Odin's B-Log

I POST STUFF. OFTEN POLITICS. SOMETIMES NOT. HAVE A NICE DAY.

[odinsblog]

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[odinsblog]

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[theinternetarchive]

nina simone and james baldwin by richard avedon, 1963.

[jacobwren]

"But AI can't do your job. It can help you do your job, but that doesn't mean it's going to save anyone money. Take radiology: there's some evidence that AIs can sometimes identify solid-mass tumors that some radiologists miss, and look, I've got cancer. Thankfully, it's very treatable, but I've got an interest in radiology being as reliable and accurate as possible. If my Kaiser hospital bought some AI radiology tools and told its radiologists: "Hey folks, here's the deal. Today, you're processing about 100 x-rays per day. From now on, we're going to get an instantaneous second opinion from the AI, and if the AI thinks you've missed a tumor, we want you to go back and have another look, even if that means you're only processing 98 x-rays per day. That's fine, we just care about finding all those tumors." If that's what they said, I'd be delighted. But no one is investing hundreds of billions in AI companies because they think AI will make radiology more expensive, not even if that also makes radiology more accurate. The market's bet on AI is that an AI salesman will visit the CEO of Kaiser and make this pitch: "Look, you fire 9/10s of your radiologists, saving $20m/year, you give us $10m/year, and you net $10m/year, and the remaining radiologists' job will be to oversee the diagnoses the AI makes at superhuman speed, and somehow remain vigilant as they do so, despite the fact that the AI is usually right, except when it's catastrophically wrong. "And if the AI misses a tumor, this will be the human radiologist's fault, because they are the 'human in the loop.' It's their signature on the diagnosis." This is a reverse centaur, and it's a specific kind of reverse-centaur: it's what Dan Davies calls an "accountability sink." The radiologist's job isn't really to oversee the AI's work, it's to take the blame for the AI's mistakes. This is another key to understanding – and thus deflating – the AI bubble. The AI can't do your job, but an AI salesman can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job. This is key because it helps us build the kinds of coalitions that will be successful in the fight against the AI bubble." - Cory Doctorow, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI

[landsccape]

[wolfmons]

[kosmogrl]

[lumsel]

There's an open pit in the middle of our office plan that drops down into a bunch of very sharp spikes that kill you instantly. This is bad. People keep falling in there and dying. Someone put a sign up, the other day, all bright yellow so you can't miss it, that says "Beware!!! Spikes!!!"

The office immediately split into two factions over it. One says that if anyone falls in the spike pit it's their own fault for being so stupid and not watching where they're walking, so we should remove the sign. The other says that the sign is an insult, there shouldn't be a spike pit in our office at all, and having the sign up like that is just normalising the existence of the spike pit, so we should remove the sign.

We ended up removing the sign. Probably for the better. Still... for a while there it looked like it might have worked...

[unusual-pybro]

[m1dori-eyes]

Nobody has ever been capable of writing a scathingly harsh and well formulated satire about the perils of modern capitalism, that doesn't just get immediately one-upped by some random food service worker talking about their actual week.

[yankeeblue]

Wu Tang Clan with the New York Knicks NBA Championship

[odinsblog]

[odinsblog]

[odinsblog]

This post is “potentially mature content” apparently

[unbfacts]

[odinsblog]

[eggsaladstain]

GO OFF BESTIE

Source

[its-funnytwittertweets]

[dragonpyre]

[sevastiel]

[odinsblog]

Playing both sides. Jared Kushner is all about cutting deals. But for whom?

1981, Jared Kushner is born in Livingston, New Jersey.

1990s, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Kushner's New Jersey home, reportedly sleeping in Jared's bedroom and shooting hoops with him in their driveway.

1999, Kushner, no academic standout, enters Harvard. He was accepted after his father, Charles, pledged $2.5 million to be paid after Jared's matriculation.

2005, Charles Kushner gets two years in prison after pleading guilty to 18 counts of tax evasion, illegal campaign donations, and witness tampering. He hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, a tryst he secretly filmed and sent to his sister.

2006, Kushner buys the New York Observer for $10 million, money he says he earned doing real estate deals during college. He reportedly goes on to order hit jobs against family foes.

2007, Kushner Company buys 666 Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion, nearly all borrowed, the most ever paid for an NYC office tower.

2008, mortgage meltdown. Kushner sells a 49% stake in the building's retail space for $525 million.

2009, Kushner marries Ivanka Trump in lavish ceremony, complete with Regis Philbin crooning at a Trump Golf Club.

2010, 666 Fifth Avenue is appraised at $820 million, less than half what the Kushners paid.

2011, occupancy at 666 Fifth Avenue plummets in a refinance bid. Kushner Companies sells off a nearly 50% stake in its office space.

2011-2013, Kushner's family donates to multiple foundations that support West Bank settlements.

2015, Kushner negotiates with Qatari Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabbar al-Tani, HB, former head of Qatar's Sovereign Wealth Fund, seeking his personal $500 million investment in 666 Fifth Avenue.

2016, Kushner helps run his father-in-law's presidential campaign. After Trump is elected, UAE leader Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nanyan cancels a meeting with President Barack Obama to meet with Kushner instead. Russian official Krill Dmitriev sets out to make Kushner a Kremlin asset.

January 2017, Trump is sworn in. Kushner becomes a senior White House advisor, but retains the vast majority of his interest in Kushner companies. He also forms a back-channel personal relationship with Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman, MBS, including trips to Riyadh and private texting sessions.

March 2017, 666 Fifth Avenue refinancing scuttled amid concerns over Kushner's conflicts of interest. HB pulls out.

April 2017, Charles Kushner lobbies Qatari government to invest in 666 Fifth Avenue. No dice.

May 2017, Kushner discusses a blockade of Qatar designed to weaken Iran with Saudi and Emirati officials.

June 2017, Qatar blockade brings Gulf to the brink of war. According to Kushner biographer Vicky Ward, Qatari's intercept the move as Kushner saying, If you don't pay my father, the Americans are going to sanction an invasion of your country.

August 2017, 666 Fifth Avenue still flailing. Vanity Fair asks, Is Jared Kushner the world's worst real estate investor?

February 2018, the Washington Post reveals that multiple countries have discussed manipulating Kushner via financial entanglements.

March 2018, MBS brags to UAE leader that he has Kushner in his pocket, The Intercept reports.

April 2018, Trump meets with Qatari Emir in Oval Office. New Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declares that Qatar blockade must end.

May 2018, Kushner's are finalizing a deal with Qatar-backed company to bail out 666 Fifth Avenue. Trump overrides his own intelligence officials to grant Kushner a top secret security clearance.

October 2018, MBS agents brutally murdered Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

2020, Trump puts Kushner in charge of solving the Middle East. Abraham Accords eased tensions between Israel and Gulf states, but offered nothing for Palestinians. A deal Hamas vows to undermine.

December 2020, Trump pardons Charles Kushner.

January 21st, 2021, as President Joe Biden takes over, Kushner launches Affinity Partners, a private equity firm that goes on to secure billions in investments from Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar.

February 2022, Biden administration sanctions Russia's Dmitriev.

August 2022, The New York Times savages Breaking History, Kushner's soulless new memoir. Kushner's fealty to Trump remains absolute.

October 7th, 2023, Hamas attacks Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Israel launches a retaliation campaign that will reduce Gaza to rubble, kill at least 72,500 Gazans and injure 172,000 more.

February 2024, Kushner insists he won't play a role in the second Trump administration. He also says Israel should consider permanently relocating Palestinians, in part because Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable.

March 2024, Affinity announces a plan to develop a hyper-luxury resort in a protected wilderness area in Albania, considered the jewel of the Adriatic.

November 2024, Trump, elected to a second term, says he'll make Charles Kushner America's ambassador to France.

January 2025, Affinity becomes the top shareholder of Phoenix Financial, reportedly linked to Israeli settlements.

September 2025, UN Commission finds Israel guilty of genocide in Gaza. Forbes proclaims Kushner a billionaire. Kushner brokers a $55 billion purchase with Saudi Arabia and video game giant Electronic Arts. MBS loves video games.

October 2025, Kushner and Trump special envoy and business partner, Steve Witkoff, announce Gaza ceasefire. Israel continues to occupy most of Gaza.

November 2025, Kushner and Witkoff propose a unilateral peace plan that cedes territory to Russia, bars Ukraine from NATO membership, and caps Ukraine's military capacity. It was drafted solely by Dmitriev, according to The Insider.

January 2026, Trump appoints Kushner and Witkoff to the executive board of his new Board of Peace, which builds itself as a peace building body focused on, but not limited to, Gaza. Among its founding members, Qatar, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.

February 2026, Trump names Kushner his new envoy for peace. Kushner and Witkoff lead Iran negotiations despite limited experience and Kushner's business ties to Iran's foes. Negotiations fail. NYT OpEd: The Trump team is running foreign policy like a Trump subsidiary.

March 2026, US and Israel attack Iran, which closes the Strait of Hormuz. Affinity assets top $6 billion, as Kushner solicits more funds from Iran's adversaries. Technically, I have not joined the administration, he insists, adding that he's just a volunteer.

April 2026, Trump announces a potential bailout of UAE, now struggling as a result of Kushner's diplomatic failures. As the war drags on and fuel prices soar, Democrats launch an investigation amid mounting reports that Mr. Kushner is wielding diplomatic powers in the Middle East while soliciting billions of dollars in capital from foreign powers whose interests diverge sharply from those of the American people.

(source)

[liberalsarecool]

Israel holds the cards. They have the Epstein blackmail details on Trump.

Most elected Republicans are on the same boat. You can't get that level of subordination to a much smaller country without some sort of extortion. Robert Maxwell and Ghislaine Maxwell made their fortunes blackmailing.

You do not infiltrate without the goods.

[odinsblog]

👉🏿 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/buried-new-defence-budget-plan-to-merge-us-israeli-militaries

👉🏿 https://theintercept.com/2026/07/22/ndaa-defense-bill-pentagon-israel-massie/

👉🏿 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/07/23/controversial-us-israeli-tech-provision-remains-house-defense-bill/

[nature-travel-photography]

The Netherlands - Author: SoftlyUnhingeddd

[rrondo]