Hayami Gyoshu Tea bowl and fruits 1921
https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2060831724641386610?s=20 https://twitter.com/catturd2/status/2060762825044230157?s=20 https://twitter.com/PrometheanActn/status/2060787022378205554?s=20 https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2060841449122656429?s=20President Trump gives a tour of the new ballroom construction site.
— TheStormHasArrived (@TheStormRedux) May 31, 2026
This is DJT in his element. He is a fixer and a builder and you can see it in his excitement as he shows his daughter-in-law the progress.
This is what he does.
He is giving a gift to America by paying for… pic.twitter.com/bL4dNaUPxE
“Kharg Island is shut down. That’s their big oil loading facilities, and that means that they’re going to have to start taking down the wells..”
• Trump Toughens Terms Of Iran Deal, Bessent Shows Tehran’s ‘Big Mistake’ (ZH)
Fresh Sunday reporting in the NY Times says President Trump has responded to Iran’s refusal to budge on giving up its nuclear material by tightening US conditions as part of a Memorandum of Understanding to get back to the peace negotiating table. “President Donald Trump has toughened the terms of a potential framework for a deal to end the war in Iran, and has sent those proposed changes back to Iran for consideration, according to three officials,” NY Times writes, but didn’t disclose what the precise changes are.Read more …
The report then speculates on where these changes likely focus: “Trump has been concerned about parts of the potential deal that would include unfreezing funds for the Iranians, two officials said.” Citing frustration at the slow pace of Iran’s response to the proposals, it adds, “He has been harshly critical of President Barack Obama for doing the same in the more than decade-old agreement that was signed to curtail Iran’s nuclear program.” Tightening the proposals is meant to ratchet up the pressure and ‘force’ the Islamic Republic to respond quicker and agree to a deal. However, the Iranians have time and again rejected being ‘dictated to’ by Washington, as its top negotiator Ghalibaf spelled out days ago. Meanwhile there’s been a recent change in tone when talking about Iran’s military, from Trump himself:Iran Still Not Budging on Nuclear File
This also comes after a two-hour Friday Situation Room meeting Friday wherein it became clear there was no deal yet to be finalized. According to more from the Times: The official added that Trump’s changes — a new, tougher proposal — were potentially intended to speed up the process by putting pressure on Iran to accept the framework already sent to Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, for approval. Reaching the supreme leader has been difficult, so any changes to the document, known as the memorandum of understanding, could mean additional delays.But for pressure to work, there has to be signs Iranian leaders are getting nervous or desperate – and so far they’ve not urged Washington or Pakistani mediators for some kind of grand compromise. Instead they’ve repeatedly sworn that Iran’s highly enriched uranium will never be transferred to the possession of the United States.
[..] Bessent: Iran’s ‘Big Mistake’
Still, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is busy on the Sunday news shows talking tough. He told Fox in a new interview that Iran made a “big mistake” by attacking its neighbors in the Persian Gulf, within the past week. A US base in Kuwait was also reportedly just attacked by a ballistic missile, which was reportedly intercepted – but falling debris injured five US personnel. “We had many very good allies who maybe weren’t completely transparent with us on the money — Iranian money that was in their banking systems — all of a sudden became very compliant in terms of being willing to turn over accounts or help us freeze block accounts,” Bessent told Fox News.“And then the third part was the incredible blockade. I really think it’s the economic blockade of funds and the physical blockade of the ships not going in or out of the Iranian ports,” he added. “Kharg Island is shut down. That’s their big oil loading facilities, and that means that they’re going to have to start taking down the wells,” Bessent said. And yet, there’s nothing officially disclosed to show this is actually happening – though the Iranians have no incentive to publicize it. But time will tell.
IDF Plunges Deep into Lebanon, Captures Crusader Castle
Some Lebanon war latest, via Al Jazeera, as ceasefire unravels: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has “instructed the Israeli military to expand the maneuver in Lebanon” after the occupation of the strategic Beaufort Castle, which he says marks “a dramatic change” in Israel’s operations.” The Israeli military claims to have killed 900 Hezbollah “terrorists” since the start of the “ceasefire” on April 16. It added that the army had struck dozens of Hezbollah sites since this morning. nLebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has accused Israel of pursuing a “scorched-earth policy” as Israeli forces expand their ground invasion.
He likes talking to her..
• President Trump Discusses Current Status of Iran Negotiations (CTH)
Appearing for an interview on Fox News with his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, President Trump explains the current status of the negotiations with Iran and more of the details within the deal as tentatively outlined.
“We’ve reached the point where Hillary should leave for whatever mansion she calls home and make Bill a sandwich, sit in the living room, and knit a scarf. ”
• The People’s House Has a Clinton Memory Problem (David Manney)
My favorite villain from Grimm’s Fairy Tales is back! Hillary “At this point, what difference does it make?” Clinton posted another lecture about President Donald Trump, and the internet did what it does best. It opened the old file cabinet, pulled the receipts out, and slapped them on the table, saying, “Bob’s your uncle!” Clinton claimed Trump had left a third of the People’s House in rubble and another third looking like a cage match, meaning the White House ballroom work and the UFC setup tied to the Freedom 250 celebration.Read more …
This is what Trump's done to the people's house:
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 29, 2026
A third of it is rubble.
Another third is a cage match.
What a metaphor. pic.twitter.com/0JKCj5prXFThe post was meant to sound grave, wounded, and patriotic. You know, like when she and Chelsea dodged sniper fire that one time in Bosnia. Unfortunately for her, it landed more like a woman walking into a rake, throwing anashtray at her husband, and blaming the rake. Retired Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson, U.S. Air Force retired, answered with the sort of memory Clinton probably had wished stayed boxed up in the basement.
Oh, Hillary. Hillary, Hillary. You ignorant slut.
— Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) May 29, 2026
As the Senior Military Aide to President Bill Clinton, YOU’RE military aide — the officer who carried the nuclear football in and out of the White House every single day — I saw the “people’s house” up close alongside you.… https://t.co/g9xMe0MJt4Patterson served as senior military aide to President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 1998 and carried the nuclear football, so he didn’t learn White House culture from coffee-table books or campaign ads. He lived inside the system, watched the Clinton years up close, and remembered the exit from 2001 well enough to ruin Hillary’s little sermon about sacred spaces. n The Clinton record gave Patterson plenty to work with; when President Bill Clinton and Hillary left the White House in 2001, controversy followed them out the door. This, if you think about it, balanced the scales because Bill’s and Hill’s background was, let’s just say, colorful when they entered the White House.
The Clintons had reported keeping $190,027 in gifts, and scrutiny later focused on items donors said were meant for the White House, not for the Clinton family. They returned $28,000 worth of furnishings and agreed to pay $86,000 for other gifts. Anybody can argue cataloging errors all day, but the timing and optics were bad enough to survive 25 years of political memory. The mess didn’t stop with furniture. The Government Accountability Office reviewed the 2001 transition and found damage, theft, vandalism, and pranks occurred in the White House complex. Staff described messy offices, excessive trash, offensive signs, damaged government property, and missing items.
At least he didn’t steal the silverware. https://t.co/3PfJkV09pj
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 21, 2025Former Clinton staff pushed back on some claims, and the GAO noted disputes over intent. Even with those caveats, the official record doesn’t read like a team leaving behind a spotless civic shrine. It reads like an exit that needed adult supervision and a better checkout sheet.Clinton’s criticism of Trump’s White House work also skipped the obvious point: presidents change the White House because the building serves as a living office, not a museum under glass. Trump’s ballroom project was presented as a 90,000-square-foot addition with space for 650 seated guests, far more than the East Room can hold.
Critics debate cost, taste, process, and scope. Hillary, however, opted for sanctimony, which works poorly when her White House history still sits there like a dented file cabinet, maybe in the shape of another ashtray nobody throws away. Patterson’s response cuts because it didn’t need polish. Public figures forget that old stories don’t die anymore. They wait, sitting in archives, screenshots, reports, old articles, government records, and the memory of people who stood close enough to see the dust.
Hillary Clinton tried to cast herself as guardian of the People’s House while President Trump stood accused of ruining it. The internet answered with a reminder: the Clintons once left Washington with their own White House baggage, and no amount of elegant outrage can pack it away again. We’ve reached the point where Hillary should leave for whatever mansion she calls home and make Bill a sandwich, sit in the living room, and knit a scarf.
I think both Trump and Rubio would prefer no violence.
• Manufacturing Consent for Trump’s Invasion of Cuba (Bannan)
These days, most of Havana’s streets are fairly empty of cars, but full of people walking or riding bicycles, electric bikes, electric “tricycles,” or scooters. Trash has piled up on most corners where regular pick-up has become impossible given that the garbage trucks have no gasoline. The average conversation starts off with comparing who’s gone the longest without electricity. The sympathy flows, as you exchange stories of what else you are going without: water, gas, food, medicine, transportation. People list the family members they haven’t been able to see and the medical appointments they’ve missed. Inevitably, someone will say better days are coming—“because they have to”—and to keep moving forward.Read more …
This week alone, the US Department of Justice indicted Raul Castro, the former head of state, who’s now 94 years old and largely out of public life. In addition, the Supreme Court gave a green light to Cuban-American-owned companies with property claims in Cuba from 67 years ago to sue tourist industry actors who “profited” from that land. Secretary of State Marco Rubio continues to grow more and more publicly agitated with Cuba’s refusal to bow to his demands, and Trump’s consistent incoherence shows an absolute lack of any clear policy position towards Cuba, aside from one that may economically benefit him and/or his family.The indictment of Castro is a page taken from Trump’s playbook on Venezuela from earlier this year. There, the administration indicted a sitting head of state, Nicolas Maduro, as a legal pretext for a military intervention, which was labelled an “emergency” and thus not an act of war that would require Congressional approval. The administration staged a geopolitical coup d’état involving international kidnapping, acts of war in plain violation of international law and the U.N. Charter, and then imprisoned that leader as a message to the world of what happens to those who defy US interests. Such indictments serve as purportedly fixed legal fictions for shifting political pretexts.
In Venezuela it was supposedly the state’s support for criminal enterprises and gangs, which was the justification for the Trump administration’s stated reason for the extrajudicial killing of nearly 200 civilians in piracy actions in the Caribbean. Once Maduro was kidnapped and jailed, the administration has stopped talking gangs and narcotrafficking rings. In Cuba, the Justice Department’s indictment of Raul Castro is a clear response to the political forces that commanded it. As the island nation is not complying rapidly enough to the changes demanded by Washington, the administration has escalated its threats, military preparations, and legal actions, albeit largely symbolic in nature.
Rubio’s Escalation of Threats as Campaign Messaging
For decades, Marco Rubio has pushed for privately what the Cuban-American community in south Florida has not achieved in nearly 70 years: to run Cuba’s political and economic system remotely from Miami and Washington. These remote “owners” of Cuba have driven and financed Rubio’s political career, leading to this moment where he is adamantly (though unsuccessfully) trying to sell the American public that Cuba is a national security threat while simultaneously telling Cubans that their government is too weak to protect them. That inherent contradiction and incoherence, long the basis of US policy towards Cuba, have never been more dangerous than at this moment when Rubio’s rage and blind ambition to cause widespread destruction is bolstered by Trump’s monarchical goals.
Brits don’t like democracy.
• “It’s All So Tiresome”: UK Social Media Ban Trudges Onward (Kit Knightly)
The UK government’s “consultation” on social media harm is over, and – brace yourselves – it turns out they’re going to have to do something about it. I know, I was shocked too. The main talking point is that “social media is like cigarettes”. Everyone is saying that, it’s the meme of the day. It’s a sentiment originally taken from a new report submitted to the consultation by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.Titled “Growing up in an online world”, it contains this hilarious line in the foreword: …there is, I think, an overwhelming consensus that excessive screen time can harm children and young people and we need to call this out unflinchingly rather than passively wait for someone else to prove causation”.Read more …
Which is a pretty neat summary of how our political system works in general, and certainly in this case: We don’t know if there’s even a problem yet, but by God we’re gonna do something about it. That the something they end up doing makes them rich and powerful is just one of the curious coincidences tyrants can always rely on. {Sidenote: This morning the BBC had “Overwhelimg consensus” in their headline on this story, but at some point the absurdity of that quote was realised, and the headline changed. Now there’s this disclaimer near the end: “There is no consensus among the wider scientific community that screen time overall is harmful to children.” Funny stuff.}Elsewhere, the report wails about “a wave of radicalized children” who pose “a real risk to society”, and calls social media “an incredibly powerful and uncontrolled commercial detriment to health”. In a similar vein, The Guardian is warning of a “tsunami of harm”, and has assembled an all-star cast of interested parties to talk up the scariness of social media meanness. After meeting with “bereaved parents” earlier today, Keir Starmer has “vowed to take action”. His potential rival for the leadership has been even more vocal. Political eunuch and leadership hopeful Wes Streeting is all over this, campaigning hard to be the next disposable suit full of bugger all to “lead the country”:
Big tech's behaviour has been akin to big tobacco, introducing an addictive and harmful product whilst avoiding regulation.
— Wes Streeting (@wesstreeting) May 26, 2026
We’ve got to give our children their childhood back, and that starts with a social media ban for under-16s. pic.twitter.com/soRbjbHIsGHe thinks a ban should be “just the start”: Social media should be treated like tobacco – it’s extremely addictive, bad for our health, and big tech is borrowing the big tobacco playbook to avoid regulation. We’ve got to give our children their childhood back […] A ban for under-16s must be the start, not the end […]We have given the pen to tech moguls to write our future for us. It’s time to take the pen back.” Streeting is an idiot whose ambition outweighs his intellect by a factor of ten, and who clearly doesn’t understand the rules of the game he’s playing.
Some political handler behind the scenes probably told him to go hard on this issue because it will make him look tough and assertive, but the likely truth is he’s being wheeled out as the extreme option so a “sensible middle ground” option – probably Andy Burnham – can enforce “common sense policies”. What will those policies be? It doesn’t really matter, but we’ll get to that. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, notable only for garnering less than 5% of the vote in the 2015 leadership election, is out there promising “action”:
'The question isn't whether we are going to act, we will'
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) May 26, 2026
As a consultation on social media use for under-16s comes to an end Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told #BBCBreakfast the Government plans to take actionhttps://t.co/jJ6RakraWV pic.twitter.com/6lLD8yVoY9…they haven’t decided what “action” yet, exactly but it’s definitely going to happen.
“The French people have been betrayed. In 2027, we will restore a democratic vitality to France by returning power to the peopl..,”
• Le Pen Leads Every Major Rival In New French Presidential Runoff Polling (RMX)
Marine Le Pen would beat every major rival in a second-round French presidential election runoff, according to new polling that hypothesized her eligibility to stand in the election expected in April next year. A Toluna-Harris Interactive poll for M6 and RTL, conducted on May 27, found Le Pen ahead in all three tested runoff scenarios when she is the National Rally candidate. The strongest result came against far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with Le Pen taking 67 percent to his 33 percent. She also defeated former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal by 54 percent to 46 percent, and former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe by 52 percent to 48 percent.Read more …
The figures are significant because Philippe and Attal are among the most prominent names in the broader Macron-aligned camp, which has long presented itself as the main barrier to a National Rally victory. Le Pen has twice lost runoff elections to Macron, back in 2017 and 2022. Yet the poll suggests that even the strongest establishment contenders would currently fall short against Le Pen in a head-to-head vote.
France, Toluna-Harris poll:
— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) May 29, 2026
Presidential run-off election
Le Pen (RN-PfE): 52%
Philippe (HOR-RE): 48%
Le Pen (RN-PfE): 54%
Attal (RE-RE): 46%
Le Pen (RN-PfE): 67%
Mélenchon (LFI-LEFT): 33%
Fieldwork: 25-27 May 2026
Sample size: 1,744
➤ https://t.co/qOzl2nSVPC pic.twitter.com/ZwUFcw7Ma7Le Pen is currently barred from running after being handed an immediate five-year ban from public office, but she has appealed the ruling. A decision on that appeal is expected on July 7. Should she remain unable to run, National Rally president Jordan Bardella is widely expected to become the party’s presidential candidate. That would still leave National Rally in a commanding position. Earlier polling this week showed Bardella leading the first round with 32 percent, well ahead of Philippe on 17 percent and Mélenchon on 16 percent. The same May Odoxa political barometer also showed Bardella beating Philippe in a second-round runoff by 52 percent to 48 percent, reversing the result recorded two months earlier, when Philippe had led by the same margin.
Taken together, the surveys point to a deepening problem for France’s centrist and left-wing parties. Whether the candidate is Le Pen or Bardella, the National Rally is now polling not merely as a first-round protest vehicle, but as a party capable of winning the presidency outright. If Le Pen’s appeal succeeds, she would enter the race as the most formidable candidate in the field. If it fails, Bardella would inherit a political landscape in which the National Rally brand is already ahead of its most likely rivals. On Friday, Le Pen announced her intention, should the National Rally win the presidency, to offer the French public a referendum on mass immigration.
“The French people have been betrayed. In 2027, we will restore a democratic vitality to France by returning power to the people,” she wrote on X.
“.. create a hemispheric powerhouse ..”
• Mike Steger on President Trump’s American Manufacturing Surge (CTH)
Mike Steger takes less than 20-minutes to walk through a year of President Trump’s multifaceted U.S. manufacturing policy initiatives that have positioned the U.S. economy for a massive surge in growth. Steger recaps several consequential moves by President Trump and his cabinet to fundamentally change economics in the Western Hemisphere. Each point is well delivered and well presented.Read more …
Steger then overlays the economic moves with the geopolitical moves in Venezuela (oil), Cuba (communism ended), Mexico (cartels, traffickers and corruption), Canada (globalism confronted) and finally Greenland (a new consulate is created). Put together, Steger notes how all of these moves work together with a massive surge in energy, technology and productivity to create a hemispheric powerhouse within the United States. WATCH:TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
01:10 Volcker and the Origins of Globalization
02:30 NAFTA and the Collapse of Industrial America
04:05 Liberation Day and the Tariff Battle
05:30 China’s Rare Earth Weapon
06:45 Rebuilding American Industry08:20 The End of Free Trade Orthodoxy
09:30 Jamieson Greer vs. USMCA
10:40 Why Manufacturing Ecosystems Matter
12:20 Industry, Science, and Technological Progress
13:45 The Republican-Labor Coalition
14:45 Mexico, Cartels, and Economic Sovereignty
15:35 Canada and the Globalist Response
16:10 Fortress America
16:40 Final Thoughts
“.. dominance built on a crisis is not the same as dominance built on trust ”
• America’s LNG Boom Is Real – But China Is Planning Beyond It (OP)
The Iran war and Hormuz disruption have turbocharged U.S. LNG exports, giving Washington a major short-term energy dominance boost as Asia and Europe scramble for alternative supply. China, however, enters the crisis from a position of greater energy resilience after years of investment in domestic production. The U.S. still has a major long-term opportunity, but sustaining dominance will require turning crisis-driven demand into lasting partnerships.Read more …
The Iran war has handed the United States a rare opportunity: a new dawn of energy dominance in an increasingly fractured world. With coordinated US-Israeli strikes disrupting the Strait of Hormuz from late February, roughly 20% of global LNG supply has been stripped from the market since early March. Prices have surged across Asia and Europe. And into that vacuum, American gas has flowed.The numbers speak for themselves. US LNG exports to Asia jumped sharply in April, with nearly a quarter of all American cargoes heading to a region that simply cannot afford to go dark. Deals are being signed, pipelines planned, and $100 billion in private investment is pouring into liquefaction plants and terminals, putting the US on a trajectory toward 220 MTPA of export capacity within five years. The administration’s energy dominance agenda, backed by promises to streamline permitting, has given producers a powerful political tailwind and reassured global buyers seeking reliability. Washington’s case for American LNG has never been easier to make.
But dominance built on a crisis is not the same as dominance built on trust. And there is a competitor watching this moment very carefully. China entered this crisis in a structurally different position. Two decades of sustained investment in domestic energy production, spanning generation, storage, and distribution, have left Beijing considerably less exposed to the supply shocks rattling Western and Asian markets alike. Its economy has not been immune, but it has been buffered. That resilience has not gone unnoticed by governments scrambling to explain surging energy bills to their populations. While the US capitalises on the immediate demand surge, China is quietly accumulating something more durable: the perception of strategic foresight.
Yet beneath the boom lies a fault line. The conflict has been a short-term windfall for American producers; cash is flowing and the geopolitical case for US LNG writes itself. But the longer the crisis persists, the more urgently governments around the world will prioritise the same fundamental objective: never being held hostage to a single chokepoint again. The Hormuz disruption has concentrated minds in a way that years of energy dialogues have never quite managed. Countries across Asia and Europe are now accelerating plans to diversify supply sources, build strategic reserves, and develop domestic generation capacity across every available technology. The goal is insulation from the kind of shock this war has delivered, and that shift in priorities will outlast the conflict itself, because the memory of this vulnerability will not fade quickly.
This does not mean the window for American gas has closed. The transition to more resilient, independent energy systems will take decades, and reliable LNG from a powerful economy is precisely what energy-hungry Asian economies need throughout that journey. The US has the reserves, the infrastructure, the financial markets, and the geopolitical credibility that no other supplier can currently match. But Washington cannot afford to mistake a crisis-driven demand surge for a permanent structural advantage, because what buyers are ultimately building toward is a system in which no single disruption, whether in the Strait of Hormuz or anywhere else, can send their economies into shock again. The US needs to be architected into that system as an indispensable partner, not treated as an emergency option.
That requires more than competitive pricing and export capacity. It requires the kind of long-term supply relationships, infrastructure partnerships, and government-to-government commitments that turn a transaction into a dependency, the good kind, built on reliability rather than vulnerability. It requires Washington to show up as a strategic partner invested in the energy security of its buyers. And it requires the Iran conflict to reach a resolution that restores stability to global flows, because sustained disruption ultimately accelerates the very diversification strategies that could reduce the world’s reliance on any single fuel source.
“ Palantir Technology Discovered Within Ukraine Targeting Systems”
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy Appears on Face the Nation (CTH)
Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy appears on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, a few days after Russian President Vladimir Putin told media there were no negotiations underway toward any settlement or ceasefire. Simultaneous to this interview, it has now been discovered that American tech company, Palantir, is behind the technology that accompanies Ukraine drone targeting and weapons systems. Video and Transcript Below:Read more …
[Transcript] – Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who joins us from Kyiv. Welcome back to Face the Nation, Mr. President.UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: Thank you so much, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have warned that Ukraine has intelligence that Russia is preparing for a new massive attack. This is after Moscow had warned foreign nationals to leave your capital city ahead of expanded strikes. Exactly, what are you bracing for?
PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY: So, first of all, today at night, or tomorrow at night, we will have- we think that we will have big attacks from Russian side using drones, using cruise missiles and ballistic, and we see the preparation always. We see the preparation, by the way- we are thankful to United States and European partners when they share with us intelligence. So, when we know that Russia prepares a big massive attack, definitely, our partners also know, maybe not a lot of details, but we know. So today, of course, I didn’t address yet to my country. I will do it a bit later in the evening, and of course, I will say that our people have to be very, very careful, cautious, and children, and they have to use bomb shelters, because today at night or tomorrow at night, high percent, of course, nobody knows 100% but there is a high percent.
So usually we have, we have each day attack from Russian side on civilians, and of course on battlefield. And two times a week, or two times per 10 days, they have big, massive attacks with ballistic, and etc. Last massive attack, just to understand, it was- some days ago, it was 600 drones, Iranian drones, Shaheds, and they had 35- about 30 plus ballistic missiles. In total it was 90 missiles and more than 600 Iranian drones, so it was very difficult to destroy it. We used all our weapon, what we have, what we produce, and of course we used anti-ballistic missile. This is the biggest deficit for us.
Complaining
• CNN’s Dana Bash: 250th American Anniversary Should Not be a Joyful Event (CTH)
Armed with a host of narratives against the Trump administration, CNN host Dana Bash confronts Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about his audacity to support Freedom 250 events in Washington DC this year. Apparently, it is not in alignment with the interests of CNN for Americans to celebrate the anniversary of our independence.Read more …
Complaining about DC fountains being cleaned; complaining about people not being consulted for their viewpoints to permit the graffiti and filth to remain in place prior to cleaning; complaining that years of environmental studies and municipal hearings did not take place prior to the decision to repair the reflection pool; complaining about saving hundreds of millions by not opening up each restoration process to consultancy fees, studies, public hearings and various bureaucratic indulgency opportunities; a very unhappy Dana Bash confronts Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about his support for President Trump to clean and restore the nation’s capital without consideration for those who prefer things to be a mess.
“.. the data processing demand behind AI is beyond the scope of financial sustainability..”
• A Conversation About Artificial Intelligence -AI (CTH)
Ironically, I find myself with a grin on my face as I read the recent media reports about how the data processing demand behind AI is beyond the scope of financial sustainability. For several years I have asserted, accurately, the business model for social media was never feasible because the data processing demand needed for the scale of simultaneous users was beyond the capabilities of the revenue side of the equation. I have been told by all the high-horse experts on the matter how wrong I am. However, each story they write about the prohibitive cost of AI proves I was not wrong.
CTH watches the tokenization and subscription fees for various AI model use with the same perspective CTH viewed over a decade of false claims within the financial market that told lies about social media viability and data processing costs. Now, we watch the seemingly exponential growth of AI capabilities and associated costs with the same pragmatic perspective. Robotic pool cleaners were introduced two generations ago. Did the pool cleaner business dry up? No, it expanded. Robotic vacuums broke into the popular household appliance market five years ago, you probably have one, did it eliminate maid services? No, still growing.AI can now write its own code to generate outputs. Are software developers getting fired? No, demand for software designers and engineers is up 15% in the past year. The mainframe approach, the one AI brain to run all systems, will never work – it is cost prohibitive (see first paragraph – wash, rinse, repeat). Deny this reality at your own investment risk. If needed, politely absorb the ridicule – for it matters not. CTH predicts AI will become a localized and optimized sub-set for each sector of the economy, requiring each major organization and corporation to adopt specific cost/benefit data libraries and networks for use and functionality.
At scale, a thousand coders each working on Gemini, ChatGPT, Anthropic, Grok, etc. will become 100,000+ software designers working inside companies to create personalized, targeted, bespoke AI data systems and networks; each system specifically tailored to the industry or sector of business. The intranet of internets will happen again. Creating and selling AI system networks and integration functions that are personally tailored to highly specific company functions, creates an entirely new sector of the technology industry that has not even begun yet. [There’s an investment opportunity there]
Will AI robots replace some repetitive human functions? Yes, the ice rink Zamboni will likely not have a steering wheel, just an emergency joystick. A reference for a comparative industrial scale Roomba vacuum, or the robotic pool cleaners. However, at scale the robotic industry is slower than human efficiency in almost all sectors that matter; the cost benefit analysis will limit growth. The maid service sector will not be impacted any more than the software developers (see chart above).It is not an issue to fear some AI task efficiencies will grant more time available that will be filled with alternate task capabilities.Human productivity will increase in certain sectors of the economy, but humans will not lose work opportunities. Blue collar jobs will continue to expand as each of the hardware tools developed will need manufacturing, installation, maintenance and monitoring. The further downstream the worker is from a repetitive function within the [XXXX] industry, the more irreplaceable they become; remember that. As to the bigger picture of fully developed AI and the intersection of information and knowledge; yes, the automation of AI can present an issue. However, all AI concerns can be mitigated so long as multiple, alternative AI systems exist within the larger information realm.
As a nation we need dozens of different AI models each competing within the industry for the best AI product. As long as we have multiple AI systems, alternatives to the hive-mind, we do not need to fear the AI network as a source of information. If we don’t like the AI outputs, we can switch to an alternate AI provider. If the subscription cost of the AI is too high, then as long as we have a competitive market where a lesser expensive, perhaps bespoke, AI option can exist, we should be okay. Let the free-and-fair market decide.
If AI outputs don’t offer empirical truth or real value to the end user, we should be fine as long as consumers have alternative options available. AI providers should be information providers in the same concept as cell phone providers. The key is to have multiple, competing AI systems available for industrial, business, professional and personal use. On the upside of this information worry dynamic -in the pragmatic and optimistic perspective- we have the cost limiting nature of a massive singular AI information network.
A single AI central brain handling over 360 million users at once, all requiring identical responses that update with every tiny change in a multi-trillion datapoint-per-millisecond data stream, is far beyond the capacity of any computational AI system. The costs tied to such a setup are only now becoming clear, and AI business models are starting to fall apart in real time. This is a hard truth that isn’t going to change. Within the AI business, those who can carefully write AI input instructions to achieve maximum value in AI output -industry by industry- will become increasingly more valuable. Those who can train AI to be cost effective -and provide materially beneficial outputs- within their granular sector of business, within each company, will become priceless to the organization. Wage rates will follow competency.
As noted by David Sacks in this segment highlighted below, the one key about AI to emphasize is the need for multiple competing models. If China (hive mind) has their model, and Europe (another hive mind) has their model, and the United States (entrepreneurial competitiveness) has multiple competitive models – we will win and simultaneously we will retain freedom. nWhat we don’t want is a singular AI model to win the support of the United States government and then end up with an AI regulatory system where they start defining terms of “safety” to eliminate information adverse to the interests of the government that regulates it. Both China and Europe will predictably do that.
Walt had the power of conviction.
• Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress (Queen)
Jim Griffin, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
I have a certain affinity for the attractions in the Disney theme parks that have a direct connection to Walt Disney. The Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and even It’s a Small World (with that song that gets stuck in your head) all had their origins when Walt was still alive. One of the attractions at Walt Disney World that has a direct connection to the man who started it all is about to get a massive makeover, and it’s sorely needed. I’ve said for years that Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress was in need of an update and some TLC, and it’s finally happening.Read more …
Let’s look back at the history of the Carousel of Progress, which ties back to the 1964-65 World’s Fair in New York City. Back in 2014, I wrote about General Electric’s Progressland (see the Flashback link above), which included a bevy of Disney-designed exhibits, including the Carousel of Progress:But the centerpiece of the pavilion was Walt Disney’s brainchild, now called the Carousel of Progress. Instead of the walk-through theaters of the original Edison Square concept, guests to the Carousel of Progress sat in a round theater which revolved past central stages in which an Audio-Animatronic narrator shared how his family benefited from new electric innovations. (One gossip columnist lamented the fact that she discovered that the show’s narrator was not a real man.) Each of the show’s short acts took place in different decades, from the 1890s to the 1960s. In all, Imagineers designed and built 32 animatronic characters for the show all bearing Walt’s inimitable stamp.
The attraction’s theme song was a crucial part of reflecting what I’ve long called Walt’s optimistic futurism: Walt summoned his go-to songwriters, Richard and Robert Sherman, to pen the perfect tune for the Carousel of Progress. The song had to represent a positive vision for the future, yet it had to be adaptable to the time periods that the show presented. Richard Sherman remembered that the song needed to “tell the story without giving away what’s happening,” while epitomizing “the spirit and the essence of that pavilion.” The result was “There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” a bouyant song that summed up the ideas that Progressland espoused. Buddy Baker arranged the song expertly to fit each era of the Carousel of Progress.
Interestingly enough, GE requested a change to the song in 1974, expressing the thought that the present was more important than the future. The Sherman Brothers wrote a tune called “The Best Time of Your Life” for the Carousel of Progress, but Disney restored the more optimistic “There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” in 1994. Side note: Deciding that the present is something to be more enthusiastic about than the future might be the most 1970s thing ever.
Disney updated the narration and the final scene for that 1994 refreshment, although guests have been stuck with a mid-’90s “contemporary” scene for far too long. The 60-year-old animatronics are looking sad, and some of the theater seats are in disrepair. But instead of refurbishments and a single-scene update, Disney is going all out later this summer.
Last year, Disney announced that it was going to include an introductory scene that would bring in Walt himself in an audio-animatronic form as host. There have also been rumors that Tom Hanks will voice the father of the family, who narrates what’s going on in each era, but those are just rumors. What Disney announced this week is that the Carousel of Progress will close in July and reopen in 2027 with a fresh new look and a whole lot more than just the Walt introduction. The format and tone will remain the same — and of course, we’ll hear “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” — but the scenes will be totally different.
Imagineer Chris Beatty writes at the Disney Parks Blog: One of our main goals for this update was to keep the attraction relatable for today’s audiences by featuring eras in which our guests have personal connections. That includes the iconic “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” which will continue to play as guests transition between scenes. The Imagineers working on this refresh grew up during these decades, so it’s been a real trip down memory lane to revisit the music, fashion, technology, and experiences that helped shape our history all reflected in this family’s story.
Beatty sets the four scenes for the new and improved Carousel of Progress:
Act 1 – the 1960s When the show first opened at the World’s Fair, its story began by looking back about 60 years to the dawn of the new century. Now more than six decades later, this new iteration mirrors that idea, starting 60 years back from today in the 1960s. In the summer of 1969, our Carousel family, along with millions around the world, gather around the television to witness one of humanity’s greatest achievements: the historic moon landing. Filled with awe, the moment captures the spirit of innovation and possibility that has always been — and always will be — at the heart of Carousel of Progress.
Act 2 – the 1980s It’s the ‘80s, where everything bigger is better, and things keep on getting bigger! We pick up with the family on Halloween Night of 1985, and for the first time ever, Sarah is taking center stage. She’ll share how all the new appliances and gadgets are making life easier for the whole family. Speaking of John, we’ll find him out on the porch handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, and poor Uncle Orville can be found in the bathroom with “no privacy around here!”
Act 3 – The New Millennium With the ‘90s drawing to a close, our Carousel family is preparing to ring in the new millennium on New Year’s Eve 1999. Amid the excitement of the countdown to 2000, a new thing called the Internet is bringing John, Sarah, Jimmy and Patty – and the world – closer together than ever before. And if you’re anything like my family, not everyone is making it to midnight. Grandpa has already nodded off before the big countdown, while Grandma sneaks the TV over to wrestling when no one’s looking.
Act 4 – The Possible Future As we reach the end of our show, we see the family one last time in the distant future, in an out-of-this-world home. From a helpful robot assisting with everyday tasks to space travel, the scene imagines a future where extraordinary innovation has become part of life and proves that a beautiful tomorrow is just a dream away.It sounds like the Imagineers are building on that optimistic futurism that Walt built his philosophy on. It’s a nod to the 1964-65 World’s Fair, the early EPCOT concept, and what the original EPCOT Center — especially Horizons, my all-time favorite extinct attraction — became, and I’m here for it.
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