Listen, if simply 'not being a fascist when there is no other choice except a fascist' is not enough to earn your vote? Then that's how you get #fascism.

Yes, the USA needs a better system for voting. (I'd like to see 'ranked choice' or something similar.) But we've got the system we've got and, until we change it?

You suck it up and hold your nose. And if you are *really serious* about it? You make a *serious* effort to change things for the future.

#subtoot #uspol

So, to recap the Wikipedia article:

- Id – The most base cognition of all; focused on bodily needs, impulses, sexual drive, and desires

- Ego – Analyses complex inputs and synthesizing them into coherent interpretations using conceptual models (note: 'models')

- Superego – A further layer of conceptual processing which applies social and cultural rules; allowing humans to defer goals when needed to cooperate

[contd]

I'm beginning to think the ability of #LLMs to 'reason' is similar in some ways to how humans and other animals do it.

But, to explain what I mean, we need to refer back to a somewhat debunked theory of Sigmund Freud:

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_superego

I'm not going into the details here, so if you don't already know about the id, ego, and superego or don't want to read the Wikipedia article, you should probably peel off this thread here and move on…

#AI #consciousness #HumanCondition

Dammit! I misplaced the remote control.

To my toilet!

#MountainLiving

Follow up: More data.

> Eyebrows Raise When Elon Musk’s Twitter Engagement Shrivels After Destruction of Russian Data Centers. https://futurism.com/future-society/elon-musk-engagement-shrivels-destruction-russian-bot-farm

> “Woah, Elon Musk out here getting less than 5k likes on his tweets after the bot farm got exploded,” YouTuber Zack “Jerry Rig Everything” Nelson tweeted. A screenshot appended to the post shows Musk receiving 4,900 likes after responding “Wow” to a racist conspiracy theory that claims Brussels, Belgium, is “only 10.5 percent white.”

Screenshot or it isn't real.

OK, I found it! A #manga about working as a software drone where the boss lays off the person keeping it all going and then the company falls apart. It's a coder revenge fantasy and it even teaches #Python!

(Also? The main character is a female programmer into #cosplay.)

Review here:

> Fired? But I Maintain All the Software! https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/fired-but-i-maintain-all-the-software-volume-1-light-novel/.242460

Scanlation here if you want a taste before buying:

> https://mangadex.org/title/afcd0d75-582f-4693-8636-5d1ca23503d6/e-shanai-system-subete-wan-ope-shiteiru-watashi-wo-kaiko-desu-ka

I'm seeing people saying the Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centers resulted in fewer right-wing bots posting and I'm seeing people deny there was any change.

I say we settle this by applying the Scientific Method: Repeat the experiment multiple times.

#science #politics #SocialMedia #WTF

So, back in the #1970s there was this three-piece rock band named 'Brownsville Station'.

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownsville_Station_(band)

They weren't great. Really? They were a pretty good cover band who kind of topped out. They did have one top ten hit, 'Smokin' in the Boys Room'. (But even that was a cover.) And they had some originals.

But the important thing to know about them is, they toured *constantly*. I must have seen them open for half the acts who came through the #Seattle area back then.

#music

What is with the sudden onslaught of #AI apologists Sea Lioning on the #Fedi? Is it just that I haven't seen them before or is it really a new thing for everyone?

(I've seen three today. One was so bad I called him out to mark the account for others and blocked…)

#SocialMedia

Paul Krugman on #AI and #jobs.

> Will AI Crowd Out Jobs? https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/will-ai-crowd-out-jobs

> … so far all the evidence suggests that investment in data centers comes at the expense of other investments. As I argued last week, AI “crowds out” other potential uses of capital. Moreover, because data centers employ so few workers, the vast spending on AI currently taking place will also significantly reduce the demand for labor.

#economics #economy

Elizabeth Warren calls out Scott Bessent's bullshit and he responds by telling her to take an introductory economics course?

> Evidence Is Evidence: The Questions Scott Bessent Couldn’t Answer. https://emptywheel.net/2026/10/11/evidence-is-evidence-the-questions-scott-bessent-couldnt-answer/

Warren was a Republican voter and doctor of Law and an #Economics professor who did a study on bankruptcies — and then switched to the Democrats and ran for office because of what she learned in that study.

Scott Bessant has a BA in Political Science…

#uspol

Related (and what brought the above to mind):

> Flock Cameras Are Really Just the Start of Our Dystopian Surveillance Hell, Experts Warn. https://futurism.com/future-society/flock-axon-alpr-police-surveillance-cameras

FWIW? I think if we want privacy laws we need to start doing serious sousveillance of rich people. Cameras outside their houses. Drones tracking their outdoor activities. Publishing their car plate numbers and favorite restaurants.

Because if the rich feel they need #privacy we might get some change…

It seriously galls me to admit David Brin can be right about *anything*. But here is your reminder he predicted our current #privacy dystopia in 1998.

> The Transparent Society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transparent_Society

Sadly few have read this book. But if you feel privacy is a human right (as I do) then you might want to pick up a copy. It isn't a perfect predictor of today's world, but it nails certain aspects and their related politics.

And it suggests some fixes we should consider. Like 'sousveillance'…

Is this why you should eat your salad first?

> Eating olive oil before carbs has a surprising effect on blood sugar. Eating fat before carbs dramatically reduced blood sugar spikes in mice, revealing a surprisingly simple strategy that could help people manage blood sugar. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/10/261008102700.htm

Wouldn't it be funny if this turns out to be the whole and entire secret of the 'Mediterranean Diet' health claims?

#science #health #diabetes

Followup:

The creator of ArtCraft has moved his sights from Adobe to Microsoft. As I said above, "#genAI can disintermediate every major software vendor…"

I hear you saying, "Disintermediate with *slop* maybe." But quality isn't the point here. Disrupting business models *is*.

> Creator of free Adobe clones unveils open-source Microsoft Office Excel, PowerPoint, and Word replications — Autodesk tools and other subscription-based services may come next. https://www.tomshardware.com/software/microsoft-office/creator-of-free-adobe-clones-unveils-open-source-microsoft-office-excel-powerpoint-and-word-replications-autodesk-tools-and-other-subscription-based-services-may-come-next

#AI #software

That said, I'm going to make a prediction. I'm not basing this on any special knowledge I have. I'm not claiming any special expertise.

I'm just going by past experience with the current mis-Administration…

My prediction? The Russia deal is not going to bring down diesel prices in any significant way. It will soon be clear it is, at best, a propaganda play meant to reduce the heat on the GOP before the midterms.

Can Russia ship enough diesel to change world market prices? I doubt it.

[contd]

We don't know the exact shape of the Russia deal yet, but we can be certain of one thing: It does not mean Russia will be shipping diesel *in* to the USA in order to replace the diesel USA producers are shipping *out*. Instead it will allow Russia to ship diesel to the higher paying customers on the world market; as opposed to the lower paying customers willing to sidestep sanctions.

The goal is to reduce the world market price for diesel.

[contd]

I got curious if diesel futures are reflecting the Orange One's 'deal' with Russia to supply the fuel in return for cutting sanctions.

They have gone *up* slightly…

> https://www.barchart.com/futures/quotes/HOPAUS01.CM

This is important because the reason diesel prices in the USA are so high is because the world market price for diesel is high and USA producers are *exporting* the fuel to meet world demand.

So, what does the Russia deal *do*?

[contd]

#uspol #energy #markets

I wonder if the #vibcoding prompt was, "Fuck Adobe."

> https://getartcraft.com/
> https://github.com/storytold/artcraft

There's a real story here and it isn't, "Some random dude can vibecode the entire Adobe suite." It's, "#genAI can disintermediate every major software vendor. It's a technology capable of ripping off *everyone*; including the #AI companies who created it. And it couldn't have happened if they hadn't ripped off their training data to begin with."

Seeds of self-destruction.

#graphics #WTF