Notices by Guillotine Jones, Flâneur (guillotine_jones@beige.party), page 2

Generative Ai is waging a war on financial sanity:
"Between 2001 and 2014, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost the US an estimated $1.5 trillion to $1.7 trillion in direct spending. Global AI spending, according to Gartner, is forecast to reach nearly $1.5 trillion this year, putting today's AI boom in the same cash-burning league as two major wars."
I'd say the the pace of Ai spending is in a league of its own.
When this bubble bursts -- as it soon will -- the effects will be far reaching.
Will the perpetrators get off unscathed while the rest of us underwrite their escape?
https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/24/ai_spending_cooling_off/
#Economics #PoliticalEconomy #Ai #Bubble

@skinnylatte @idzie
These baby gulls are about as cute as baby pigeons, Adrianna.
(Not very, in other words. But I'm NOT their mom.)

California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom helpfully shared 2 logos that Trump has created for 2 Washington, DC landmarks.
#USPolitics #GavinNewsom #Trump #KennedyCenter #TrumpEpsteinCenter

@skinnylatte @index
You go, Adrianna!

:loading: In case you were wondering, yes, some of the Dutch cloth inspectors depicted in the banner image on my profile page ARE judging you. But they're also judging me.
This was possibly immortal artist Rembrandt's last great group portrait.
By 1662 when, "Syndics of the Drapers' Guild," was unveiled, Rembrandt had perfected the Baroque technique of making it appear that the eyes of the figures in the painting could follow the viewer around the room.
So no matter from what angle you observe this masterpiece, some of the masters in it will be watching you in judgment. Choose to focus on the judgers or the non-judgers, as the spirit moves you.
The animated GIF in my avatar image is the late esteemed and immortal thriller director Alfred Hitchcock.
That's NOT a guillotine behind Mr Hitchcock. The great British auteur is managing his figure by working out on an exercise device in his California home. :loading:

Elon Musk in the News!

"Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has built its sprawling data center using more than 2,000 metric tons of Chinese-made transformers, a security risk that could leave it vulnerable to espionage or sabotage."
But, heck, that's allowed Musk to save money from his US government contracts to stick in his pocket.

https://oligarchwatch.substack.com/p/musks-ai-supercomputer-used-by-us

#ElonMusk #SecurityRisk #AI #China #USGovernment

@art_histories @carstenfranke @raymierussell
Did NOT know of the Breugel painting satirizing the 17th century Dutch tulip mania.
Thank YOU for sharing, Ms Histories!

John Mastodon sez:
Put a content warning on your posts and give Fedizens a decent clue about what you're hiding, and see your interactions increase.

@WarnerCrocker
To dogs we say, "Go, dogs, go"!
To Fall we say, "Fall, Fall, fall."

Ed Zitron's latest post stating the case against generative Ai is worth every minute it takes to read it.
It's big.
You may need to digest it in chunks.
So far, though, I haven't been able to look away from it.
A small sample:
"Every CEO talking about AI replacing workers is an example of the real problem: that most companies are run by people who don’t understand or experience the problems they’re solving, don’t do any real work, don’t face any real problems, and thus can never be trusted to solve them. The Era of the Business Idiot is the result of letting management consultants and neoliberal “free market” sociopaths take over everything, leaving us with companies run by people who don’t know how the companies make money, just that they must always make more." -Ed Zitron
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-against-generative-ai/
#Capitalism #Computing #Management #LLM #Ai #Economics #Bubble #EdZitron

@sundogplanets
I'm willing to hazard a guess that the Fediverse will come through for you in your call for temporary farm hands to make your New Zealand trip happen, Prof Lawler.
Fediverse, pleez show us what you can do!

Trump owns two homes in the US state of Virginia.
Is he claiming tax breaks on both of them as primary residences -- as he's doing in an attempt to discredit a member of the Federal Reserve Board whom he wants to fire, and a US Senator who ran one of his impeachments?
Also, his Treasury Secretary has also been caught with his hand in this particular cookie jar.
The rule with Trump is: Every accusation is a confession.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/article/the-definitive-networth-of-donaldtrump/
#USPolitics #TrumpsNetWorth #TaxEvasion #Corruption ##ConvictedFelonTrump #Trump

@fesshole
You could have asked the cat to get you a glass, Fesshole.
Next time, I guess.

Michael Cohen on president dumbass's recent dinner with the captains of capitalism:
"The hypocrisy is staggering. These moguls love to talk about “innovation,” “disruption,” “the future.” But innovation here means automation that kills jobs. Disruption means deregulation that pads their profits. The future they’re building isn’t one where your life gets easier; it’s one where you’re monitored, monetized, and left holding the bill. They speak the language of progress while practicing the art of extraction."
https://therealmichaelcohen.substack.com/p/billionaires-feast-while-the-nation
#USPolitics #TechBros #Trump

Your tax dollars at work keeping USian streets safe:
US Customs and Border Patrol Wednesday sent agents to check the immigration papers of firefighting crews who were in the middle of fighting Washington state’s biggest wildfire of the year, hauling off two members of a privately contracted wildland fire crew.
Federal deportation stormtroopers spent nearly 3 hours harrasing firefighters who were working to contain the Bear Gulch Fire, which has been burning since early July.
Sadistic fiend Stephen Miller must be proud.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/a-song-of-ice-and-firefighters-border
#Deportations #Firefighters #WashingtonState #BearGulchFire

@AspiringLuddite @RamenCatholic
I tried to read a bit of the information about their beliefs. After mere seconds, I decided to stick with my Pastafarianism.
May his noodly appendages splash sauce on you.
Ramen.
PS: Quick question: Do the Orphic Pythagoreans bury buses?

"This piece contains graphic descriptions of trauma and suicide. If you are a veteran in crisis, please call or text 988 and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line. You are not alone.

My name is Kris Goldsmith. I’m a U.S. Army veteran, a suicide attempt survivor, and someone who’s spent the last 18 years fighting for the lives of my fellow veterans. What you’re about to read isn’t an academic article—it’s a warning. I’ve seen firsthand what happens when the federal government abandons those who served. I lived it. And now, I’m watching a new administration recreate the very conditions that nearly killed me."
Veteran lays out the potential for deadly impact as the chucklefucks in the Musk/Trump regime continue to degrade the Veterans Administration.
https://onoffense.substack.com/p/trump-and-musks-war-on-government
#Veterans #USPolitics #VA #Musk #Trump #Suicide #VA

@cwebber
It just clicked for me, Christine, that Ai-generated media is today's equivalent of Nazi art, Soviet statues, North Korean banners, and Communist Chinese billboards from the '60s and '70s.
They're all in service of brutal power, not the uplift that Art can be.
#Art #Propaganda #Ai #UncannyValley

What do the soulless moneybags behind convicted felon Trump's regime really want?
Economist James K. Galbraith has a theory:
"Like all feudal lords, they want untrammeled power and insecure, obedient serfs—and for this, the vast social services operation that is the US federal government must be cut back, along with the professional classes who form the modern core of the Democratic Party. The words of Andrew Mellon (as recalled by Herbert Hoover) come to mind: “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Purge the rottenness out of the system.… enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.” The problem the oligarchs face, and possibly do not understand, is that they cannot do this, any more now than then, without bringing the economy to ruin—from which recovery will be possible only with the competent government they are now working to destroy."
https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/trump-tariffs-stock-market/
#Economy #USEconomy #USPolitics #Trump

Tomorrow, March 14, 2025, veterans across the country will mobilize against Trump’s attacks on democracy, the VA, and the rule of law.
This mass mobilization, dubbed the Veterans March, is a direct response to a cascade of constitutional and moral crises under the Trump-Musk administration. From the gutting of veterans' healthcare and federal jobs to the open embrace of authoritarian erosions of our Constitutional order and the rule of law, MAGA Republicans have declared war on America's veterans.
There are going to be hundreds, if not thousands, of veterans from around the country descending on Washington, D.C., and gathering in state capitals nationwide. They are not marching as partisans, nor as members of any single political movement. They are marching as defenders of the oath they swore—to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. --Kristopher Goldsmith
https://onoffense.substack.com/p/veterans-march-constitution
#USPolitics #Veterans #14thAmendment #Demonstrations #Resistence