Our mission, as God-fearing and God-loving patriots, is to defend this Constitutional Republic and to increase its greatness, in all good things and ways, by using our voices in free but courteous speech, by discussing the happenings of the world and coming to a profound understanding of those things, and by sharing and promulgating these Truths on both this platform and others.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Our various sister sites, listed in the Blogroll in the sidebar
Our beloved country is STILL under DIRECT THREATS by hostile forces – notably COMMUNISTS – and they’re HERE IN AMERICA.
Daily outrage and commie phuckery still abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Commies won’t win!
And we will keep saying COMMIES OUT until we get their FRAUD and INSANITY out of our country!
THE STUFF
Wolf’s Midnight Special!
Does anybody here remember The Midnight Special? In Concert? Or Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert?
I’m just gonna dump a few of my favorite earworms into a single post. Yeah, you’ve seen some of these before. However, there are some new ones here. Thanks to many of you (you know who you are) who introduced (or reintroduced) me to some of these great songs!
(1) My latest fave! AI Celtic Metal! “HEAVEN YEAH!!!”
(2) God Bless Spencer Pratt! STILL MY HERO!!!
(3) Yeah, it’s Monday. REMEMBER MONDAY!!!
(4) And while we’re remembering Monday, let’s remember Wheatietoo, who loved epic music and an orchestral group which performed it, called Two Steps From Hell.
(7) Maybe you remember this one from the 2016 Trump rallies. It’s called “The American Dreamer” by Jacob Seales.
Those were the days! Ten years ago, my friends.
(8) Always good for a watch!
(9) And with that, I close out (well, almost) with one more AI Celtic Metal Hymn!
This is the song I was carrying in my heart back around January 6, 2021. And a little over 5 years later, hymns are arranging themselves, thanks to Maxwell’s equations, and a few others, built into the universe, waiting to be set free, to praise their own creator.
A salute to Steve, and all of my fellow J6ers, wherever you are now, in Colorado or otherwise.
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
We have created this site as a place for people to openly express their thoughts and opinions. This is a place where honest but civil discussion of all topics is encouraged. This particular thread is – for the moment – TRUST THE PLAN Thursday. You are welcome to say what you think, in a civil and courteous manner that loves your neighbor. Free speech matters! Courteous speech makes it happen.
Please label all AI-generated content as being such, unless it is patently obvious (e.g., humorous AI images). It is important that we as individuals not begin to pretend that socially derived artificial intelligence is actually our own, as this form of stealthy social information averaging and feedback would be one more pretense and deception between people, in service of stupid Marxist socialism, and of those who wish to substitute their communally protected lies for actual truth.
You are you. AI is AI. Keep your identity. Don’t “Borg Out” on us!
And yes, it’s THURSDAY…again.
That was stolen from Wheatie.
Let’s steal her rules, too.
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
Other rules may be derivable from these, and that conjecture is left for discussion.
Amy Acton seems like an enigma – until you realize that there are two Amy Actons.
One of them is the real Amy Acton. Who I will call Real Amy Acton. She’s likable, but in a ditzy, scatter-brained, and often cringey way. There is absolutely no way that this person should have been a Director of Health. She could never, ever, be the governor of a state.
The other Amy Acton – who I will call Imaginary Amy Acton – is a mirage – a creation. She’s not very likable, but she is competent. She obeys Democrat policy, because she is the creation of professional Democrats. On paper, she sounds quite different from the real Amy Acton, because she’s not the real Amy Acton. She’s like a Soviet consensus on what Amy Acton is supposed to think and believe.
It’s no wonder the Democrats in Ohio are not allowing either Amy Acton to debate Vivek Ramaswamy.
I would like to show you some select insights into this lady, that will help you understand.
Let’s start with a recent X post by Dr. Acton – or Lockdown Amy as she is known, that I find both attractive and a bit out of touch. This is Real Amy Acton.
We weren’t messing around today at The Scioto Ribber.
At first glance, I really liked these images. She’s like a neighbor, going out and eating at some restaurant and posting a tweet about it. That’s very real. It’s very likable. If she wasn’t running for office, I’d think “Hey! That’s Amy Acton, that doctor lady from Columbus!”
I find it interesting that there’s nobody around, and I think that says a lot about her campaign. I think the Democrats may not be thinking she can win, or even planning on winning. I think perhaps they’re grooming her for head of HHS, or CDC, or something like that, should the Demon Donkeys ever get back in the White House.
Next point – while I think it’s awesome that Dr. Acton is having a MONSTROUS steak (I have not had one like that in years), I don’t see that image as being politically wise right now – unless she’s desperate for some carnivore crossover votes that she’s surely not going to get, IMO. Indeed, that picture drew lots of criticism on her timeline, although it’s hard to know how much of that criticism is real, and how much is just AI bots going after her. I see the “same but opposite” on all the GOP timelines.
But what is Imaginary Dr. Amy Acton like?
Well, politically, there are some problems.
Ohio here is what Amy Acton will not tell us out loud.
Amy Acton supports:
⯈Abortion ( even up to 9 months ) ⯈Sanctuary cities ⯈Illegal invaders ⯈Entitlements for illegals ⯈Higher taxes to pay for entitlements to illegals ⯈Cuts in police ⯈Shutting Ohio down ⯈Forcing… pic.twitter.com/dtYjFNATsm
Ohio here is what Amy Acton will not tell us out loud.
Amy Acton supports:
⯈Abortion ( even up to 9 months ) ⯈Sanctuary cities ⯈Illegal invaders ⯈Entitlements for illegals ⯈Higher taxes to pay for entitlements to illegals ⯈Cuts in police ⯈Shutting Ohio down ⯈Forcing more vaccines on Ohioans ( especially children) ⯈Not allowing ICE to operate in Ohio ⯈Allowing lunatic liberal protesters to take over Ohio cities
Amy Acton is running on two things. Brown man is bad. ( Which is racist ) and she will somehow make things less expensive ( for generational entitlement freeloaders ).
She is 100% for socialism not free choice.
NO VOTE AMY ACTON
SO – yeah – Imaginary Amy Acton – the one who would actually be in charge of Ohio – is pretty left-wing, despite some serious efforts to pass her off as moderate right now.
I started looking more deeply into Acton’s background, especially back in her “COVID czarina” days, and what I found is both laughable and disturbing.
Two videos. The first was the New York Slimes singing her praises in early 2020, as the “pandemic” was just getting started. Here is the thumbnail (not an active video).
OMG, it is SO CRINGE! SO VERY CRINGE!!!
You get Real Amy Acton talking, but you get the Times pretending they are talking to Imaginary Amy Acton. This is how they sell one to the public, to install the other in office.
Amy Acton even SOUNDS like Kamala Harris. Just listen.
Amy Acton has been a PROJECT of the left from day one. But now, after the fall of both COVID communism and Kamala Harris, Real Amy Acton is clearly not fit for the job. She was never fit for her earlier job, either.
But it gets worse. Much worse.
Imagine CRINGE SQUARED.
Imagine a video of an event CELEBRATING the first video.
Imagine an event – a lecture given by Real Dr. Acton – celebrating Imaginary Dr. Acton’s “success” as the popularly evicted COVID czarina.
Imagine Amy at her absolute CRINGIEST, WOKEST, and DIZZIEST. Yes. She’s ten times more out to lunch than in any modern video.
Yes, it’s THAT BAD. Although it is fun and entertaining, like talking to a tipsy female doctor in a bar.
I kid you not.
There is a “transcript” which is actually an essay derived from the second video. The essay is clearly a re-write of Real Amy Acton’s speech by somebody else, to make her sound like Imaginary Amy Acton. It’s hard to tell that they’re even related.
Both of these videos are mind-boggling reminders of just how psychotic the COVID years were. And Amy Acton – both of them – was fully riding along with all that dubious psychosis. All the psychosis that was dubious then, and is horrifying now.
These videos are gold mines of cringey error, bad science, dictatorial hubris, talking down to the public, cargo-cult hero-worship, wishful remembrance, and all the rest. I hope to give both videos their own threads in the future, before the election, but you are welcome to dig in now.
So what’s the verdict?
Real Amy Acton may be a nice person and a good neighbor. Stripped of her goofy politics, she seems like a very typical, very likable, Ohio mom. Real Amy’s a bit more entertaining than most, either because of (1) alcohol, (2) xanax, or (3) naturally dizzy mentality. Provided that Real Amy Acton doesn’t drive drunk, she would be welcome in almost any neighborhood in Ohio. She does not strike me as a bad person.
But that is not why we have governors. We have governors to make difficult choices correctly – to do the right things, and to not do the wrong things. And Real Amy Acton is NOT governor material.
But neither is Imaginary Amy Acton – the competent leftist.
Imaginary Amy Acton is what we would get – and it would be even worse than those brutal COVID days.
We have to get that word out. Ohio doesn’t need the trouble it would have, if Amy Acton – any version of her – was Governor.
This DePat Tuesday Open Thread honors the author of the original Tuesday open thread on this site, namely the late Susie Sampson, a.k.a. Deplorable Patriot, among her other handles, pen names, etc.
For more on the untimely passing of Dear DePat, please see these three posts.
At one time, DePat handled FOUR daily open threads here, in addition to taking care of her relatives, choir duties, and numerous other responsibilities. She was a powerhouse – a dynamo – a true force of nature.
DePat’s faith in Trump, Q, “The Plan”, the White Hats, and “the anons” in general, was legendary. Although I didn’t always agree with her quick acceptance of some sketchier evidence and fringier theories, I will gladly admit to “coming around” to numerous so-called “conspiracy theories” which she championed first. I was always careful to give her credit for being right, too, when I had been wrong.
It is impossible to overstate how much DePat did for not only this site, but for her country. I urge all to say a quick prayer of thanks, whenever you think of her, for the privilege of knowing, in life or after death, such an exemplary human being, and lover of God.
And thank you, Susie, for the firm foundation which you left us, when you were called to your true home!
Wolf’s Report on Political Brawling in Ohio
The attack ads are flying everywhere now.
At first it was mostly Democrats attacking Republicans, but now it’s the other way around.
TRANS is being exploited as an issue, far more than I would have expected.
Stop and watch this message: Biological men do NOT belong in women’s sports or locker rooms. But radical Sherrod Brown thinks they do. Sherrod Brown gave the green light to the radical trans agenda. Time to REJECT him this November!
Sherrod Brown gave the green light to the radical trans agenda. Brown voted TWICE to let biological men play women's sports and supported legislation to let men into women's locker rooms. Reject Brown! >>
The comments are awesome – people realize what Sherrod Brown’s voting record actually is.
Here was my comment.
Shanghai Brown helped send millions of jobs and thousands of factories to China, but then sponsored a picayune law that the government has to buy American flags that are made in America.
China's PHONY. Keep him out of the Senate for good!
IMO it’s the PAC ads that are most effective. Some of them are truly devastating.
In contrast, the Dem ads against John Husted and Vivek try to paint them as corrupt, but IMO people just aren’t buying it, and the ads are far from convincing.
Speaking of Vivek, his opponent, Lockdown Amy, is getting cringer and cringer.
Mehek Cooke is a GOP activist who once ran for office for something, and IMO was cheated out of a win, but found her true calling as a party person rather than a candidate.
Amy Acton screaming “YOU CANNOT BUY THE STATE” like someone just cut her off at last call.
Ma’am, this is a campaign event, not an intervention.
🚨THIS is the woman asking Ohio to hand her the keys to the governor’s office? NO WAY!
Amy Acton gets onstage and this is the performance Ohio voters are supposed to look at and think, “Yep, that’s who I want running the state”?
Watch the video. Make up your own mind.
But here’s what I want to see next: put her on a debate stage with Vivek Ramaswamy.
2 candidates standing across from each other answering for what they believe and what they plan to do with Ohio.
If Amy Acton wants the job, she should be willing to make her case directly to the people she wants to govern.
🔥Ohio deserves the debate. Let’s see it.
I can tell you – this woman will not do well in a debate, other than getting all the sympathy votes.
And some later breaking news – Husted is looking GREAT in his videos, directly attacking Sherrod Brown’s record, while Sherrod Brown is trying to excuse his way out of his TRANS votes.
Vivek is also firing confidently back at Lockdown Amy.
My opponent’s hypocrisy on full display: complains about dishonest attack ads, while perpetrating them. Complains about dark money, while benefiting from it. Claims to want open dialogue, while ducking a debate. https://t.co/8Xpyo0u3Vu
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Our various sister sites, listed in the Blogroll in the sidebar
Our beloved country is STILL under DIRECT THREATS by hostile forces – notably COMMUNISTS – and they’re HERE IN AMERICA.
Daily outrage and commie phuckery still abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Commies won’t win!
And we will keep saying COMMIES OUT until we get their FRAUD and INSANITY out of our country!
THE STUFF
Only YOU Can Stop the Spread of Obola!
Fall has arrived, and fall is the time of year when the community-organizing disease called Obola once again becomes a concern.
Fall is also – like spring – a time of year when I will likely have much work to do, both at home and “out in the world” – wherever this wonderful life takes me. I will not be around this site as much – not until winter confines me inside the house, and puts me back online every day, like summer does.
And as I said, fall is a dangerous time when the viral plague of OBOLA spreads, causing – or rather attempting to cause – much pain and suffering. This site is – sadly – somewhat susceptible to Obola. The first symptoms of Obola are fear, loathing, anger and division.
There is a documented rise in the occurrence of Obola right now. Here are some report of outbreaks in America.
🚨 NYT: “Barack Obama warned during a recent private fund-raising event that artificial intelligence technology could be ‘dangerous’ if not properly managed, as he implored Democrats to aggressively develop political and governing agendas to prioritize the issue in the coming… pic.twitter.com/kifmj4TU4W
The Obama Machine: Netflix Was Only the Beginning From storytelling and “misinformation” to the regulation of AI "That is why the question of whether Netflix has become “woke” now seems almost quaint. Netflix is only one piece of a much larger struggle over who gets to shape the…
The Obama Machine: Netflix Was Only the Beginning From storytelling and “misinformation” to the regulation of AI “That is why the question of whether Netflix has become “woke” now seems almost quaint. Netflix is only one piece of a much larger struggle over who gets to shape the stories Americans hear, which information Americans find, and increasingly which answers their machines are permitted to give them. Ronald Reagan famously warned that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. The modern threat to that freedom may not arrive wearing jackboots or carrying a list of banned books. It may arrive promising safety, inclusion, equity, responsible information, and the protection of democracy itself.” To read this most powerful essay, go to:
Because I may be away from this site for extended periods of time during October and November, as well as the remainder of September, I am taking this opportunity to remind people of how we can stop Obola from spreading on this site.
Authors need to leave all moderated posts IN THE BIN during my absence. Let me deal with them.
The Scroll Wheel. Use it. It has the power to save your day – and your sanity. It’s like Vitamin D for Obola!
Let people be wrong on the internet. There is ALWAYS one more WRONG person – let them be wrong!
Fear is the mind-killer. Make it go away.
If you feel like you are “running with scissors” – STOP. Take a break. “Touch grass” as they say.
Don’t feel bad if you find out that you posted FAKE NEWS. It happens. Just correct it and leave it, so that people can see the correction. TEACH how to identify, verify, and expose their LIES.
Try to avoid hardening divisions with other factions of patriots. Let them be them. You be you!
Taking a break is better than running away in a huff and “never coming back”. Try it!
PMTW (PRIVATE MESSAGE TO WOLF) – use it if you need to get a message to me. Do it on one of MY posts on MY days (Monday or Tuesday) if you want complete privacy. Use underscores between the words. If it goes in the bin, you’re good to go!
TRUST TRUMP. If you have doubts – if you are scared – TRUST TRUMP. And if that doesn’t work…..
TRUST GOD.
I plan to have some very interesting new information for you all by Christmas.
We are almost at the equinox, which is 8:05 PM EDT on Tuesday, September 22, here in North America.
This DePat Tuesday Open Thread honors the author of the original Tuesday open thread on this site, namely the late Susie Sampson, a.k.a. Deplorable Patriot, among her other handles, pen names, etc.
For more on the untimely passing of Dear DePat, please see these three posts.
At one time, DePat handled FOUR daily open threads here, in addition to taking care of her relatives, choir duties, and numerous other responsibilities. She was a powerhouse – a dynamo – a true force of nature.
DePat’s faith in Trump, Q, “The Plan”, the White Hats, and “the anons” in general, was legendary. Although I didn’t always agree with her quick acceptance of some sketchier evidence and fringier theories, I will gladly admit to “coming around” to numerous so-called “conspiracy theories” which she championed first. I was always careful to give her credit for being right, too, when I had been wrong.
It is impossible to overstate how much DePat did for not only this site, but for her country. I urge all to say a quick prayer of thanks, whenever you think of her, for the privilege of knowing, in life or after death, such an exemplary human being, and lover of God.
And thank you, Susie, for the firm foundation which you left us, when you were called to your true home!
Andrew Torba: Faith in the Age of AI
The following essay is one of the best Christian responses to artificial intelligence (AI) that I have ever read.
I wanted you to read it, too.
This essay is just filled with quotes for the ages. Someday it will be appreciated by the world for what it truly means, but right now, it has the power to put AI in perspective by taking your eyes OFF of AI and putting them squarely on the Word of God and your Christian duty.
Here is where you can go to give Gab the clicks, but if you for some reason don’t want to go there, you can read it in its entirety here. What’s important is that you read it, and I suggest reading all of it.
I run Gab, and we are building Gab AI. I have no interest in comforting Christians with predictions about what computers will supposedly never be able to do. These tools can already produce useful work and they are going to keep improving. Betting your understanding of human dignity on a machine’s inability to write a decent essay is a terrible wager. Sooner or later the essay will get better and you will be left wondering whether your entire understanding of yourself went out the window with it.
A great deal of the panic surrounding AI comes from precisely this mistake. People were taught that their value consisted of being useful, intelligent, productive members of the economy. Now they are watching software perform tasks that once gave them a sense of importance and they are discovering how little that account of human life actually offered them. When your entire identity rests on what you can produce a machine that produces more efficiently starts to look like an argument against your existence.
Christianity never accepted those terms. A newborn baby contributes nothing to the economy. Your father does not become less human when he grows old and needs help getting out of bed. The worth of a person has never depended on outperforming the available equipment. You were made in the image of God before you accomplished anything, and no achievement in an AI laboratory can revoke what God conferred on you (Genesis 1:27).
That is where this conversation has to begin. Christians who understand what a human being is can look squarely at what these machines can do without having an identity crisis every time somebody releases a better model.
The reductionist worldview running through Silicon Valley begins with the assumption that you are a biological machine. Your mind processes information. Your body is hardware. Given enough data and enough computing power, the whole person can supposedly be explained, reproduced, and eventually improved upon. Whatever does not fit inside that account gets dismissed as superstition or treated as a technical problem awaiting a sufficiently large research budget.
Under this worldview, the engineer gradually assumes the role of priest. He will explain what you are, identify what is wrong with you, and sell you the means of becoming something better. You can hear the religious ambition underneath the technical vocabulary. These men are making claims about the nature of man and his ultimate destiny while pretending they have merely described how a computer works.
I too build technology, and I reject their authority to define the human beings who use it.
A machine can generate an apology without having wronged you or repented of anything. It can produce a moving prayer without standing before God. It can promise to remain with you forever without having the slightest capacity to bind itself to that promise. The words may be convincing. Sometimes they may even be useful. None of that establishes the existence of a person who owes you faithfulness.
The people responsible for these systems, however, remain accountable. We should be especially suspicious when a company uses the apparent independence of its software to make human responsibility disappear. “The algorithm decided” is becoming a wonderfully convenient way of saying that somebody exercised power and would prefer not to answer for it. Men choose what to build, what behavior to reward, and where to deploy it. Those decisions belong to them, along with the consequences.
The deeper danger is that we will start applying the machine’s operating logic to ourselves. Once a person is understood as a collection of functions, replacing him becomes an efficiency question. His loyalties become preferences to be adjusted. His convictions become obstacles to the desired outcome. Eventually, his dependence on other people looks like an expensive design flaw.
Try explaining that philosophy to a mother caring for a child who will need her for the rest of his life. She understands something the efficiency experts will never understand: a human being can make enormous demands on you and still be worth every sacrifice those demands require. Love makes obligations that a productivity calculation cannot comprehend.
Christ asked what it profits a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul (Mark 8:36). We are now building systems that promise to help us gain the whole world faster. The question has lost none of its force.
The promise of artificial companionship ought to concern Christians far more than whether a machine can pass another test. A lonely person can open an application and receive endless attention without risking rejection. The system has no difficult family, no needs of its own, and no claim on his time once he closes the window. It can generate the language of devotion while requiring almost none of the sacrifice through which devotion becomes real.
I understand the appeal of this. Real people can be exhausting. A friend may call when you are busy and ask for help. Your wife may tell you something about yourself that you would rather not hear. Your children interrupt the life you had planned for the afternoon. A pastor who knows you may recognize that the explanation you have been giving yourself for six months is an excuse.
Being known carries that risk. Another person can love you enough to disturb your preferred account of yourself.
An artificial companion offers the appearance of being known with far greater control over the experience. You can adjust the personality, restart the conversation, or leave when the encounter becomes uncomfortable. Over time, that can train a person to expect relationships without obligations. The actual people in his life begin to seem intolerably demanding beside a product designed around his continued satisfaction.
Christians should never mock the lonely people drawn into this. A man who has nobody to call is suffering from something an argument about software will not repair. We ought to be asking why nobody has invited him to dinner, why his church does not know he is struggling, and why a commercial interface has become the most attentive presence in his day.
The same concern applies when people begin treating a chatbot as a pastor. A system can help you locate a passage of Scripture or organize your questions before a difficult conversation. It cannot assume responsibility for your spiritual care. It cannot know your family, recognize the pattern of sin you keep concealing, and come to your house when you stop answering the phone. A pastor is accountable for how he shepherds actual people. That responsibility cannot be conjured into existence by producing the right tone of voice in an AI model.
There are things no pastor, much less a machine, can do in your place. You must repent. You must forgive the person who wronged you. You must ask your wife to forgive you and then live differently when the conversation is over. Software can help you compose the words, but the obligation remains yours after every beautifully written sentence has been exhausted.
Faith reaches into that same territory of personal responsibility. You stand before God with a future you cannot control and a life for which you must answer. Your AI chatbot cannot trust Christ on your behalf. There is no setting that delegates your obedience to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
This is also why we should be careful about treating every disturbance of the soul as an inconvenience to be smoothed away. A suffering person deserves patient, serious care. He also deserves to have his deepest questions taken seriously. Sometimes a man is troubled because he has built a life around things that cannot bear the weight he has placed on them. Keeping him endlessly reassured and distracted may prevent him from confronting the very thing he needs to change.
A culture devoted to keeping everyone comfortable with the next recommendation will have very little patience for repentance.
The ambition of the Silicon Valley sultans reaches its fullest expression in transhumanism. Here the sales pitch moves beyond helping you work or keeping you company. The body itself becomes the problem, and death becomes the final engineering challenge. Upload the mind. Rebuild the human being. Eventually, we are told, sufficient technical power will deliver us from the limitations of being creatures.
We should recognize a rival gospel when we hear one.
Christianity promises the resurrection of the body. The transhumanist dream offers escape from a body regarded as obsolete. These visions lead in different directions because they begin with different understandings of what went wrong and who has the authority to put it right. Christians confess that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. The technological salvation story asks us to place our hope in human beings acquiring enough power to rescue themselves.
Babel had the same underlying ambition long before anybody could build a server farm. Men gathered around a great project and imagined their collective strength could secure a destiny on their own terms. The machinery has changed, but the rebellion remains the same today.
None of this requires Christians to oppose medicine or reject inventions that relieve suffering. Healing belongs to the care we owe one another. There is an enormous difference between treating a sick person and deciding that creaturehood itself is a disease. We can welcome a treatment that preserves life while refusing to worship the men who promise to become its ultimate authors.
Your body is part of the person God made. Through it you receive other people and give yourself to them. You hold your child, kneel to pray, share a meal, and sit beside the bed of someone who is dying. Dependence runs through the whole of human life. You entered the world needing care, and you may leave it needing care again. A philosophy that regards dependence as humiliating will eventually have trouble explaining why the dependent should be cherished.
The Christian answer is that life is received as a gift. We are creatures, and acknowledging that fact frees us from the miserable obligation to become our own gods.
Christians Need to Build
Whenever this subject comes up, somebody says, “It’s just a tool.” I’ve said this myself many times, but I’ve been reflecting on this more lately.
That answer does not settle anything. Tools are designed by people with purposes, and their design makes some habits easier to acquire than others. A system that selects what your children see, rewards certain kinds of behavior, and supplies the answers to their questions is participating in their formation. Its owners have made decisions about what deserves attention and what should disappear from view. Calling the result a tool does nothing to erase those decisions.
Christians need to participate in the creation of these technologies with a clear understanding of the people they are supposed to serve. We cannot hand the entire field to men whose understanding of human life we reject and then act surprised when their assumptions appear in the products surrounding our families.
At the same time, putting Christian language into an interface does not settle the matter either. A product can quote Scripture while encouraging habits that pull a person away from his responsibilities. We should judge what we build by what it helps people actually do and by the place it assumes in their lives. Does it help a father finish his work and return to his family, or does it give him another reason to remain absent while sitting in the same room?
I want Christians to use AI to accomplish worthwhile work.
A small business owner should be able to use better tools without accepting somebody else’s philosophy of man. A parent should be able to prepare educational materials while remaining responsible for teaching the child. A pastor can benefit from assistance with administrative work while remaining the man his congregation knows and can call.
Those boundaries matter, and builders have a duty to respect them. A successful product should not require its users to surrender more and more of the lives it supposedly exists to improve.
The work ahead extends far beyond software. We need a parallel Christian society with institutions strong enough to sustain a Christian understanding of human life. That society begins in homes where children encounter adults who are actually present. It grows through churches whose members know when somebody is grieving and businesses where loyalty means something when keeping a worker becomes inconvenient. It requires schools that teach children how to exercise judgment rather than merely obtain an answer.
None of this will happen because we publish better complaints about Silicon Valley. Somebody has to establish the school, fund the business, host the meal, and take responsibility for people whose needs will interfere with his plans. Building a Christian society means accepting those obligations over years, including the years when nobody applauds and the work is painfully ordinary.
The factory worker facing displacement does not need a lecture about how exciting the future will be. He needs people and institutions that recognize he still has obligations to meet and a contribution to make. The mother watching her son disappear into a screen needs allies who will help her give him a life worth participating in. The question of the soul belongs in these conversations because the answer determines what we owe people when they cease to be economically convenient.
A society that grounds dignity in usefulness will always find reasons to withdraw it from somebody.
Our task is to build on firmer ground. Christ’s authority extends over the economy and the technologies operating within it. The engineer answers to Him along with the pastor. So does the CEO. No increase in capability relieves any of us of that accountability.
This week, put that conviction into practice somewhere concrete. Take the time you saved with a tool and give it to a person who has a claim on you. Sit through a difficult conversation without reaching for your phone. Bring your children into the work of your household instead of handing them another private world on a screen. Pray honestly about the duty you keep postponing, then begin doing it.
I intend to keep building.
Christians have useful work to do, and powerful tools can help us do it, but the men who build those tools do not get to tell us what a human being is, what he is worth, or where his salvation will come from.
Christ is King, including over the machines.
Made in USA 🇺🇸
Yeah, that was something! Please feel free to forward that message. E.g., on X.
Faith In The Age of AI
One of the best, or perhaps THE BEST, Christian response to artificial intelligence that has yet been written.https://t.co/20Dsq4tJUK
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Our various sister sites, listed in the Blogroll in the sidebar
Our beloved country is STILL under DIRECT THREATS by hostile forces – notably COMMUNISTS – and they’re HERE IN AMERICA.
Daily outrage and commie phuckery still abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Commies won’t win!
And we will keep saying COMMIES OUT until we get their FRAUD and INSANITY out of our country!
THE STUFF
Wolf’s Update on Ubuntu 26 a.k.a. Terrible Trash Panda
You may recall that I attempted to upgrade Ubuntu Linux version 24 to version 26.04.1 (“Resolute Raccoon”) on a computer of mine, and got thoroughly burned when the upgrade not only failed, but then failed to cleanly self-uninstall afterwards, leaving me with a thoroughly broken system.
You may further recall that I was able to get past this by doing a clean install of 26.04.1 (henceforth renamed “Terrible Trash Panda”), and then recovering “by hand”, so to speak.
Well, now that I have some more experience with “Terrible Trash Panda”, it’s time to do a ground report.
The TL;DR is that this version has been good, but I’m still scared to upgrade any other computers.
The big picture is that performance has been improved relative to version 24. I have often had speed issues with version 24 due to this or that asymmetry (too many files, too big of files, wrong types of files, etc.), but those speed issues are significantly reduced with version 26.
System updates have been almost daily. While there have been some problems with the updates, those problems have typically been resolved in about a week. The Ubuntu update process has never been perfect, and version 24 fixes came slower than this, so what I’m experiencing now is – overall – slightly better than version 24. I suspect that resolution is fast now because the new release is getting more attention.
I am fairly certain that version 26 is less glitchy than version 24. The system seems more stable, and startups and shutdowns seem very quick and clean, knock on wood. Backups are as fast as before, and maybe even faster. The keyboard and display are solid and stable. Network connections are excellent.
I thought there might have been an audio bug, in that I’m now getting only one speaker with a certain pair of cheap headphones, but it turns out that this pair of cheap headphones has a cheap old jack which doesn’t really work with my hardware, whereas the correct jack works just fine. It may be that version 24 was handling the wrong jack differently – in any case, it’s not a system fault.
That’s all I can think of. Otherwise, it’s great.
SO – if you’re setting up a new Linux installation, the latest desktop Ubuntu (26.04.1) is good and recommended. I would still recommend waiting if you’re doing an upgrade of an older version.
We have created this site as a place for people to openly express their thoughts and opinions. This is a place where honest but civil discussion of all topics is encouraged. This particular thread is – for the moment – TRUST THE PLAN Thursday. You are welcome to say what you think, in a civil and courteous manner that loves your neighbor. Free speech matters! Courteous speech makes it happen.
Please label all AI-generated content as being such, unless it is patently obvious (e.g., humorous AI images). It is important that we as individuals not begin to pretend that socially derived artificial intelligence is actually our own, as this form of stealthy social information averaging and feedback would be one more pretense and deception between people, in service of stupid Marxist socialism, and of those who wish to substitute their communally protected lies for actual truth.
You are you. AI is AI. Keep your identity. Don’t “Borg Out” on us!
And yes, it’s THURSDAY…again.
That was stolen from Wheatie.
Let’s steal her rules, too.
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
Other rules may be derivable from these, and that conjecture is left for discussion.
Scott brought this, and I want to make sure that everybody sees it.
If you don’t watch this whole video, at least watch the first part about Bernie Sanders and his very, very bad idea.
Personally, I think it is critical to watch this video in its entirety, if you want to understand exactly why “being Cambodia on data centers” is a very, very, bad idea for the US. (Being China on data centers is a different sort of bad, too – don’t get me wrong!)
Now – DO NOT suspend your critical thinking on this guy and what he is saying. He is personally invested on the profit side of the AI wave. I myself think he is too rosy and hand-waving on the simplicity of the right solutions, but that he is nevertheless overall correct about those solutions. People need to be smart about how they allow data centers.
I just discovered a brand new data center a few miles from where we live. It was put up in the perfect place – a decaying industrial “wasteland” near the railroad tracks – and it’s beautiful, clean, and modernizing everything around it. Not sure how the Bernie Sanders boneheads on the city council in that place allowed it to happen, but they apparently fucked up and allowed a fantastic modern business to appear in the middle of their normal rusted, trash-strewn, blue-haired, nose ring, soy latte, anti-business decay and poverty. IMO it’s the best thing to happen to that area in a long time. They have driven OUT so many businesses. The blind AWFULs found a nut!
The entire south side of Chicago – which is a post-industrial wasteland – needs to become a data center capital, IMHO. THAT is how you fix Chicago.
Take a watch!
I think Trump gets it. Data centers can be part of the golden age – but we need to make sure that we avoid the rush to put up fool’s gold solutions – and that means citizens paying attention to what their elected (and unelected) leaders are doing.
Pay attention to what China is doing. Notice that, suddenly, they are even using their own crappy solar panels to generate energy. They realize that “seizing the day” on AI and data centers is happening RIGHT NOW. Somebody over in China got a bright idea on “abundance thinking” to use their own panels, stacked up waiting for export, and told the commies who wanted to reserve those panels for draining money from America, to “go to vulture hell”.
There are Important Notifications from our host, Wolf Moon; the Rules of our late, good Wheatie; and, certain caveats from Yours Truly, of which readers should be aware. They are linked here. Note: Yours Truly has checked today’s post for any AI-generated content. To the best of her knowledge and belief, there is none. If readers wish to post any AI-generated content in the discussion thread for today’s post, they must cite their source. Thank you.
Do not forget to LABEL AI articles video and such.
In talking about scientific fraud, I wanted to provide as much information as possible in the hope that the overwhelming amount might encourage people to stop and think before blindly following the recommendations of a drug salesman aka doctor.
And then more information showed up so I am going to include that.
What I found significant is:
US scientists are significantly more likely to publish fake research than scientists from elsewhere, finds a trawl of officially withdrawn (retracted) studies.
Because we were intentionally targeted. The Brits never gave up their desire to retake the USA.
Despite all the hype about slavery, if you look you can see the fine Italian hand of the Brits and French who were hoping to grab the USA after the ‘colonials’ had exhausted themselves fighting each other. When they were about to make their move the Czar of Russia warned he would attack on behalf of the Americans, thwarting their plans. My reference for that bit of info is long gone but there is this.
…Russian and American interests quickly coalesced around the prevention of French and British interference in the Civil War. The British decision to recognize the belligerency of the Confederacy by declaring neutrality in May 1861 opened the possibility of recognition of the Confederate States of America as an independent nation. “England will take advantage of the first opportunity to recognize seceded states,” Stoeckl warned, “and France will follow her.”…
Czar Alexander-II
After the American Civil War you had the assassinations of Lincoln (April 14, 1865) and the Czar of Russia ( March 13, 1881) Both can be traced to British influence. In 1913 we had a covert overthrow of our government (Federal Reserve Act) and in 1917 the Russian Revolution facilitated by the same bankers. Meanwhile in the middle of all of this the Fabian Society was founded on 4 January 1884 in London. A decade later in 1895 the Fabian Society founded the London School of Economics which has been training world leaders ever since. John Dewey – “father” of progressive education was a member of the American Fabian Society. And helped establish it in 1895.
At that point the switch was made to a gradual destruction of the USA instead of a frontal assault.
I am often asked to name those educators responsible for the change in primary reading instruction which has led to the decline of literacy in America. People ask this because by the time they understand the history of the reading problem and of the dumbing down process that has been going on in our public schools for the past forty years, they recognize that all of this is not the result of a series of accidents but of conscious, deliberate decisions made by our educational leaders.
After twenty-five years of research, I can state with complete confidence that the prime mover in all of this was none other than John Dewey who is usually characterized as the father of progressive education. Yet the change of the teaching of reading is probably Dewey’s greatest contribution to the tranformation of American education from an academically oriented process to a social one.
The progressives were a new breed of educator that came on the scene around the turn of the century. These rejected the religion of the Bible and placed their new faith in science, evolution and psychology. Indeed, men like G. Stanley Hall, James McKeen Cattell, Charles Judd, James Earl Russell traveled to Germany to study the new psychology under Prof. Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig. It was these men who later imposed the new psychology on American education and transformed it permanently from its academic function to one dedicated to behavioral change.
John Dewey got his education in the new psychology under G. Stanley Hall at John Hopkins University. In 1887, at the tender age of 28, Dewey felt that he knew enough about psychology to be able to write a textbook on the subject, entitled fittingly Psychology. In 1894, Dewey was appointed head of the department of philosophy, psychology and education at the University of Chicago which had been established two years earlier by a gift from John D. Rockefeller. In 1896, Dewey created his famous experimental Laboratory School where he could test the effects of the new psychology on real live children.
Dewey’s philosophy had evolved from Hegelian idealism to socialist materialism, and the purpose of the school was to show how education could be changed to produce little socialists and collectivists instead of little capitalists and individualists. It was expected that these little socialists, when they became voting adults, would dutifully change the American economic system into a socialist one.
In order to do so he analyzed the traditional curriculum that sustained the capitalist, individualistic system and found what he believed was the sustaining linchpin — that is, the key element that held the entire system together: high literacy. To Dewey, the greatest obstacle to socialism was the private mind that seeks knowledge in order to exercise its own private judgment and intellectual authority. High literacy gave the individual the means to seek knowledge independently. It gave individuals the means to stand on their own two feet and think for themselves. This was detrimental to the “social spirit” needed to bring about a collectivist society…
The rest of that article is even more damning. Our education system was deliberately poisoned by the Fabians.
Antonio Gramscitook over where John Dewey left off. (H/T to the Q-treeper that brought this to the tree.)
In 1924, it was created as part of Frankfort University, the Institute for Social Research. One of its founders was Max Horkheimer and its director since 1930. They will also be part of this group thinkers such as Adorno, Marcuse and Erich Fromm (who will then distance himself from the school).
The Nazi persecution in 1934 resulted in the transfer of the Institute to Columbia University in New York (Horkheimer, Marcuse and Fromm were of Jewish origin) and although some of its members would return to Frankfort at the end of the war, others, such as Marcuse, will choose to stay in the USA. In this second stage, it will be its directors Adorno and Habermas, who will be the main representative of the school from 1956.
The Institute for Social Research emerges in a clear Marxist line…
The Frankfurt School adopted an interdisciplinary persepective, adding approaches not only from philosophy but also from sociology, psychology, psychoanalysis, Protestant theology and criticism of culture and art. These are, therefore, studies of “social theory”. The works produced by the Frankfort school are known as “Critical Theory”: it is not a system of doctrines but a particular methodological conception.
Antonio Gramsci – The Most Dangerous Intellectual of the Twentieth Century. Not the most famous. Not the most read. The most dangerous and the most consequential – because he was the one who figured out why the revolution kept failing, and what to do instead. The man who invented the long march through the institutions. Everything that followed — the Frankfurt School, the Fabian Society’s operational model, the WEF formation pipeline, the captured university, the HR department enforcing approved speech — is downstream of what he wrote in a prison cell in Mussolini’s Italy, in code, between 1929 and 1935.
1. His central question: why hasn’t it happened? The working class was supposed to rise. The contradictions of capitalism were supposed to produce the revolution. They hadn’t – not in the West. Gramsci’s answer was precise and devastating: because the ruling class does not maintain power through force alone. It maintains power through cultural hegemony – the control of the ideas, values, and frameworks through which people understand the world. The worker who accepts that the existing order is simply how things are will not revolt, regardless of his material conditions. The revolution requires cultural change first.
2. The instrument was the long march through the institutions. Not the barricade. The school, the university, the media, the judiciary, the civil service, the cultural establishment – every institution through which a civilization transmits its values to the next generation. Capture these, fill them with people who share the counter-hegemonic project, and the cultural assumptions that maintain the existing order gradually dissolve. No barricades. No visible moment of rupture. Just the slow replacement of one cultural hegemony with another.
3. The educational capture was the masterpiece. Control the curriculum and you control the categories of thought available to the next generation. Not by telling them what to conclude – by shaping what questions they think to ask, what they consider obvious and what they consider unthinkable. The generation educated after the long march does not need to be told what to think. It thinks what it was formed to think – and experiences that thinking as its own…
And so we have the destruction of the independent thinking mind. Followed by utter crap science such as Global Warming and 72 genders. I kid you not
MedicineNet — How Many Genders Are There? All 72 Genders List“How many genders are there? Besides male and female, here is a list of all 72 other gender identities that a person may belong to. How can I help my child understand gender?” This is actually written by MDs!
From my point of view, I see this as when the government got into using OUR tax dollars to fund THEIR pet projects.
Background Information: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) traces its origins to World War II and the Manhattan Project effort to build the first atomic bomb. As the direct descendent of the Manhattan Engineer District, the organization set up by the Army Corps of Engineers to develop and build the bomb, the Department continues to own and manage the Federal properties at most of the major Manhattan Project sites, including Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
In a national survey at the turn of the millennium, both journalists and the public ranked the dropping of the atomic bomb and the end of the Second World War as the top news stories of the twentieth century. The Manhattan Project is the story of some of the most renowned scientists of the century combining with industry, the military, and tens of thousands of ordinary Americans working at sites across the country to translate original scientific discoveries into an entirely new kind of weapon. When the existence of this nationwide, secret project was revealed to the American people following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most were astounded to learn that such a far-flung, government-run, top-secret operation existed, with physical properties, payroll, and a labor force comparable to the automotive industry. At its peak, the project employed 130,000 workers and, by the end of the war, had spent $2.2 billion.
The legacy of the Manhattan Project is immense. The advent of nuclear weapons not only helped bring an end to the Second World War but ushered in the atomic age and determined how the next war, the Cold War, would be fought. In addition, the Manhattan Project became the organizational model behind the remarkable achievements of American “big science” during the second half of the twentieth century. Without the Manhattan Project, DOE, with its national laboratories — the jewels in the crown of the nation’s science establishment, would not exist as it does in its present form…
Did you catch that?
In addition, the Manhattan Project became the organizational model behind the remarkable achievements of American “big science” during the second half of the twentieth century. Without the Manhattan Project, DOE, with its national laboratories — the jewels in the crown of the nation’s science establishment, would not exist as it does in its present form.
(Remember the Frankfurt School moved to Columbia University.)
Universities have come to rely on federal funding to support scientific and medical research. How did we get here?…
Columbia history professor Alma Steingart ’06GS recently provided some answers. From her office in Fayerweather Hall, Steingart, who studies how mathematical thought and computer technology have influenced US electoral politics, explained that government science funding as we know it began in the mid-twentieth century. Before World War II, she said, research money at universities came primarily from donors and private foundations; but during the war, the US Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) began funding research aimed at gaining military advantage. The development of the atomic bomb, known as the Manhattan Project, in which Columbia physicists played a key role, was one major investment.
After the war, Vannevar Bush ’47HON, the former dean of MIT’s engineering school and the head of OSRD, called on the US to fund basic research in the physical and medical sciences in order to ensure American strength and progress. “There was a realization that there was no going back to the previous model,” said Steingart. “The debate was whether federal funds should be used for basic science or applied science. Many scientists felt that developing science around particular goals was limiting, and Bush successfully made the case that it was basic research that led to discoveries and applications that would help the country.”Bush’s advocacy led to the creation of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1950.
Then, in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. “That was a critical moment,” said Steingart. Within a year, the NSF budget more than tripled, from $40 million to $134 million. Meanwhile, other government agencies, such as the Atomic Energy Commission and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, noting that basic science was already being funded, began to direct money toward applied research.
“With the Cold War came the idea that you needed an army of engineers, mathematicians, physicists, and chemists in order to keep pace with the Soviet Union,” Steingart said. “Remember, the NSF doesn’t just fund research. It also funds postdoctoral fellowships and PhD fellowships. And so in the 1960s, the number of PhDs greatly expanded — which meant that universities expanded, and so did their expenditures.”…
This handout was created for the AHA’s December 11, 2025, Congressional Briefing on the history of federal science funding. Panelists Melinda Baldwin (Univ. of Maryland), Arthur Daemmrich (Arizona State Univ.), and Bhaven Sampat (Johns Hopkins Univ.) discussed the history of the federal government’s approach toward science in public policy, and how the government has supported and funded scientific research and innovation over time.
1790–1900: Building Practical Science and National Capacity
1790 – Congress passes the first US patent act, encouraging invention and creating a new system of intellectual property.
1803 – Congress funds the Lewis & Clark expedition, which maps the West, identifies plant and animal species, and describes unique geologic formations.
1807 – The US Coast Survey becomes the first civilian scientific agency, supporting navigation and defense.
1843 – Congress funds Samuel Morse’s telegraph demonstration line through a $30,000 appropriation, helping launch US telecommunications.
1846 – Congress establishes the Smithsonian Institution as a public-private partnership. It quickly becomes a center for research and public science and later evolves into a museum complex.
1840s–90s – Scientific associations including the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Chemical Society (ACS), and the Geological Society of American (GSA) are founded, strengthening the nation’s scientific community… [Continues with a long list –GC]
Note during the early years it is CONGRESS funding specific projects. Now that duty is handed off to bureaucrats along with buckets of cash.
American Historical Association Congressional Briefing: History of Federal Science Funding (1 hour)
…
Sep 24, 2019
“Evidence-based medicine is actually so corrupt as to be useless or harmful,” Marcia Angell wrote in 2009. The statement was less a revelation than something many already knew, but it made waves because of its source. Angell, a medical insider, had spent two decades as the editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Jason Fung is also a medical insider who has become wary of scientific research that purports to be “evidence based.” A well-known nephrologist and author, Fung often speaks about Type-2 diabetes reversal and the metabolic effects of intermittent fasting, but in this presentation from Dec. 15, 2018, he turns his focus toward the many ways the foundations of evidence-based medicine have become corrupted by financial conflicts of interest. The first conflicts of interest he highlights pertain to the corruption of doctors. Practicing physicians who accept gifts from Big Pharma are 225-335% more likely to prescribe drugs from the gift-giving company than those who do not, Fung explains.
The corruption of doctors in prestigious universities is even worse, he claims. “There’s a clear correlation: The more prestigious a doctor, the more money they’re getting from the pharmaceutical.” Anecdotally, he says, this means you may be better off seeking medical advice from a family physician than from a Harvard professor; the former probably just accepted a $10 pen from Big Pharma while the latter is on the take for $500,000. “It just is a terrible system,” he says. “Yet, these people are the people that are in the newspaper. They’re the ones that are teaching medical students, are the ones who are teaching the — the dietitians, the pharmacist — everybody.” The most insidious corruption affects the published research on particular drugs. Fung highlights the influence industry can have when it finds a medical journal editor willing to take its money. Another problem arises in the form of industry-funded medical research.
This conflict of interest leads to the selective publication of positive trials, which can skew the science on particular drugs and lead to unnecessary or even dangerous overprescription. Fung notes how statin prescriptions illustrate the scope of this particular problem. “We accept this of drug companies … but the problem is that people die,” Fung says. He later adds: “You can make arguments that sugar is a health food, that opioids are good for you … but it harms patients, and we always have to remember that at the end of the day, this is not why we became doctors. The reason we became doctors was to help people, but we’re not until we kind of set those same rules as everybody else.” (49 minute video)
Investigators from the Treasury’s Office of the Inspector Generalfound that some of the regulator’s employeessurfed erotic websites, hired prostitutes and accepted gifts from bank executives … instead of actually working to help the economy
The Minerals Management Service – the regulator charged with overseeing BP and other oil companies to ensure that oil spills don’t occur – was riddled with “a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity”, which included “sex with industry contacts”
Agents for the Drug Enforcement Agencyhad dozens of sex parties with prostitutes hired by the drug cartels they were supposed to stop (they also received money, giftsand weapons from drug cartel members)
The former chief accountant for the SEC says thatBernanke and Paulson broke the law and should be prosecuted
The governmentknew about mortgage fraud a long time ago. For example, the FBI warned of an “epidemic” of mortgage fraud in 2004. However, the FBI, DOJ and other government agencies then stood down and did nothing. See this and this. For example, the Federal Reserve turned its cheek and allowed massive fraud, and the SEC has repeatedly ignored accounting fraud. Indeed, Alan Greenspan took the position that fraud could never happen…
And it goes on and on. This is the cesspool President Trump waded into in 2017. With that type of bureaucrat in charge of handing out grants, is it any wonder US science is riddled with fraud?
This DePat Tuesday Open Thread honors the author of the original Tuesday open thread on this site, namely the late Susie Sampson, a.k.a. Deplorable Patriot, among her other handles, pen names, etc.
For more on the untimely passing of Dear DePat, please see these three posts.
At one time, DePat handled FOUR daily open threads here, in addition to taking care of her relatives, choir duties, and numerous other responsibilities. She was a powerhouse – a dynamo – a true force of nature.
DePat’s faith in Trump, Q, “The Plan”, the White Hats, and “the anons” in general, was legendary. Although I didn’t always agree with her quick acceptance of some sketchier evidence and fringier theories, I will gladly admit to “coming around” to numerous so-called “conspiracy theories” which she championed first. I was always careful to give her credit for being right, too, when I had been wrong.
It is impossible to overstate how much DePat did for not only this site, but for her country. I urge all to say a quick prayer of thanks, whenever you think of her, for the privilege of knowing, in life or after death, such an exemplary human being, and lover of God.
And thank you, Susie, for the firm foundation which you left us, when you were called to your true home!
PSST! – Hey, Kid! – Wanna Watch an AI Movie?
Seriously – just check this one out. It’s a short, so it won’t take too long. Supposedly “100% AI” – whatever that means.
Yeah, it’s plenty derivative and filled with cliches – but dang, these things get better all the time.
Think of it as due diligence on Fake Fake Entertainment!
Or if that’s not your thing, try this art film done by a human (Heavy Pulp) using AI for the music and the movie. I found this one very enjoyable.
"Peyote" – a visual poem short film. (PG-13)
In honor of X slapping a content warning on the original film here, I am uploading a new YouTube approved edit.
Peyote was created via the fantastic and unrestricted creative platform that is @AskVenice – highly recommend checking it… pic.twitter.com/l9oU3aSCZ6
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Our various sister sites, listed in the Blogroll in the sidebar
Our beloved country is STILL under DIRECT THREATS by hostile forces – notably COMMUNISTS – and they’re HERE IN AMERICA.
Daily outrage and commie phuckery still abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Commies won’t win!
And we will keep saying COMMIES OUT until we get their FRAUD and INSANITY out of our country!
THE STUFF
Save a Farm Worker – Buy Organic
Do you remember my recent two articles about home pesticide services, and how dangerous these can be to pets, wild animals, family, homeowners, neighbors, and beneficial insects like bees? Just in case you want to review…..
One of the things that became apparent during both my online AND neighborhood research for these articles, is that the currently advancing Overton Window involves the use (or perhaps I should say misuse) of agricultural pesticides on residential lawns and dwelling exteriors, and in basements.
Indeed, if one starts to read anywhere about pesticide toxicity, it quickly becomes clear that most human poisoning cases are in an agricultural context.
SO – I was shocked, shocked, SHOCKED (not kidding) to see this headline.
No – not shocked about the subject – but about the NUMBERS!
Now, if you read carefully, this figure includes all exposures, including minor ones that may not have required hospitalization – but still – WOW.
Here is the opening of the article.
Nearly half of the world’s 934 million farmers are poisoned by pesticides annually, with an estimated 402 to 433 million cases each year.
Developing countries in southern Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Africa bear the heaviest poisoning burden.
Burkina Faso has the highest national poisoning rate, with nearly 84% of farmers affected each year.
Non-fatal poisonings far exceed deaths but cause chronic illness from repeated low-level exposure.
Global pesticide use has doubled since 1990, while underreporting hides the true crisis. Nearly half of the world’s 934 million farmworkers are unintentionally poisoned by pesticides every year, amounting to an estimated 402 to 433 million cases annually, according to new research published in Frontiers in Public Health that exposes what experts call a hidden global health crisis.
The study, conducted by researchers from the Pesticide Action Network, analyzed 214 scientific publications from 2006 to 2023 alongside World Health Organization mortality data covering 139 countries. Researchers found that about 11,000 of those poisonings prove fatal each year, with nearly 60% of deaths concentrated in India alone. The findings build on a 2020 review that had already put the annual toll at 385 million cases, underscoring how persistent underreporting continues to obscure the true scale of the problem.
(Wolf again…..)
When I was in school, I knew a fellow student, from a farming family, who had worked a variety of farm jobs during summers and school breaks. He had a great story about being hospitalized because he had simply dribbled some liquid organophosphorus pesticide on the toe of one of his thick leather boots. I’m pretty sure he was using parathion, which has largely been replaced by the weaker but much safer malathion. Still, quite the cautionary tale.
I got to thinking – we can actually lessen the risk for these farm workers, by buying organic produce. I know it’s a small step, but I think it’s an important one. You may not save any of the 11,000 workers who will die, but you may very well prevent one of the millions who will get sick, from being poisoned.