Maybe Some Kings

I completed all of my quest objectives, but Stuff still Happened.

So what's up?

No Kings Again Still

This weekend saw worldwide protests as people took to the streets to march in opposition to the current administration in the United States.

Dubbed the "No Kings" protests (or "No Tyrants" if you're in a place where there… is… Kings…), it was the latest round of protests under the same name.

Estimates put the total participation across the US at around 7 million people, which would put it at the 3rd largest single-day protest in US history, and the largest in 55 years. The Trump administration and elected Republican leaders referred to the protest as a "hate America rally" and "anti-American." The President himself posted a few AI generated videos, as he loves doing now for some reason. One of the videos portrayed himself wearing a king's crown while flying a fighter jet over protestors before dropping large amounts of what appears to be diarrhea on the protesting citizens. Certainly was a choice.

Casual assessments of the crowds show a wide variety of attendees, ranging in age, race, gender, background, political affiliation, and probably zodiac signs. The protests were overwhelmingly tame, with little to no notable escalation with law enforcement to speak of. It was a bunch of disgruntled voters marching in opposition to government overreach. That's it.

As we get a clearer picture of how it all played out, I'll cover any updates.

As for the reactions, a reminder to some folks: it takes all forms of action. A common take among online leftists regarding this rally was to be cynical and talk about how it's useless and doesn't accomplish anything. I strongly disagree with this assessment, because it assumes the intent of the rally was to spark some kind of violent revolution, which was not the point.

Tame, organized, peaceful, sign-waving marches have their place. They create spectacle for the masses. Most people are completely disengaged. Seeing a growing number of millions of people willing to physically go out and march is genuine progress in the US compared to the average American being so apathetic towards the state of our country that we end up getting our current administration.

No, the 65-year-old white folks aren't taking to the streets to spark the revolution. But I'll take 65-year-old people who understand that there is a problem over 65-year-old people who want to stick their head in the sand. Everyone radicalizes at a different pace. We can chip in or we can complain about it.

Stateside

Shutdown, Day 20

Twenty whole days! It's like ten days, but twice.

The United States government has entered day 20 of the shutdown, making this the third longest shutdown in US history. Right now, it's looking like it may continue breaking records, as nothing has meaningfully changed in congress.

In an effort to stave off military family ire for a bit longer, Trump directed the Pentagon to reallocate money for payroll. That'll cover a little bit but won't do much beyond this month, and members of the military may still miss their paydays.

And while the White House is signed orders to ensure military members are paid, they've been laying off other employees by the thousands, to the point that a judge has issued a block on further layoffs for the time being.

It's a mess! Who woulda thunk it. The guy who presided over the longest shutdown in US history is presiding over what may likely be the new longest shutdown in US history.

I, personally, am affected by this because I went for a hike recently and the lavatory at the visitor center in the park was closed, so I had to become one with nature.

Shitty Text Messages

Politico published a report detailing thousands of leaked Telegram messages tied to a "Young Republicans" National organization. The messages were Not Wonderful™️.

The chats were about as vile as you'd expect. It's almost as if the young conservative movement is fueled by stoking racism while picking at the open, festering wound of lost opportunity and the very real sense of isolation and shame felt by young men who have come of age in a culture that has uplifted the worst of us to heights previously only held by literal Gods and therefore standing no chance at navigating the incredible complexity of adulthood—uh

What was I saying? Oh, yeah—racists.

Vice President Jimmothy-Dean Vance, when asked about the racists, said, "well that's just what kids are like." He went on to say that we shouldn't be a country where making a stupid, offensive joke ruins your life. And like, hey, agreed. Within reason.

What that doesn't address is that these were not "kids," in fact the folks involved were whole-ass adults: 24 to 35. The "Young Republicans" organization itself considers "Young Republican" to mean 18 to 40 years of age. These folks are active political agents working to further agendas with funding and support from the GOP.

The Young Republican National Federation (the actual group) called for the folks to step down, though many of the people involved are crying "fake" or some variation of "this is persecution" because personal responsibility is just uncool.

Anyway, hot take: J.D. Vance is correct. I mean, he's wrong, too. These people are not kids, and they very well should be held accountable for their horrific statements and have no place in modern society. But what he's right about is "kids, especially young boys, say dumb and edgy shit constantly."

He's absolutely right on that, but of course stops short of the next logical step there. He should have followed with, "…which is in itself a cultural issue we must address, as the normalization of dehumanizing our fellow man is antithetical to the American project." But I mean, that'd be too normal.

If a country's youth's behavior can be used to excuse 30-something-year-old chuds for overt racism and suggestions to put political opponents into gas chambers, then maybe that country's youth's behavior should be considered a big fucking problem.

Alaska Disaster

On October 12th, remnants of a typhoon crashed into southwestern Alaska. Coastal towns—primarily those of indigenous folks—were all but annihilated. Flooding in the area surged past previous records. Homes were lifted off their foundations and floating far enough that they could crash into one another.

Here's an excerpt from reporting by AlaskaPublic.org:

Carl said houses that were pushed off their foundations are scattered across Kipnuk. He was in a house with 14 family members during the storm, six of them children, when the four-bedroom house started drifting around 2 a.m. At one point he yelled at his family to brace when it looked like they were going to strike another house. He estimates his home traveled half a mile before it came to rest.

Residents of the towns had spent days sheltering in facilities without working heat or toilets in some cases. The Alaska National Guard has been deployed. Their state guard Major General has noted this may be "the largest off-the-road-system response for the National Guard in about 45 years." Local officials estimate it may be more than a year before folks can return home.

The people who have been displaced have a deep connection to their home. To them, it's more than just their town. It's the place they are connected to. It's their source of life and prosperity. While the National Guard was able to evacuate many of the residents after a few days, some were still hesitant to leave at all, even with their homes having washed away entirely.

If you would like to donate to support relief efforts in the area, here's a link to do just that. If you're someone in the general vicinity of that area, there's also a whole lot of community-led donation drives and fundraisers happening.

Elsewhere

Ceasefire Never Mind

The ceasefire that Israel and Hamas agreed to laid out by the United States lasted almost long enough for me to get a new issue drafted. Unfortunately, as most anyone should have expected, Israel has violated the ceasefire dozens of times already, including an aerial bombardment in the area of Rafah.

Israel claims the strikes happened in response to Hamas firing at Israeli troops and tanks, to which Hamas responded by saying they are cut off from that area to begin with.

It's hard to believe Israel's claims here, since they also claimed virtually ever single hospital, school, faith center, and refugee camp in Gaza was secretly "a Hamas cover." That was their justification for destroying or damaging every single hospital in the Gaza strip. All of them.

There has also been a spike in armed militias fighting in the region, resulting in the deaths of folks who have been trying to return to the rubble that was once their homes. Once of the people killed by militias was Saleh Aljafarawi, a 28-year-old Palestinian journalist who had been documenting the conflict with videos on social media for the past two years.

I wish it wasn't this overtly evil, but to layer on top of that, we have confirmation that the Israeli government has been providing those very same militias with the weapons they're using to cause the havoc that Israel is in turn using as justification to keep going with their assault. Top level cabinet members including Netanyahu himself signed off on the move to arm militias, circumventing normal policy approval procedures.

I WONDER WHY THAT WOULD BE.

While this is all happening, prisoners held in Israel who have been returned to Palestine (at a rate of over 100 Palestinians per Israeli prisoner) described conditions in the Israeli prisons as inhumane and torturous. Prisoners were tortured to the point of losing limbs, vision, or life. You can read more of their stories here. Be aware, it is brutal.

Where we stand is more or less where we expected: Israel is actively attacking Gaza still, demanding that Hamas return the bodies of Israeli prisoners who are buried under massive piles of rubble from the bombing campaigns. The physical means to retrieve those bodies do not exist in Gaza at this point.

It was never meant to be a meaningful ceasefire. It was to get the world off of Trump's back for a bit while Netanyahu attempts to continue the genocide which he has spent his entire life and political career actively advocating for.

Russia / Ukraine

Russia's war on Ukraine is still raging on. As Russia stepped up their drone strikes, Ukraine deepened their targets in Russia's mainland.

Earlier this month, Russia hit Ukraine with a huge drone and missile strike in Kyiv. Ukraine and Russia have been trading blows targeting energy systems as we head into the winter months. Ukraine recently sent dozens of missiles at oil refineries in Russia, cutting their refining capacity down by a fifth.

While hopes for peace talks remain, it's slow going. Zelensky has argued that Putin is leveraging a distracted world (Irsrael / Gaza) to get away with ramped up strikes. He is now asking Trump for access to a supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which would put Ukraine in a far more threatening position against Russia. At time of writing, the White House has said no to that request.

France is Having a Time, Too

France's government is having a hard time keeping itself together. Or rather, I should probably say France's President Emmanuel Macron is having a hard time keeping his political pants on.

For a bit more than a year now, France has had a rotating door of Prime Ministers and government coalitions. Last summer, France's far right party won an unexpectedly high percentage of seats in parliament. Macron tried to force a re-do of the elections, which resulted in the far right party getting even more seats. Since then, Macron has been trying to hold together his government with mud, spit, and prayers.

Meanwhile, citizens of France have been demonstrating against the government in huge numbers, demanding a reversal in budget cuts, raided retirement age, and reduced civil spending. Three major protests have already happened, with more on the way. Nationwide general strikes organized by unions, as well as civil unrest and strategic disobedience have brought France to a standstill multiple times in the past few months.

This is ongoing, and France is still in a politically shitty situation. Their budget proposals are deeply unpopular, parliament can barely operate, Macron has been keeping power by using a statute which lets him bypass parliament to pass laws, and nobody is happy. Oh, also the leader of the opposition party was found guilty of embezzling and is not allowed to hold office for five years, so that's fun, too.

Science & Tech

Sora

OpenAI recently launched Sora, an AI-powered "social media" infinite scrolling video feed app. It's like TikTok, but instead of content, literally everything is AI generated slop. Quite literally—anyone with access to the app (which is limited to access keys currently) can just tell the app to generate a video, and it will do so, and then let you post it to a feed of other videos made by other people.

It is dumber than it sounds, to be clear.

Of course the app immediately ran into myriad issues with copyright and abuse, including the ability to generate video of copyrighted characters and even just normal people. Those with a malfunctioning frontal lobe could also volunteer to let their likeness be used intentionally in the generated videos, resulting in some classics such as CCTV footage of Sam Altman shoplifting.

Lawyers from Hollywood to Japan are having a field day, at least. OpenAI says they were not expecting copyright issues, having launched an "opt out" option for copyright holders, which is actually hilarious.

"Hey, guys, we can fix the issue of copyright by saying anyone who holds a copyright which may show up in our video generator can just ask for us to not show that! That'll fix it."
—Probably someone at OpenAI

Opting out of having your intellectual property or personal image used in a generated video of them doing a Nazi salute is not a great way to go about things.

All of this also skirts one very large elephant in this room: the app can generate copyrighted content, which means it was almost definitely generated on such content without the copyright holder's knowledge, which has of course been the hallmark of all AI projects so far.

I won't hold my breath for this to be the thing that finally sparks meaningful regulation about training AI models and such, but I'm here for pretty much any time someone wants to sue Sam Altman.

Anatomy of a Depresso

Scientists may have discovered clues to better understand and possibly treat depression.

Researchers at McGill University and the Douglas Institute examined the brains of 100 cadavers of people with and without depression in an attempt to isolate what identifying factors they could. What they found was evidence of altered states of two specific types of brain cells, the type of which I don't know how to pronounce intelligently.

We've known for a long time that depression is physiological in nature, not just "being sad." Of course, that's not put an end to the notion for some folks. Regardless, we've now got better insight into specific brain cells to monitor and further research.

Unfortunately, this doesn't mean we now know how it all works and can just start fixing people's brains. Correlation doesn't mean causation. There's more research yet to do. For starters, these were all cadaver brains, so we don't know if the affected cells were different before they died.

Still, as someone who takes pills to keep my brain from giving up on everything, I appreciate the progress.

Here's the Weather

More Stuff

• A guy who worked at the Department of Energy in nuclear oversight has lost his job and security clearance after he was caught backing up almost 200,000 porn images on the government's network. It was his life-long collection.
• Rite-Aid has officially closed all of their storefronts
• The US Passport has slipped out of the top 10 most versatile passports—as in, how many places you can travel with it. We were number 1 a decade ago.
• OpenAI plans to allow ChatGPT to act like your friend or lover, including sexting, which is a very safe and good idea (sarcasm)
• A man discovered a 4,270-year-old human skull in Indiana