft software is at the center of a massive global attack that has victimized vital US government agencies and businesses around the world.
This time, the security hole is in SharePoint…
Tens of thousands of servers have been victimized. In addition to countless businesses, important government agencies have been hit as well.
The National Institutes of Health as well as the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is in charge of the nation’s nuclear security, are among the victims.
Other federal agencies hacked include the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which means the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were also affected. The list goes on.
According to the federal Cybersecuity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the hack allowed attackers to break into SharePoint servers and install a backdoor called “ToolShell,” giving them full access to all SharePoint content, including files and systems throughout enterprises. It also allowed hackers to remotely execute commands and completely take over SharePoint.
Putin’s like, “now to play this guy like a fiddle…”
So why was she moved? Are they engineering a prison break?
NEW THREAD