Levka

Lev Zadov is not my real name. I expropriated it from a dead man. He wasn’t using it. It wasn’t his real name, anyway. It was his dead name. Dead names aren’t real. In real life he went by Zinkovsky. I’m not particular about my own pronouns. We’re all on the same side of the Class War. "He/him/they" works. I also respond to "yo," "soup’s on," and "freeze motherfucker!" I call other people by whatever pronouns and/or aliases that they say they want to be called by. It’s only polite.

Public Key

npub1et6yknexrshka5dfs72x20g5qv5h37494qp4rrqqrs4ecmkxxjps64e5sv

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsv4aztfunpctmw6x5c09r9852qx2tcl2j6sq633sqpc2uudmrrfqcprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyqqk0m6a7

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1et6yknexrshka5dfs72x20g5qv5h37494qp4rrqqrs4ecmkxxjps64e5sv

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Last Notes

2026-09-05 20:22:33 UTC

#Ukaine
"'15 years in prison – just because he opposes the war': voices from Germany call for the release of Bogdan Syrotiuk
On Sunday, 6 September, at 3 p.m., the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) will hold a rally at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin demanding the immediate release of 27-year-old Ukrainian socialist and antiwar campaigner Bogdan Syrotiuk.
On 10 August 2026, he was convicted for 'high treason.' The sole 'evidence' presented against him consisted of articles he wrote for the World Socialist Web Site opposing war and nationalism and exposing the crimes of Nazi collaborators in Ukraine.
A wave of protest against the verdict is building around the world. In recent weeks, members and supporters of the SGP have distributed leaflets, put up posters and held discussions across Germany to publicise the campaign for Bogdan’s release.
In Berlin, the case is a central issue in the SGP’s campaign for the Berlin state elections. The party links the fight for Bogdan’s release to building a socialist movement against the German government’s war policy."
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/09/05/vvoc-s05.html

2026-09-03 23:54:36 UTC

#Hegseth #CultureWar
"Hegseth’s culture war fixation disrupting Army progress, sources say
In submitting his resignation, a source familiar said Driscoll brought up 'concerns with the administration surrounding Army transformation and readiness and Hegseth’s blocking those efforts specifically by firing the generals who were responsible.'
(. . .)
Multiple sources agreed with the concerns Driscoll raised: that Hegseth is damaging the Army’s efforts to modernize and adapt to the 21st century battlefield environment – where drone warfare is becoming increasingly important – by firing or pushing out leaders who were spearheading those efforts.
'It’s critical that you have key leaders that understand technology and have the temperament to deal with industry and turn that into the formation,' a former senior Army official said. 'When you fire these guys for arbitrary reasons, it creates confusion and a void … the Army is enduring turbulence right now.'
Senior US military officials have privately acknowledged they have come under what could be characterized as political pressure during Hegseth’s tenure — particularly when he has prioritized culture war issues — and voiced concerns about the secretary’s recent efforts to fire or push out uniformed and civilian leaders.
A defense official in Europe told CNN that even though Hegseth has spoken about technology reform and even previously released guidance on unmanned systems, in practice they see a secretary and Pentagon leadership more focused on cultural issues than modernization."
https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/02/politics/hegseths-army-leadership-void-culture-war

2026-09-03 23:53:48 UTC

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#psychedelics
"A unique psychedelic shows promise for pain and stroke
An unusual psychedelic compound found in the plant Salvia divinorum has shown potentially useful effects against pain, addiction, and stroke in animal experiments, although side effects remain a major barrier. The systematic review was published in the journal *Translational Psychiatry* and found much less consistent evidence for treating depression. The compound, salvinorin A, differs markedly from substances such as psilocybin and LSD. Those better-known psychedelics primarily affect the brain’s serotonin signaling (how the brain uses the chemical messenger serotonin to regulate mood and perception). In contrast, salvinorin A acts mainly through a different system known as the kappa opioid receptor, which is a specific protein in the brain involved in pain, mood, and consciousness.
This distinction has attracted researchers interested in developing treatments that work through pathways not targeted by classical psychedelics. Laboratory experiments have investigated salvinorin A in conditions ranging from pain and drug addiction to depression and reduced blood flow to the brain (such as during a stroke). Yet the evidence was scattered across different species, doses, and experimental models. Human therapeutic trials—testing the drug in human patients—are scarce, making it difficult to determine whether promising animal findings justify further clinical development."
https://www.psypost.org/a-unique-psychedelic-shows-promise-for-pain-and-stroke/

2026-08-25 14:47:38 UTC

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The US held elections during WWII. FDR was elected to an unprecedented fourth term.

2026-08-23 21:06:48 UTC

#Ukraine #Zelenskyy #dictatorship
"Zelenskyy rejects plea for wartime Ukrainian presidential election which would 'destroy' the country
A long-time political ally of the Ukrainian president, Mykhailo Fedorov, is the first prominent Ukrainian political figure to call for an election since Russia's invasion began.
Mr Federov was recently dumped as defence minister, with the election issue dividing Ukrainians.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is rejecting that call, saying that holding an election during wartime would 'destroy the country'."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-24/zelenskyy-ukraine-wartime-election/107069326

2026-07-31 16:51:54 UTC

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#orcas
"Why the Ocean's Deadliest Predator Refuses to Hunt Humans
There is a predator out there that flips full-grown great white sharks like coins, drowns blue whales, and has started sinking yachts off the coast of Europe. Pound for pound, nothing in the ocean kills better. So here is what should terrify you and somehow does not. You could be floating right above it, soft and slow and completely defenseless, and it will not touch you. In every year humans have kept records, it has had countless chances to hunt one of us in open water and taken exactly none. The deadliest thing in the sea has quietly decided we are off-limits. Why?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0up77oUv5uQ

2026-07-31 16:44:16 UTC

#orcas
"Orcas Are Sinking Boats in Spain Again
Orcas hate boats. Well, the ones in Spain do, at least. Last week, a pod of the ocean mammals disabled, damaged, and destroyed a number of vessels – the latest in a long-running feud between cetaceans and watercraft.
The trouble started Thursday when, as Spanish news outlet SUR reports, four craft were targeted. Around 5 p.m., the yacht Idem was attacked just over a mile off Estaca de Bares, located at the northernmost point of Spain. The craft’s rudder was destroyed and it began to sink, prompting a rescue of the two people onboard (who escaped from the ordeal unharmed). According to mayor Alfredo Dovale, a private boat attempted to tow the yacht to shore, but was unable to recover it before it sank.
However, that was not the end of it. 'While assisting the yacht Idem, it emerged another sailing vessel had also experienced an interaction with these marine mammals, but the damage to its rudder was minimal and it continued sailing to Viveiro,' added the Spanish Coast Guard. Another craft had its rudder rendered inoperable, and a third was attacked, but didn’t receive any significant damage.
The orcas struck again the following day, this time smashing the rudder of a 14-meter Swedish-flagged vessel named Vai. A Spanish coastguard vessel responded to a mayday call from the yacht and towed it to nearby Viveiro.
This is merely the latest in a long string of orca attacks, spanning years. Since 2020, killer whales have regularly accosted boats around the Iberian Peninsula, with hundreds of attacks reported each year. There are various theories as to exactly why they have taken to doing this, with some theorizing the behavior is revenge for a vessel strike, while others characterize the attacks as 'play behavior.'"
https://www.theinertia.com/surf/wavegarden-british-columbia-sea-to-sky-corridor/

2026-07-19 19:35:03 UTC

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#fascists #USpol
"U.S. State Department Bans "Far-Left" Travelers From Entering The United States
In a statement released July 16, the U.S. State Department announced a new travel ban on 'far-left' nationals. This is the latest action in the enforcement of Trump’s 2025 National Security Presidential Memorandum no. 7 (NSPM-7) which designated anti-fascist entities as terrorists.
NSPM-7 describes anti-fascist ideology as 'anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity' as well as any speech or action that they deem to constitute left-wing ideas about 'migration, race, and gender.' The memo outlines the need for the installation of a federal framework to dismantle those who do not 'hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.'
Though it remains unclear precisely how the latest visa restrictions will be enforced, this action comes on the same day as a White House press release that explains how the administration is attempting to coordinate internationally on its heightened efforts to criminalize leftist ideology.
This latest escalation in anti-left-wing sentiment is preceded by the December introduction of the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025, which would prevent American citizens from holding dual nationality, reports of American travelers involved in protests having their passport privileges revoked in February, and the institution of a $15,000 visa bond fee for travelers entering the United States from 50 countries in April."
https://www.thetravel.com/us-state-department-bans-far-left-travelers-from-entering-the-united-states/

2026-07-19 19:34:29 UTC

#Cuba #MarcoRubio #fascists
"Roberto Morales Ojeda, member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, has denounced the right-wing fascist hate speech used to criminalize dissent and protect the status quo.
Marco Rubio's discourse blaming the 'extreme left' for all the world's ills is not a serious analysis, but a smokescreen to hide his own contradictions,'Morales Ojeda wrote in a post.
The Cuban leader pointed out that while Rubio claims that 'the leftist threat is an undeniable reality,' the data shows the opposite, as right-wing violence has been much greater in the United States and around the world.
'Their global crusade against a diffuse enemy is a political maneuver aimed at preventing a threat that isn’t even real. They aren’t fighting a danger; they’re fabricating a scapegoat,' he stated in the text.
Morales Ojeda warned that 'even more serious is the openly fascist tone of this campaign,' recalling that while Rubio is calling on 60 countries to persecute the left, his administration pardoned more than a thousand of the attackers at the Capitol on January 6."
The Secretary of Organization emphasized that 'this is not an anti-terrorist plan; it’s a global witch hunt that uses the language of fascism to criminalize dissent and protect a status quo that benefits only a few.'"
https://www.radiohc.cu/en/cuba-denounces-right-wing-fascist-hate-speech-by-marco-rubio/

2026-07-01 16:59:24 UTC

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It’s the plain, simple, literal, truth of the matter.
See also:
https://kolektiva.social/@LevZadov/115361986670025712
#note12gn…uvse

2026-06-07 21:50:54 UTC

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LLM ≠ AI

2026-05-31 19:26:25 UTC

#AI #education
"This big university system is embracing AI. Students and faculty aren't all on board
Leaders of the California State University system, the CSU, want it to become the nation's first artificial intelligence-powered institution of its kind.
It entered into a $17 million no-bid contract with OpenAI last year to provide students, faculty and staff with a new resource: ChatGPT Edu — a version of the popular generative AI chatbot intended for use by educational institutions. The system recently renewed that contract for another $13 million a year for the next three years.
'No other university system in the U.S. or internationally is doing anything like this, not at this scale,' said Mildred García, the CSU's chancellor, during a February 2025 press conference announcing the partnership.
But in a recent survey, majorities of its students and faculty said they were skeptical of the benefits of AI for education, and they worry about AI's impacts on job security, creativity and the environment."
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/25/nx-s1-5772820/artificial-intelligence-education-technology-california-state-university

2026-05-27 18:29:16 UTC

#AI #LLM #DHSB #FBI #fascists #Gorka
"US Law Enforcement Warns of ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’ as AI Hatred Grows
As Americans stew over the looming risk of job-stealing AI and data centers in their back yards, the feds are raising the alarm about a new category of threat, documents obtained by WIRED show.
IN THE WAKE of attacks on CEOs, a nationwide protest movement targeting data centers, and increasing concerns about AI job replacement, federal intelligence agencies and domestic law enforcement are circulating reports with a new domestic target in mind: anti-technology extremists.
IN THE WAKE of attacks on CEOs, a nationwide protest movement targeting data centers, and increasing concerns about AI job replacement, federal intelligence agencies and domestic law enforcement are circulating reports with a new domestic target in mind: anti-technology extremists.
Taken together, these Trump administration directives have commandeered the domestic surveillance apparatus to surveil and criminalize speech and assembly that challenges the ideology of the White House. A new focus on anti-technology extremism adds an unreported category to already public designations under a presidency that has heavily invested political and material capital in AI and data center proliferation."
https://archive.is/I00Ew

2026-05-27 17:18:19 UTC

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FWIW, we would *not* be better off if Trump suddenly died. He’s not the leader of the American fascist movement. He’s their current mascot, and not the first, either. He can be replaced. He *would* be replaced, by Thiel’s puppet Vance.
Our real problem is not whatever individuals the system has currently put in power. It’s the system itself. Any system that not only allows, but actively enables psychopaths to hold power is a threat our future. The system itself must change, not the figurehead.

2026-05-19 16:39:14 UTC

#ICE
"New economics study finds that ICE activity has upended the US childcare workforce
When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations come to town, it can create a landscape of fear, chilling commerce and school attendance, and now, new research shows that it affects childcare workers.
(. . .)
'When ICE enforcement intensified, the formal childcare sector lost capacity: centers reduced enrollment, closed classrooms, and in some cases shut down entirely,' says lead author Erkmen Aslim, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Vermont. 'That has real consequences for American families; particularly working mothers, who rely on stable, affordable childcare to hold down jobs.'
The study finds that increased ICE activity led to significant declines in employment among immigrant women, particularly those working in more regulated and publicly visible settings, such as childcare centers. This population is more likely than their native-born peers to hold advanced certifications, and the researchers found limited evidence that immigrant workers are being broadly replaced by native-born workers."
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-economics-ice-upended-childcare-workforce.html

2026-05-16 20:06:47 UTC

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Explain please.

2026-05-10 14:59:34 UTC

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This begs the question, by assuming that “representative democracy” is democracy. It’s not. Only direct democracy even *is* democracy. Anything less is a fraud and a sham. Politicians don’t represent us. They represent their donors. Are you a donor? How much did you donate? That’s how much representation you bought, not one penny more. It’s the best democracy that money can buy.
Decisions should be made by the people they affect. Everyone else should butt out. We live in an oligarchy. We are governed by oligarchs. We need to stop lying to ourselves that it’s anything else. We need to stop believing this lie. Believe is what stupid, lazy people do instead of find out the truth for themselves. The lie that we live in a democracy, though fundamental to the existence of oligarchy is only one lie. There are others, many others. We especially need to stop teaching *all* their lies to our children, especially the sorry excuse for “history” that they teach in our schools.
For details, see:
https://kolektiva.social/@LevZadov/114728910300109516
#note1hf6…e3y0

2026-05-09 21:02:59 UTC

#ClimateCrisis #Antarctic
"These three horsemen’ of Antarctic instability could transform the oceans into a driver of climate change by 2030
Antarctica has been impacted by three major events, which researchers have identified as a 'perfect storm' that could finally initiate major melting on the icy continent, with major implications for exacerbating climate change.
According to new University of Southampton research, these events have begun a spiral that could move the global oceans from a hedge against climate change, to one of its primary drivers.
In a recent paper published in Science Advances, the team behind the study used satellite data to identify the root causes of record-low sea ice in the Antarctic and the potential future effects on the global climate."
https://thedebrief.org/these-three-horsemen-of-antarctic-instability-could-transform-the-oceans-into-a-driver-of-climate-change-by-2030/

2026-05-08 17:50:48 UTC

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How do I make that a live link?

2026-05-03 20:12:22 UTC

#AI #DeepFakes
"Deepfakes Are Coming for Your Bank Account
OpenAI made the perfect tool for scammers.
Donald Trump is on TikTok doing his morning routine. 'Get ready with me for a big day 💄🇺🇸,' reads the caption, as the president holds a makeup brush to his cheek. The scene is a still, ostensibly a screenshot of a TikTok clip. Like so much other AI-generated slop coursing through the internet, the image is fake and ridiculous. It also looks unnervingly real: There are no hands with six fingers, physics-defying angles, or other flagrant signs of AI-generated imagery. At quick glance, it really looks like the president is putting on bronzer.
I made this deepfake with OpenAI’s new image-generation model. ChatGPT Images 2.0, released last week, can create photorealistic visuals that are noticeably more convincing than what its predecessors might have produced. The tool has flooded the internet with hyperreal fakes: for example, Jeffrey Epstein as a Twitch streamer. I created the 'screenshot' of Trump’s fake TikTok after encountering a similar image on the ChatGPT subreddit, and I’ve since been able to use Images 2.0 to create all kinds of alarming deepfake images—including of Elon Musk getting whisked away by the FBI, world leaders suffering medical emergencies, and top American politicians donning Nazi paraphernalia (none of which I’ve shared anywhere)."
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/chatgpt-images-deepfakes-fraud/687023/

2026-04-26 21:06:12 UTC

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Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
"I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good." -- Seneca, *Peace of Mind: De Tranquillitate Animi*

2026-04-23 15:30:28 UTC

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https://grammarverb.com/creek-vs-crick/

2026-04-21 20:34:15 UTC

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The solution is to scale up Libertarian Socialism. The wrork self-owned, worker self-managed workplace is not just the anarchist ideal, it’s already happening. Such places range from a handful of hippies running a pizza joint to a multi-million dollar, multi-national enterprise. See NoBAWC, Mondragon, etc. Join one. Start one. Do it today.

2026-04-20 22:38:21 UTC

#cannabis #420
Some people say that recreational drug use is depoliticizing, and depoliticized is what our rulers want us to be. This is a bogus analysis.
To generalize about drugs is a mistake. Every drug is different. Each has different effects. In many cases the difference is profound. Each person experiences those effects in their own way. Some are dramatically depoliticizing, others not so much, others still are quite the opposite. I know more about cannabis than I do about most drugs, so I'm going to talk about that.
I've consumed cannabis products most days of the week for my entire adult life. Not only did it not deradicalize me but, like many people, I found the laws about it to be themselves radicalizing. Cannabis brings together people of different cultures who wouldn't otherwise meet each other or imagine that they had anything in common. It's a unifying force. I find it very encouraging that Snoop Dog and Willie Nelson unite in public to campaign against cannabis prohibition. It's a good sign. Anyone anywhere, campaigning in any way possible, against any prohibition whatsoever that was imposed by the state, is a good thing. Cross cultural intersectionality is a force multiplier. All prohibitions are variations on the same theme. The War On (some) Drugs, abortion, vaccines, porn, transrights, consent, and sexwork are all the same issue: Who owns your body, you or the state?
The public's attitude about cannabis is evolving. The propaganda is wearing off. It's been a gradual process. As with all such processes, it is best understood if we look at its history. So I want to share a story with you about something that happened one long hot summer long ago. In the late 60s I lived in NYC's Lower East Side. It was built to be a slum. It stayed that way for a very long time. Originally it was a Jewish majority neighborhood. By the time I got there most Jews had moved uptown, to the outer boroughs, or to Long Island. The neighborhood was mostly hippies and Puerto Ricans, except for 6th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A, which was overwhelmingly Ukrainian and very right-wing.
I was a member of an anarchist group of sorts that was based in the Lower East Side. We called ourselves New York Provo, after the Dutch Provos whose chutzpah and ingenuity we greatly admired. We were best seen as a sort of politicized street gang. One guy in the group was a political theoretician named Dana Beal. He later went on to become the brains behind Yippie! Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were front men, but Dana was the brains.
Dana was the closest thing New York Provo had for a leader. Our meetings were pretty much horizontal. Dana's main role was being our best weed connection. We sold weed to finance our activities. Our main enemy, the US intelligence apparatus was selling heroin and cocaine to finance theirs. We considered ourselves their moral superiors. We were very much opposed to heroin and cocaine. We called them "death drugs" and preached against them. At one point we distributed for free a very limited supply of Ibogaine, an herbal treatment for heroin addiction. We sold weed for money. Then one day, we gave it away for free. This is the story of what happened on that day.
The money we made selling weed we used to pay rent on our office on Avenue A, across from Tompkins Square and on our free store on 1st St, between 1st and 2nd Avenue. We also gave away food and published a daily broadside about stuff happening in the neighborhood.
The back door of the free store led to a tiny yard and chainlink fence. There was a hole in the fence. Directly across East Houston St was Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery. We were walking distance from Katz's Delicatessen. Most Jewish residents had moved out of the neighborhood but some businesses remained. A decent nosh was never hard to find.
On November 14, 1967, the Secretary of State Dean Rusk was scheduled to speak in midtown Manhattan. NY Provo staged the first of what came to be called "breakaway marches" in protest. As we had planned, it turned violent immediately.
One night, three weeks later, the cops raided our free store and busted 31 people including many NY Provos and some people just "shopping" for clothes. Dana ran out the back door, dove through the hole in the fence, and escaped down Eldridge St. The first cop to chase him was too fat to fit through the hole and got stuck. He had to be extricated by other cops. This became a local legend.
Earlier that year, Abbie Hoffman had showed up in town and opened his own free store on 10th St. Abbie was always expropriating other people's ideas and labor. He even stole the manuscript for his famous *Steal This Book* from Emmett Grogan. Then he stole the free store idea from us. We didn't hold this against Abbie. We had in fact been discussing plans for "two, three, many" free stores. I personally printed on our Gestetner Abbie's first leaflet in NYC advertising it. The Gestetner was located in our office across from Tompkins Square. At first I had no idea how a Gestetner, or any mimeograph worked. But I did have the manual. With the right tools and manual, anyone can fix anything, as long as they follow directions.
Provos hung out in Tompkins Square. The whole neighborhood did. One day a fight broke out in the park between some Puerto Ricans and some hippies. It wasn't about their ethnicity. It was personal, between individuals. NY Provos knew some of these guys personally. We had a little talk about it with some of them. Eventually all agreed it that was not worth destroying the vibes in the neighborhood over a petty personality clash. We decided to nip this thing in the bud before it had a chance to get out of hand and spoil the summer for all of us.
NY Provo was part Anglo and part Latin. We were all young. It was a unifying factor. Even though I wasn't Latino, I wasn't a hippie, either. To this very day not all white potheads are hippies. I was more of a greaser. I wore a white T-shirt with a pack of Marlboros rolled up in my left sleeve. I combed my hair like James Dean. My fingernails were usually dirty from wrenching on motors and maintaining the ancient Gestetner. A hippie I wasn't. But I did smoke pot and I do like Latin music.
This made me an ideal cross cultural liaison between communities. Everybody in the neighborhood liked me except the 6th Street Ukrainians. They were very conservative and saw me as some kind of commie. I tried to explain the difference, but they didn't want to hear it.
FWIW, there's an excellent book on the role of politically active greasers in Chicago that you should really check out. It's called *Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times*, by Amy Sonnie, James Tracy, with a foreword by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/11036817-hillbilly-nationalists-urban-race-rebels-and-black-power
I met a couple of the people in this book when they came to New York to scope out the scene, and later when they came to New Haven to help occupy Yale Law School to protest the railroading of Bobbie Seale. They were good people.
NY Provo brainstormed ways to stitch the Tompkins Square denizen communities back together. Ethnic conflict was the very last thing the neighborhood needed. We finally concluded that since two things that both groups liked was music and marijuana, we would throw a pot party in the park. We rented the bandshell ($15 for the afternoon) and recruited six local bands, three Latin and three rock.
The night before a few Provos got high on acid, stayed up all night, and rolled up a pound and a half of joints. We stuffed them into a couple conga drums. One of the more Latin looking Provos had dressed up in the latest Puerto Rican fashion. He strolled into the park with the drums. There were cops all around but they didn't think twice about it, or really even notice. Puerto Ricans often played drums in the park. It was normal.
His name was Carlos Ramirez. Everybody called him "Puerto Rican Charlie". It was his preferred moniker.
Dana had heard about him through neighborhood gossip and sent me to recruit him.
"Charlie?" I asked when we met.
"Puerto Rican Charlie," he answered, and stuck a joint in my mouth. We agreed that there were a lot of Charlies in New York, but he was unique. We hit it off immediately. He was a fluently bilingual and totally bicultural Manhattan native. At 18 he had joined the army. He'd been promised an education. Instead he spent four years guarding an airbase in Germany. As he was being discharged he was approached by a recruiting officer who told him he'd been scammed by a crooked recruiting officer who had since been thrown out of the army. If Charlie would just "sign here" the second recruiting officer promised him a real education this time. Instead he was sent back to Germany to guard a different airbase for four years. By then he hated the government with a deep and abiding passion. He began reading about alternatives. He didn't find Marxism appealing because it entailed what they called "party discipline," which amounted to people telling him what to do. Charlie hated being told what to do. The army had taught him that. When he learned about anarchism he'd found his political home.
At 31 that year, Charlie was the oldest Provo. He usually dressed like a beatnik, with a beret, sunglasses, a sweatshirt, goatee, and sneakers. For this caper he dressed totally Latin and totally blend in stylish. I followed him into the crowd. When we were surrounded and out of sight of the cops, I reached into the drum on his shoulder, pulled out two sacks of joints, and we handed them out. It was a very popular move. It was also the first smoke-in we'd ever even heard of. A splendid time was had by all. There was no more neighborhood in-fighting in the park that summer. There was a bit of a dust up with the cops a month later but that's a quite different sort of event, and a story for another day.
(cont.)

2026-04-19 23:56:52 UTC

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We'll need to set up multiple strike funds.

2026-04-19 19:27:19 UTC

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"If the workers are organized, all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets and they have got the capitalist class whipped." -- Big Bill Haywood

2026-04-18 23:19:46 UTC

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I’m not worried about the government. I’m no threat to their existence and I don’t have anything woorth stealing, so I’m not on their radar. If the government wanted me dead, it would have happened already. I’m afraid of the fascist paramilitaries, and the so-called lone wolves. These are brainwashed cultist fanatics and armed to the teeth.

2026-04-18 15:30:39 UTC

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USA's invincibility was shattered five decades ago in Vietnam. The only victories it can claim are tiny ones, the SS Mayaguez, Grenada, Maduro, etc. Iraq was a debacle. Even Korea was fought to a draw. The US is a paper tiger.

2026-04-17 14:10:38 UTC

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Good cop, bad cop, both cops.

2026-04-17 13:58:10 UTC

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"Like, we can innovate *everywhere*, but no, don't touch the only two possible systems of power? Really?”
I never said that. Don’t put words in my mouth. It’s rude. It’s dishonest. It’s very bad form.

2026-04-17 13:56:10 UTC

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See also:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+4:32&version=KJV

2026-04-17 06:10:09 UTC

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Of which metal are they composed?

2026-04-15 18:46:14 UTC

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Dismantling Ctizens United is not the answer to our problems. The answer is to dismantle capitalism.

2026-04-12 17:38:36 UTC

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All crimes, both great and small, follow the same rules:
(1.) Have no witnesses.
(2.) Leave no evidence.
(3.) STFU about it.
The last one is the hardest. It’s human to want to brag. Don’t. Or at least wait till the statute of limitations runs out. You’ll be glad you did.

2026-04-12 16:39:34 UTC

#Iran #TrumpRegime #Hormuz #blockade
"Trump announces Navy blockade in Strait of Hormuz after Iran talks fizzle
President Trump on Sunday announced that the U.S. military will begin blockading ships seeking to enter the Strait of Hormuz after weekend peace talks with Iran did not bring about a deal.
'Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,' Trump wrote in a Sunday morning Truth Social post, adding that he instructed the Navy to 'seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran.'
The president said the blockade would begin 'shortly,' while underscoring recent U.S. military operations seeking to remove mines laid by Tehran in the Strait.
Vice President Vance announced on Saturday evening that the U.S. and Iran failed to come to an agreement, as the two sides gathered in Islamabad, Pakistan, to discuss the ceasefire. Trump, on Sunday, said the talks ultimately came down to Tehran’s nuclear capabilities.
'In many ways, the points that were agreed to are better than us continuing our Military Operations to conclusion, but all of those points don’t matter compared to allowing Nuclear Power to be in the hands of such volatile, difficult, unpredictable people,' Trump wrote."
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5827724-trump-iran-strait-hormuz-blockade/

2026-04-12 16:39:07 UTC

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More interesting than its age is that there is no physical evidence of hierarchy in the culture that created it. For details, see:
https://kolektiva.social/@LevZadov/110626437687651518

2026-04-12 16:37:19 UTC

#AI #TedChiang
"Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey?
As it’s currently imagined, the technology promises to concentrate wealth and disempower workers. Is an alternative possible?
By Ted Chiang
When we talk about artificial intelligence, we rely on metaphor, as we always do when dealing with something new and unfamiliar. Metaphors are, by their nature, imperfect, but we still need to choose them carefully, because bad ones can lead us astray. For example, it’s become very common to compare powerful A.I.s to genies in fairy tales. The metaphor is meant to highlight the difficulty of making powerful entities obey your commands; the computer scientist Stuart Russell has cited the parable of King Midas, who demanded that everything he touched turn into gold, to illustrate the dangers of an A.I. doing what you tell it to do instead of what you want it to do. There are multiple problems with this metaphor, but one of them is that it derives the wrong lessons from the tale to which it refers. The point of the Midas parable is that greed will destroy you, and that the pursuit of wealth will cost you everything that is truly important. If your reading of the parable is that, when you are granted a wish by the gods, you should phrase your wish very, very carefully, then you have missed the point.
So, I would like to propose another metaphor for the risks of artificial intelligence. I suggest that we think about A.I. as a management-consulting firm, along the lines of McKinsey & Company. Firms like McKinsey are hired for a wide variety of reasons, and A.I. systems are used for many reasons, too. But the similarities between McKinsey—a consulting firm that works with ninety per cent of the Fortune 100—and A.I. are also clear. Social-media companies use machine learning to keep users glued to their feeds. In a similar way, Purdue Pharma used McKinsey to figure out how to 'turbocharge' sales of OxyContin during the opioid epidemic. Just as A.I. promises to offer managers a cheap replacement for human workers, so McKinsey and similar firms helped normalize the practice of mass layoffs as a way of increasing stock prices and executive compensation, contributing to the destruction of the middle class in America.
A former McKinsey employee has described the company as 'capital’s willing executioners': if you want something done but don’t want to get your hands dirty, McKinsey will do it for you. That escape from accountability is one of the most valuable services that management consultancies provide. Bosses have certain goals, but don’t want to be blamed for doing what’s necessary to achieve those goals; by hiring consultants, management can say that they were just following independent, expert advice. Even in its current rudimentary form, A.I. has become a way for a company to evade responsibility by saying that it’s just doing what 'the algorithm' says, even though it was the company that commissioned the algorithm in the first place.
The question we should be asking is: as A.I. becomes more powerful and flexible, is there any way to keep it from being another version of McKinsey?"
https://archive.ph/TAb8u#selection-449.0-485.149

2026-04-12 16:36:56 UTC

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Humans are not called "The Third Chimp" for nothing. Our lives and our enviroment would be much better off if *Homo sapiens* behaved more like *Pan paniscus* than we do like *Pan troglodytes*

2026-04-12 16:36:36 UTC

#war #chimpanzees
"Inside deadly chimp ‘civil war’ in Uganda—What they reveal about human nature
Since 2018 , researchers have recorded 24 killings, including 17 infants
Deep in the lush canopy of Uganda’s Kibale National Park, a decades-long peace has shattered, giving way to a brutal and vicious 'civil war' that mirrors the darkest chapters of human history.
For over 20 years, the Ngogo chimpanzees, the largest community of wild chimps ever recorded, flourished as a close-knit community.
Now, the researchers have officially documented the first clear yet unsettling struggles of power and survival ongoing among this community. As a result, two warring factions, Western and Central, have emerged, locking in a brutal civil war for 8 years.
What makes the scientist surprised is the intensity and frequency of conflicts. This is no longer a brawl or a simple split; it has turned into a series of coordinated and lethal raids in which one group targeted the other, resulting in deaths of males and infants.
As per researchers, since 2018 they have recorded 24 killings, including 17 infants. But, they are clueless about the reason behind the ongoing chip conflict.
'Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them - mostly adult males, but sometimes adult females participate in the attacks,' said University of Texas primatologist Aaron Sandel, lead author of the study published in the journal Science.
'These were chimps that would hold hands. Now they're trying to kill each other,' Sandel added."
https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1398527-inside-deadly-chimp-civil-war-in-ugandawhat-they-reveal-about-human-nature

2026-04-12 16:35:12 UTC

#neuroscience #autism
"One Compound Repairs Neurons with Autism Mutations
Because autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is linked to over 100 different genes, a 'one-size-fits-all' medication has proven impossible to find. However, researchers are changing the game by using zebrafish to create a 'pharmaco-behavioral' map.
In a study, the team screened 774 FDA-approved drugs to see how they altered the behavior of larval zebrafish. By matching these drug 'fingerprints' to the disrupted sleep and sensory behaviors of fish with specific autism mutations (like SCN2A and DYRK1A), they identified candidates—specifically the drug levocarnitine—that can 'rescue' or reverse these symptoms."
https://neurosciencenews.com/autism-genetics-neuropharmacology-30480/

2026-04-12 16:34:14 UTC

#gender #DNA
"Female mice grow testes after this single DNA tweak
Small changes in the non-coding part of the genome have a key role in sex determination.
Female mouse embryos with a single letter change in a specific region of their DNA develop male reproductive organs, finds a study1 published today in Nature Communications.
Typically, female mouse embryos with two X chromosomes develop ovaries because a gene called Sox9 is suppressed. In male mouse embryos with XY chromosomes, the expression of Sox9 triggers testis development.
In male mice, Sox9 is controlled by a segment of non-coding DNA — part of the genome that does not encode proteins — called enhancer 13 (Enh13). Studies have shown that deleting Enh13 causes mice with XY chromosomes to develop female organs2, but until now, modifying Enh13 was not known to have any effects in female (XX) mice."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01120-8

2026-04-11 21:44:45 UTC

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More than half a century after the Vietnam War, this fool is still judging martial success by body count!?! War is not a sporting event which can be scored by totaling individual actions. War is a business. Dryden said it was the business of kings. Butler said it was a racket. I’m with Smedley on this one. Follow the money.

2026-04-11 18:07:07 UTC

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Yup, we won the Vietnam war, too. Just look at the body count.

2026-04-08 16:18:49 UTC

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This is actually good news, *very* good news. It means we outnumber them two to one.

2026-04-07 18:37:04 UTC

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Good cop, bad cop, both cops.

2026-04-06 01:59:34 UTC

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I’m bored with this troll. I’m going to go something productive with my time. If any of you want to keep listening to his crap, be my guest. I have better things to do.

2026-04-05 23:25:39 UTC

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I pity your ignorance. You’re also rude and vulgar, but I forgive you for that. You can’t help it. Rudeness and vulgarity stem from ignorance.
Ignorance can be cured. Start here:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=grave+goods+women+warriors&ia=web

2026-04-05 22:43:17 UTC

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That "women have had a raw deal for the entire history of the species” is disinformation. Ask an archeologist about gendered grave goods sometime.

2026-04-05 20:25:30 UTC

#OccupiedPalestine #Stanford
"Defense attorneys for five Stanford pro-Palestinian protesters are trying to force the district attorney and his entire staff off the case by focusing on what they describe as the DA’s false charges of antisemitism against their clients.
'DA Rosen harbors an unwarranted and baseless view that these defendants are not only antisemitic, but they are also anti-American,' deputy public defender Avanindar Singh argued in a Feb. 25 motion to disqualify Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen and his staff.
A first attempt by prosecutors to convict the five protesters — who occupied and vandalized a Stanford University building in June 2024 — culminated in a mistrial in mid-February. Rosen declared at the time that his office would retry the case.
That effort is now on hold after defense attorneys filed a motion to recuse Rosen and his staff. On March 26, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kelley Paul granted a motion from the defense team to obtain additional documents that may support their recusal motion.
(. . .)
The recusal motion argued that Rosen, on his personal campaign website and in fundraising materials, unfairly described the case as an example of 'fighting antisemitism.' Defense attorneys said such language labels the defendants as antisemites.
'There is no evidence for such animus,' Singh wrote in the motion, pointing out that the defendants have not been charged with a hate crime. 'The conflict makes it unlikely the defendants will receive a fair trial.'
A page on Rosen’s campaign website titled 'DA Rosen fighting anti-semitism' contains links to media coverage around the time that he charged the 12 protesters. After one protester pleaded no contest, 11 protesters were indicted. Five were tried earlier this year after the remaining protesters received mental health diversions or agreed to no-contest pleas on reduced misdemeanor charges.
Rosen, who is Jewish and whose late father was a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, has openly supported Israelis since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel."
https://jweekly.com/2026/03/31/defense-for-stanford-pro-palestinian-protesters-seeks-das-recusal/

2026-04-05 20:22:43 UTC

#Trump #WalterReed #rumors
"Trump Spokesman Pushes Back as President’s Health Rumours Swirl Online
Speculation about President Donald Trump’s whereabouts swept across social media after unverified posts claimed he had been spotted at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
The rumors, which quickly gained traction online on Saturday, April 4, prompted an official denial from Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung, who insisted the president had remained at the White House throughout the Easter weekend.
'On this Easter weekend, he has been working nonstop in the White House and Oval Office,' Cheung wrote on X. He added, 'There has never been a President who has worked harder for the American people than President Trump. God Bless him.'
(. . .)
The White House also issued what is known as a 'lid' at 11:08 a.m. on Saturday, a notification to the press pool indicating that the president would not be making any public appearances or holding events for the remainder of the day.
While lids are not unusual, the timing fueled speculation, with journalist Ed Krassenstein noting that an early lid was atypical for Trump, who often travels to Mar-a-Lago on weekends.
Krassenstein’s post suggesting Trump might be at Walter Reed had accumulated over one million views within hours.
Additional unverified claims circulated on Bluesky, where an anonymous user alleged that a major road near Walter Reed had been blocked off and that an emergency meeting was underway at the White House. Neither claim has been independently verified."
https://thekenyatimes.com/americas/trump-at-walter-reed/

2026-04-04 19:27:23 UTC

#ClimateCrisis #YellowstoneNationalPark
"Pages devoted to climate change have disappeared from key Yellowstone guidebook
The latest Yellowstone Resources and Issues Handbook lacks climate change section for the first time in nearly two decades.
Yellowstone National Park visitors over the past few years have been asking park guide Leo Leckie why some Douglas-fir trees between Mammoth Hot Springs and Tower junction are turning red. Their change in color was clearly visible, but the cause wasn’t as apparent.
'You could see the rust-like color on the trees where you never saw that before,' said Leckie, who works for Gardiner-based tour company Yellowstone Wolf Tracker.
Leckie turned to the Yellowstone Resources and Issues Handbook, a compendium of Yellowstone information published annually by the National Park Service. He learned that bark beetles are attacking the trees, and that a warming climate is likely making their assaults more frequent and more severe. 'The resource handbook is always on hand, said Leckie, who has worked in the park since 2010. 'It is the tool that I refer to when clients inevitably ask a question that I can’t answer.'
Last year, the entry that linked beetle infestation to warmer, drier weather disappeared, along with the entire 13-page climate change section. For the first time in nearly 20 years, the handbook does not feature a single chapter dedicated to climate change. The omission occurred as the Trump administration has pressured national parks around the country to remove information on climate change, slavery and the mistreatment of Native Americans."
https://montanafreepress.org/2026/04/03/pages-devoted-to-climate-change-have-disappeared-from-key-yellowstone-national-park-guidebook/

2026-03-11 20:45:08 UTC

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#Tor #OpSec
Just using Tor puts you on the short list. If you're *already* on the short list, the powers that be can read any plain text you think you're encrypting, as you type via a keylogger that is installed through a backdoor in the OS or else comes baked in with the OS itself.
Want to have a private convo? Take a tip from organized crime. Go to the beach. Leave *all* your devices at home. It doesn't hurt to wave a Tri-Meter over your bodies to see if a miniature transmitter and/or harmonic radar tag hasn't been incorporated into your clothing.
(This was a realistic plot element in a great film from 1998 called *Enemy of the State*. Do check it out.)
Stand as close as is safe to the crashing waves. Both of you should face the noisy sea while covering your mouths with your and/or ()better still) with some periodicals, so a lip reader with a telescope can't see what your saying. You can safely assume that you're being watched, filmed, and/or photograph and that the persons surveilling know that you are having a private convo, and to expect it to indicate something important is about to happen that involves the two of you and/ory our respective networks.
This is for educational purposes only. I'm not trying to incite any crimes. Crimes are bad. Don't do any. If anybody asks you why not, tell them it's because I said so. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

2026-03-04 18:09:58 UTC

#Iran
"US submarine sank Iran’s warship off Sri Lanka coast, says Hegseth
Sri Lanka says it recovered several bodies and rescued 32 wounded sailors after the frigate sank just outside the island’s territorial waters.
(. . .)
Sri Lanka’s government said it recovered several bodies and rescued 32 wounded sailors after an Iranian military ship sank just outside the island’s territorial waters.
The country’s deputy ⁠foreign minister ⁠told local ⁠television that ⁠at least 80 ⁠people were killed ⁠in the strike.
Authorities told Al Jazeera the frigate IRIS Dena, located about 40 nautical miles (75km) off Galle in southern Sri Lanka, sent out a distress call between 6am and 7am (00:30 to 01:30 GMT) on Wednesday.
The ship had about 180 crew members on board, and a search and rescue operation was under way, Sri Lankan officials said.
The Iranian frigate was returning from having taken part in the 2026 International Fleet Review last month in eastern India’s coastal city of Vishakapatnam."
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/4/at-least-100-missing-after-iranian-military-ship-sinks-off-sri-lanka-coast

2026-02-05 19:51:52 UTC

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Watch the media for news that he had "an unfortunate accident" or an "apparent heart attack".

2026-01-31 21:31:57 UTC

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I'm not boosting this until it shows up in the Wayback Machine or archive.ph because our data and meta-data have proven to not be safe with The Intercept. For details ask Reality Winner

2026-01-26 17:12:14 UTC

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Europeans apparently prefer being stabbed or beaten to death to being able to defend themselves. Not me.

2026-01-25 17:56:02 UTC

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To understand why this is bullshit we must take a more nuanced view than the one presented by the Ukrainian and NATO propaganda mill. Step one: Learn the difference between ethnic Russians and Russian nationals.
A great many Ukrainians *are* ethnic Russians. They think of themselves as ethnic Russians. The speak Russian. They cook Russian food. They attend Russian orthodox churches. They like being ethnic Russians. They're also Ukrainian nationals. That's what started the war. Up until the Maidan cookie coup, they liked being Ukrainian nationals. There were many advantages.
Then the fascist usurpers among them took over the government and outlawed the Russian language. The Russian speakers and Russian self-identified Ukrainians of the Donbass rebelled and removed their region from Ukraine. It was *exactly* what West Virginians did when they removed themselves and their territory from Virginia when America's own civil war broke out.
The new Ukrainian government was in part made up of overtly fascists and Nazis. They descend directly from the racist OUN-Bandera and other collaborators with the Nazi invaders of Operation Barbarossa, many of whom the Nazis put to work guarding the death camps. They represent some of the worst of Ukrainian society, but they were excellent war fighters and have been *very* hard to defeat militarily.
The Ukrainian government sent troops to suppress the rebels. It didn't work. The Ukrainian army of the day was ill-trained, poorly supplied, and saddled with an extremely corrupt officer corps. So the government sent the viscous, brutal, overtly fascist militias, including the notorious, AZOV Battalion to do the job. The AZOV Battalion fielded an excellent fighting force. They proved hard to drive out. They committed many, many atrocities. Their performance at the airport and steel factory was outstanding.
Putin greatly exaggerates the role of the neo-Nazis. Neo-Nazis do not run the government. That's typical Russian bullshit. Neo-Nazis only control part of the government. But they *were* running the war and committed many atrocities. This was years before Putin sent any actual troops.
The Western propaganda mill would have us believe that the Ukrainian government *can't* be neo-Nazis because The current president is a Jew. This, too, is bullshit. Nazis have *always* had Jewish collaborators. They ranged from the notorious Luftwaffe officer Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch, down to the common swine Judenrat.
Even Zionists collaborated, and not just by bombing property in Occupied Palestine that belonged to the Reich's main enemy at the time, Britain. See for yourself. Look up the 1930s Jerusalem spy shop run by Otto von Bolschwing, his subordinate Adolf Eichmann, and their primary agent Fieval Polkes. While you're at it, read up on the fascist Ze'ev Jabotinsky.
Nazis and Zionists have more in common with each other than either do with the rest of humanity. Eichmann himself stated at his trial that had he been born a Jew he would have been an ardent Zionist.
Ukrainian's toxic history:
https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/ukraines-toxic-history-of-fascism-and-ethnic-clean
None of this excuses Putin's invasion. Ukrainians have a right to determine their own fate. So did Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. We all know how they worked out.
Russians are not our enemy. Putin is. He's also the enemy of the Russian people. Only they can bring him down. Any Western attempts to do so only strengthens him. If we are to stop fascism, in Russia, Ukraine, or Minneapolis, we need to act from a nuanced analysis. It's not all black and white.

2026-01-23 05:15:37 UTC

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Cruelty is the point.

2026-01-21 02:02:08 UTC

#Qanon
"QAnon community declares vindication as Trump’s Labor Department pens multiple posts echoing QAnon phrases
QAnon influencer: The U.S. Department of Labor’s official account is Q posting. … This is not debatable now. If you like it, cool. If you don’t like it, too bad. It’s happening.'
Influencers associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory movement have boasted about multiple social media posts shared by the Trump administration’s Department of Labor that invoke phrases tied to the movement.
In the first two weeks of 2026, the Department of Labor has posted QAnon-tied phrases at least four times. On January 4, the Labor Department uploaded an image to social media that said, 'Patriots in control,' alongside text reading, 'Patriots are in control, and we’re never giving up our fight to put AMERICA FIRST.' A few days later, the department posted an image saying, 'Trust the plan,' alongside text that read, 'Trust the Plan. Trust Trump.' On January 10, the department posted an image saying, 'Hold the line,' alongside the text, 'Hold the line, Patriots. Our Nation is worth Fighting For.' And on January 12, the department posted another image reading, 'Patriots in control.'"
https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/qanon-community-declares-vindication-trumps-labor-department-pens-multiple

2026-01-17 17:50:02 UTC

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Is this a real intel coup or was it dropped on purpose to fuel a "The Man Who Never Was" scenario?

2026-01-17 00:08:19 UTC

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Where do they live? What do their cars look like? Just wondering, not trying to incite any #StreetJustice. That would be illegal. It's a purely academic question. Their neighbors, employers, and families might want to know what monsters they have in their lives, that's all.

2025-11-30 17:12:31 UTC

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Does this mean that rebellion is a moral imperative?

2025-11-05 19:59:22 UTC

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Even hobby drones can be, and have been, weaponized.
Personally, I wouldn't object to war if only the drones fought and they only fought each other, and they did it out over the ocean where falling debris couldn't hurt anybody. That way the flesh and blood actual people could stay home, safe in their (or their mom's) basement(s) pushing buttons at each other and dueling with joysticks. We could make a sport of it, form leagues, and hold tournaments. Bets could be placed. The bookies are drooling already.
It's not the agro I object to. It's the blood, especially the collateral blood. Take bloodshed out of the equation and voilà! Sports. Sports are better than war. Of course, better than war is a mighty low bar, but drone war would catch on. Fans would flock.
Imagine a Pay-Per-View (or better still pirated) drone a drone war between AI and real life gamers.

2025-11-04 22:11:20 UTC

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He'd just defy the indictment. The law means nothing to fascists. There is no legal way to defang MAGA. We need a #GeneralStrike, or we need a civil war. A #GeneralStrike would spill way less blood. Just saying.

2025-10-26 16:05:21 UTC

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A culture that defines virtue as doing cannot solve its own moral disorientation through more doing the same thing over and over. We don't just need to think outside the box, we need a new and different box.

2025-10-01 21:34:31 UTC

#Trump #MetalHealth
"The Commander in Chief Is Not Okay
Trump put on a disturbing show for America’s generals and admirals.
(. . .)
In 1973, an Air Force nuclear-missile officer named Harold Hering asked a simple question during a training session: 'How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?' The question cost him his career. Military members are trained to execute orders, not question them. But today, both the man who can order the use of nuclear arms and the man who would likely verify such an order gave disgraceful and unnerving performances in Quantico. How many officers left the room asking themselves Major Hering’s question"
https://archive.ph/5iIkv

2025-09-26 17:30:21 UTC

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I checked who occupies where on the map. It's looks like Russia is winning the war. Russia has more cannon fodder than Ukraine does, so *of course* they're winning.

2025-09-13 20:29:45 UTC

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Works for me. There's an annoying captcha, though.

2025-09-06 18:56:18 UTC

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#CivilWar2 wouldn't be fought between states or regions. It would be fought between neighbors. It would be a bloodbath. It would also be America's national suicide. The world would pick our bones and we'd deserve it. A lot of people think we deserve it already.
Let's instead stage a #GeneralStrike. We don't need to shoot it out with these miscreants, just stop working for them :
"If the workers are organized, all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets and they have got the capitalist class whipped." -- Big Bill Haywood

2025-09-03 19:35:56 UTC

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The most aggressive war of our century? Oh, please. That would be the so-called "War on Terror" with the genocide of Gaza running a close second.

2025-08-28 02:44:20 UTC

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Any power at all is too much if it's held in one person's hands.

2025-08-26 21:16:44 UTC

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Anyone who thinks that neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, and MAGAts are the only people in America who own guns and know how to use them, is deeply deluded. MAGAts et al are outnumbered, outgunned, and surrounded, and they know it, too.

2025-08-13 19:31:13 UTC

#Palantir
"What Does Palantir Actually Do?
Palantir is often called a data broker, a data miner, or a giant database of personal information. In reality, it’s none of these—but even former employees struggle to explain it.
The problem, however, is that even ex-employees struggle to provide a clear description of the company. 'It's really hard to explain what Palantir works on or what it does,' says Linda Xia, who was an engineer at Palantir from 2022 to 2024. 'Even as someone who worked there, it's hard to figure out, how do you give a cohesive explanation?'
Xia was one of 13 former Palantir staffers who signed an open letter published in May arguing that the company risks being complicit in authoritarianism by continuing to cooperate with the Trump administration. She and other former Palantir staffers who spoke to WIRED for this story argue that, in order to grapple with Palantir and its role in the world, let alone hold the company accountable, you need to first understand what it really is.
It’s not that former employees literally don’t know what Palantir is selling. In interviews with WIRED, they spoke fluidly about how its software can connect and transform different kinds of data collected by government agencies and corporations. But when asked to, say, name its direct business competitors, two former Palantir employees who requested anonymity to speak freely about their experiences, struggled to come up with anything. 'I still don't know how to answer that question, to be honest,' says one.
Juan Sebastián Pinto, who worked as a content strategist at Palantir and also signed the open letter, says it sells software to other businesses, a category commonly referred to in Silicon Valley as B2B SaaS. Another former staffer says Palantir provides 'really extravagant plumbing with data.'
(. . .)
So what sets Palantir apart?
Part of the answer may lie in Palantir’s marketing strategy. Pinto says he believes that the company, which recently began using the tagline 'software that dominates,' has cultivated its mysterious public image on purpose. Unlike consumer-facing startups that need to clearly explain their products to everyday users, Palantir’s main audience is sprawling government agencies and Fortune 500 companies.
What it’s ultimately selling them is not just software, but the idea of a seamless, almost magical solution to complex problems. To do that, Palantir often uses the language and aesthetics of warfare, painting itself as a powerful, quasi-military intelligence partner. 'Palantir is here to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world,' Palantir CEO Alexander Karp says in a February 2025 earnings call, 'And when it's necessary, to scare enemies, and on occasion, kill them.'"
https://archive.ph/zh2dq

2025-07-18 15:11:02 UTC

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Reuse, recycle, repurpose, repair, buy second hand, shop less share more.

2025-07-13 21:47:00 UTC

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It matters to the rest us. If we don't nip this fascist coup in the bud, *by any means necessary* we're the ones who are doomed. We can't do it alone.

2025-07-06 02:28:37 UTC

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Similar, but different locations and different occasions.
I didn't see the Wall of Dads action. I wasn't even in Portland. But I heard about it. It was a stroke of genius. So was the Banana Bloc action. People in Portland really know how to innovate. It's inspiring.

2025-06-15 22:27:05 UTC

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Most plants can be grown under artificial lighting. I only cited cannabis because it's something I know a little bit about. I'm sorry it went over your head. That was not my intent.

2025-06-13 15:28:18 UTC

#housing #SanFrancisco
"San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie signed new legislation to transform dormant office spaces into residential homes to revitalize downtown San Francisco.
Officially establishing a downtown revitalization financing district, the legislation is key in creating a 24/7 neighborhood in the city's heart.
The initiative was supported unanimously by the Board of Supervisors, with co-sponsorship from a significant portion of its members.
The legislation, which is set to convert vacant and underutilized buildings into a potentially large number of housing units, is part of a broader push to instigate economic recovery in the downtown area."
https://hoodline.com/2025/06/san-francisco-mayor-signs-groundbreaking-legislation-to-convert-empty-offices-into-homes-aiming-for-downtown-revitalization/

2025-06-01 23:50:27 UTC

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(1.) How much of a dictator one is not gauged by how long they've been doing it, but what they do when they're there. Nayib Bukele is very new to the game, but if you try to tell us that makes him less of a dictator, I'm just going to laugh.
(2.) Zelensky is a trained, professional actor portraying the leader of his country the same way that Reagan (another trained, professional actor) portrayed the leader of *his* country back in the day. He wasn't even capable of running the country. He had Alzheimer's. He appeared to be take instruction from his master relayed through his handler, a woman named Helene Antonia von Damm, who kept an eye on him from the adjacent office, reinforced by "suggestions" from his wife who got the originals from her astrologers.
History is replete with puppet "heads of state." Read up on Woodrow Wilson's wife sometime. It'll open your eyes.
Ukraine, like Russia, is ruled by a coalition of oligarchs with puppet politicians to rubber stamp their will. Zelensky's personal patron is an oligarch named Ihor Kolomoisky. Look him up. He's fairly typical of his ilk.
Ukraine, like Russia, is a mafia state. Think of Putin, and Zalinsky, and their analogs across the globe, as godfathers, and their minions as capos, sub-bosses, made soldiers and "associates". A gang of crooks run these countries. A gang of crooks also run America. It's bigly sad. But hey, what are we going to do about it, revolt? I'll believe that when I see it happening. I'm not holding my breath.
(3.) Ukraine was part of Russia before America even existed, so really it's none of our business what they do at home. Though I must note that during America's own civil war, czarist Russia backed the North. It sent warships to reinforce the Anaconda Plan naval blockade of the Confederacy.
(4.) What made Ukraine an independent country in the first place? It was done by a fiat declaration of a Communist dictator. Do we really want American blood and treasure to be used to enforce the will of Communist dictators? That's the real question here. Personally, I don't want anybody's blood and treasure to be used to support *any* dictator, foreign or domestic. If you do, you're on the wrong side of history. Just saying.

2025-05-31 20:06:43 UTC

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Read Mein Kampf.
"Know your enemy," Sun Tzu

2025-05-31 18:42:11 UTC

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So technically, as kidnappers they are subject to citizen's arrest, right? So why isn't that happening? Are we a nation of cowards or what?

2025-05-27 00:16:55 UTC

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The Russian state, clear back to tsar days, has always been profligate with their soldiers' lives. There was this one guy, Suverov, who was frugal and prudent with his army. The soldiers loved hi for it, especially after his brilliant extraction of the surrounded Russian army in the Swiss Alps. It cemented his reputation, especially among the military. But he was the exception. Most Russian generals fought more in the style of Zhukov, drowning their enemies in Russian blood. It often worked, except in Afghanistan. The Afghans held the ultimate high ground and were indoctrinated by their religion to actually welcome death. People like that cannot be defeated, not by England, not by Russia, and not by America. Even Alexander the Great took one stab at it, changed his mind and went to India instead.
Montgomery famously warned against marching on Moscow. It's been tried. Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. The same could be said of Afghanistan. Even the might Russian army couldn't do it. Russians, it appears, do not welcome death. But they follow orders anyway. But sometimes they don't. Russia has a long history of periodically chopping its own head off. Personally, I think it's long past time past time that they did it again. But it's not my call. It's theirs.

2025-05-26 23:37:28 UTC

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Democrats? Feh. Good cop, bad cop, both cops.

2025-05-26 16:49:19 UTC

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Capitalism *is* our current system. It manifests, not only in the public marketplace, but also in even the most intimate aspects of our interpersonal relationships by rewarding greed, inhibiting sharing, and above all treating selfishness as if it was a primal virtue and not as one of the most dangerous , repulsive, and disgusting ways to behave.

2025-05-26 16:35:35 UTC

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Indeed we do. Step one: we need to stop recommending it. Step two: reorganize our socio-economic relationships from the ground up, at least to the point that such drastic measures are no longer appealing.
Society is not composed of individuals. It is composed of relationships. By definition, relationships are learned behavior. It can be unlearned. New ways of relating can be learned nstead. We can only change our society by changing how we relate. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as parts of a political economy and start to think of ourselves as each a part of each other.

2025-05-11 20:18:49 UTC

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"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." -- Emma Goldman

2025-05-04 17:28:54 UTC

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*Some* Kremlin talking points are ctually true, unlike DC's talking points, most of which are baldfaced lies.
See also:
https://kolektiva.social/@LevZadov/114450616507794932

2025-05-01 15:40:13 UTC

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Uvalde proved once and for all that cops are worse than useless, they're in the way.
Uvalde proved once and for all that cops are worse than useless, they're in the way. There's a name for people who rely on police to protect them. They're called "victims."
Police have no obligation to protect us. The SCOTUS agrees:
See: Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 545 U.S. 748 (2005)
See also: DeShaney v. Winnebago County, 489 U.S. 189 (1989)

2025-04-30 21:50:08 UTC

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It's not a mechanism. It's an implement with which to level the playing field between individuals. For example:
I'm a 76 year old, four eyed, gimpy legged, stroke survivor. I used to have superior balance. I rode a motorcycle in traffic for decades and never got killed, not even once. Now I never know when the floor is going to start feeling like a boat deck. Fisticuffs are no longer an option.
My SO is just shy of 80 and stands just shy of five feet. If even a lone thug broke in here to rob us, or worse, we would not be his physical equal, but for our guns.
It doesn't scale to social level. Guns can't bring us economic equality. We tried that. It didn't work. There is no military solution to capitalism. It's not a military problem. It's an economic problem. It needs economic solutions. Want equality? Replace capitalism with #LibertarianSocialism. Bada bing. Problem solved. Well, that particular problem, anyway. But inequality is not our only problem.

2025-04-30 17:13:27 UTC

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2025-04-29 15:58:20 UTC

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Disabled elder here. The troubles that come from gun culture are *far* outweighed by the benefits. Guns make us equal. Without guns, the old, the weak, the small and the disabled are at the mercy of the the young, the strong, the big and the able-bodied.
That said, I most also add *fuck this guy* in the neck. He doesn't speak for gun owners in general and he sure as hell don't speak for me. Just saying.

2025-04-26 15:44:17 UTC

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What makes you think that relying on the cops to protect you is a good idea? Are you not capable of defending yourselves? Have you not noticed that when the cops show up they *always* take the side of the fash? Just wondering.

2025-04-25 19:31:02 UTC

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(1.) You're assuming the US military would actually obey such an illegal order.
(2.) You're assuming the US military is at all competent at suppressing indigenous guerilla resistance. If you believe crap like that I suggest that you read up on Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc. Canada's terrain is ideal for guerillas. They could (maybe) take a couple big cities, but to actually *occupy* Canada is beyond their, or anyone's, capabilities. There are just too many trees to hide behind when staging an ambush. Also, a lot of Americans would go to Canada to help the Canadians fight. A lot more would "bring the war home", as the saying goes. There are a *lot* of Americans and we're armed to the teeth. Trump would be wise not to push us over the edge into total rebellion.
Anyone who believes that #neoNazis, #WhiteSupremacists, and #MAGAts are the only people in America who own guns and know how to use them, is deeply deluded. We just don't wave them around at demos, that's all. But we *are* ready to defend ourselves.

2025-04-17 00:21:37 UTC

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Would a citizen arrest work?

2025-04-17 00:05:38 UTC

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Key word: "most"

2025-04-17 00:04:38 UTC

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"The only way to win is through organized cooperation and violence" is what's called "diversity of tactics''. It works when neither violence nor non-violence works.

2025-04-16 23:48:51 UTC

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“Liberal: a power worshiper without power.” -- George Orwell

2025-04-16 23:45:58 UTC

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Democrats? Feh. Good cop, bad cop, both cops.

2025-04-16 16:52:54 UTC

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Bypass the paywall:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250416140038/https://www.404media.co/ice-just-paid-palantir-tens-of-millions-for-complete-target-analysis-of-known-populations/

2025-04-16 16:32:57 UTC

#PublicSchools #indoctrination #LGBTQ
"Remember Florida’s 'Don’t Say Gay' law?
The unconstitutionally vague law imposed such unclear restrictions on teachers who speak about sexual orientation or gender identity that many feared they could be fired merely for mentioning their spouses. Eventually, Florida agreed to a settlement which affirmed its right to do things like excluding Harvey Milk from the state history curriculum, but which also clarified that teachers may refer to the concept of being gay.
Now, however, the Supreme Court will hear a case that could impose a regime similar to Florida’s original Don’t Say Gay law on every public school in the country. The plaintiffs in Mahmoud v. Taylor — a group of Muslim and Christian parents — don’t specifically ask the justices to ban discussions of homosexuality or gender identity from classrooms. Instead, they seek a right to be notified if their children are about to be taught from certain books they claim contain LGBTQ themes, as well as an opportunity to opt those children out of the lessons.
To grant this request, they want the Court to embrace a legal rule that would place such heavy obligations on teachers who discuss these topics that it is unclear whether they would practically be able to do so. Furthermore, even if public schools tried to comply with these disclosure requirements, they are so burdensome that doing so would likely be impossible."
https://www.vox.com/scotus/408356/supreme-court-mahmoud-taylor-dont-say-gay