"Our politicians and our media, it appears, find it difficult to handle more than one conflict at a time. So as Mr Trump’s lunatic military escapade in and around Iran has stumbled on, the fighting in Ukraine has largely been forgotten, apart from occasional squeaks of fear or aggression from western leaders and pundits. Now that Iran seems to be settling into a long-term economic struggle that the US will lose, attention is shifting back North again, and we are suddenly realising that an awful lot has happened there since the beginning of the year.

"As usual, we do not understand what we are seeing, or why things are happening as they are. This is essentially because the western security complex does not understand Strategy and how it is applied, and does not care to understand Russia and its objectives. So I thought it was about time for this essay..."

https://aurelien2022.substack.com/p/the-russians-are-coming

Was pleasantly surprised this morning when New Guy and I actually had fun playing the two card games I designed after coffee. I have, however, learned a lot about the importance of exact language, and the ambiguity of such concepts as "a hand."

So annoying when a journalist writes a good, factual account of AI and how it doesn't actually deliver on its claims, but then feels the need to throw a bone to the AI-pilled with a "but it's still early days" caveat at the end. Like bruh, why? Is your editor making you do this? Is it to keep the AI-pilled trolls from filling up the comment section? What is it?

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/ai-coding-agents-generate-more-code-but-not-more-software/

Make sure to scroll down to the "staff pick" comment at the bottom, for an on-the-ground confirmation.

This Ronan Farrow interview has some important information with anyone struggling with getting their medicare/medicaid, private insurance, etc. due to "poor" customer service (tl;dw it's a bug not a feature).

edit: the link starts in the middle of the episode. ignore the thumbnail (unless you're a finance nerd who wants to watch the first half of the episode too).

https://youtu.be/9SAgLMahZm4?si=XKjYJj4CvTsjN6z2&t=1190

TIL that changes to a Tribal Constitution must be approved by the Dept. of the Interior, even after receiving member approval in an formal vote.

Also, TIL that from a lot of tribal member's perspective that's actually a good thing, which was not a take I was expecting.

"After numerous street actions, including two separate hunger strikes and sit-ins, New York City home care workers fighting to end round-the-clock shifts and institutionalized wage theft in the industry will return to City Hall on Oct. 3 to continue the struggle.

"They are expected to have allies, too, a growing community of fellow New Yorkers who’s integrity and sense of justice precludes them from turning a blind eye to the 24-hour workday just because it mainly impacts immigrant women of color.

[...]

"Celebrated scholar and feminist activist Silvia Federici was among the participants. Much of the discussion focused around City Council Speaker Julie Menin and how she is using her platform “not to uplift women,” but “do the opposite”—and “devalue care.” "

https://www.work-bites.com/view-all/federici

Trying to come up with a more descriptive term for the US political system than "democracy," since it obviously ain't that. I'm trying out "Aristo-oligarchic Politocracy," i.e. rule by a small sect of politicians and the super-rich. Going to start using it in normal conversation, and see how it goes...

Here's your economics lesson for the day: why de-dollarization is not actually a thing, no matter how much we may despise the US empire.

"As we have pointed out, many anti-globalists allow their distaste for US hegemony to color their readings of the current standing and prospects for the dollar. We have repeatedly stressed that well under 5% are for trade. The rest are financial flows. The big push to find alternative payment mechanisms is for trade, to prevent the US from using sanctions to choke cross-border commerce, as it has tried to do with only partial success with Iran. But getting more international goods payments to take place outside the dollar is not going to have much impact on the use of the dollar." ~Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/09/de-dollarization-is-a-youtube-urban-legend.html

Two days in a row now the 80+ year old Trump voter I have morning coffee with has said something to the effect of, "capitalism has made everybody greedy, and it needs to go." I don't know quite what to make of this. His main news sources are whatever comes in over the air (CBS, NBC, PBS, I think), meaning not a Fox viewer, but culturally pretty conservative. But he sounds like he could be a radical socialist sometimes (he watched a Mamdani interview and didn't find anything to disagree with), and he's placing the blame for our social problems squarely on "capitalism." I don't know if this is a wide spread thing among the more conservative types, but so far I'm finding it rather encouraging.

So this guy on an econ podcast randomly mentions that he's been working as an AI trainer, making $70 US/hr to proofread AI output from home...and apparently there are 30,000 people working on just one project. 🤔

https://youtu.be/ovzh7sHRXUY?si=C5HO2mtaeIUrchFh&t=3455

It's so good to see this in the MIT Tech Review. Let's hope the message gets through. 🤞Big props to @timnitGebru & @emilymbender for putting such a fine point on things!

"Instead of OpenAI being prosecuted for creating malware that hacked another company, press releases, news outlets, media personalities, and lawmakers refer to “rogue models” as if they acted on their own. Instead of researchers being questioned about their companies’ habit of plagiarizing academics’ work or using customer data to train models without consent, the public’s imagination is redirected to fears about what the future might hold upon the arrival of fictional superintelligent machines."

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1144867/dont-be-fooled-summer-ai-hype/

I predict this thing never actually comes online. It sounds like an engineering disaster waiting to happen.

https://montanafreepress.org/2026/09/18/broadview-area-data-center-sees-first-phase-of-construction-with-roads-well-work/

If you are now, or have ever been, an employee of the State of California, you should be paying attention to this:

"CalPERS has continued in its shameful tradition of grossly overpaying Marcie Frost via unwarranted annual compensation increases. And by “unwarranted,” we mean not just the total amount but also the fact that the lofty bonus amount is not justified under her existing compensation structure.

"Her total 2026 award was a $1.149,836 bonus. that plus her salary of $601,398 results in total pay of $1,751,234. That brings you to a record of 18.33% in publicly disclosed pay increases over her nine-year tenure at CalPERS.

"And those figures are not the sum total. Frost also received a non-disclosed long-term compensation award.

"Frost’s new salary for 2026/2027 is $641,250. Pray tell, since when are public officials entitled to salary increases that meaningfully exceed the rate of inflation?"

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/09/calpers-awards-marcie-frost-nearly-1-8-million-total-compensation-for-18-33-cagr-in-increases-since-hiring-in-violation-of-her-pay-parameters-board-dissenters-punished.html

technical difficulties have got us on pause...

I'll be talking to my buddy about how money works and where it comes from on today's META Politics stream. If you want to understand why the national debt is not a problem (but your personal debts are), tune in, starting in 15 minutes (10:30 am Mountain):
https://www.twitch.tv/meta_politics

Twist: they didn't discover a new cat, they just found out about it. The locals have known about it forever.

"In their paper, the researchers propose the cat should be known as Leopardus tilcayo, in honor of the word local people know it by. "We asked the local people, ‘Why do you call it tilcayo?’” says Nogales-Ascarrunz, who is herself from Bolivia. “And they said, ‘I don’t know! My grandpa called it tilcayo, so I call it tilcayo.” "

More on "AI" hacking.

https://www.effort.news/irregular

What ever happened to "move fast and break things," is what I'd like to know.

"Some of the most coveted minerals on the planet are concentrated just under the surface and sprinkled throughout eastern Congo. Here lies tantalum, tungsten, tin, and gold. The minerals that power the world’s handheld phones, guide its most advanced weapons, and the precious metal which undergirds the world’s sovereign reserves. One mine alone, in Rubaya in North Kivu, provides a substantial percentage of the coltan which refines into tantalum and that mine is administered, taxed, and operated by a rebel movement, not a government or corporation. It continues to churn out the product the world demands, a bit of which is in the device being used to read this very essay. A separate companion essay, “The Laundering,” will discuss the mechanics of this trade, how it works and why, but here the key consideration is the understanding of what the presence of this wealth has done to the region and the conflict raging above it."

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/09/africas-great-lakes-the-perpetual-violence-machine.html

I want to just sign-in from the homepage, schedule a meeting, and get a link without having to actually enter the meeting...and without having to accidentally stumble on the sign-in link in what amounts to an error message. 🤔