P a b l o P i c a s s o In “Le Lapin Agile” or harlequin with a glass 1905
1960 Soviet poster by Kovalev and Godgold: “To build your strength for work, you need sun, air and water”
Biden crash
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820473630805111043
13 seconds
This is the only 13 seconds Trump needs to play on repeat for the next 92 days to win the election. pic.twitter.com/lndQJTa3GH
— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) August 5, 2024
Hawley
SHOCK REPORT: Secret Service whistleblower reveals the lead agent at the Butler Trump rally was NOT CHECKING ID’S or enforcing normal protocols..
WAS THIS A SETUP FROM THE BEGINNING? pic.twitter.com/t32SazbqiD
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) August 6, 2024
Raskin
Representative Raskin reveals that Democrats have a contingency plan in the event of a Trump victory in November – they will invoke Sec. 3 of the 14th Amendment to prevent Trump from taking office. He predicts it will result in a civil war.
h/t @merissahansen17 pic.twitter.com/UkR9lgdSaa— @amuse (@amuse) August 5, 2024
benstiller
WATCH: @BenStiller says Kamala is a human being with empathy, it’s beautiful when she laughs, and his kids are now involved in the process and engaged. #ComicsForKamala pic.twitter.com/So7RouHOcw
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) August 6, 2024
Half of everybody living in the Arab world is inbred. 70% of all Pakistanis are inbred.
“This is blowing my mind”
“I’ve never heard this before”
Joe Rogan has his mind blown by inbreeding statistics, blew mine too, had absolutely no idea. pic.twitter.com/00SFh64qaE
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) August 5, 2024
Not legitimately, no. But…
• Kamala Can’t Win (Lippincott)
Kamala is not a legitimate candidate for President. She is not popular. She is not inspiring. She has no base of support. She has no cogent policy proposals to better the country. She is a terrible public speaker with little to no grasp of national politics. She was airdropped into the 2024 campaign because her boss couldn’t string together a coherent sentence. She was selected as VP in the first place because she is a Black woman. Should the DC regime install Kamala, it will mean the end of our constitutional order and of free and fair elections. Kamala cannot legitimately win the presidency. Should the media declare her the winner on November 6, it would be an absurdity on the scale of journalists insisting that North Korean elections are free and fair. Kamala’s campaign is the ultimate ritual humiliation for the American electorate. The 2020 results were bad enough.
The DNC coup to remove Biden from the 2024 ticket was a stunning public admission that he was never the “most popular candidate” of all time and that the 81 million “votes” he “won” in 2020 were a mirage cooked up by ballot-harvesting, COVID protocols, and outright fraud. American voters stomached, barely, that illegitimate result because Trump always had the potential to come back. As long as there was a reasonable possibility of Trump winning, voters were willing to tolerate the absurdity of the Biden “victory.” The legitimacy of the American electoral system therefore rests entirely on Trump’s shoulders. The regime cannot survive the installation of another astroturfed and unpopular political leader into the highest office in the land. The weight of the sheer ridiculousness of it all will bring faith in our system of government crashing to the ground.
No reasonable person can believe that Kamala has any shot in this race. The entire Democrat campaign for the presidency has had to retool on the fly—they need new signs, a new rally schedule, and a new message—with only a dozen weeks to go in the race. Kamala possesses the worst of both worlds. As vice president, she both completely owns the legacy of the current administration but also has no real policy accomplishments to point to. Her brief foray as “border czar” was an unmitigated disaster Harris has no real contact with voters either. In the 2020 Democratic primary, Kamala did so badly in early polls and was beaten so soundly by Tulsi Gabbard in an early debate that she had to drop out before voting in Iowa even occurred. Kamala Harris isn’t just bad with voters; even her closest allies and staff dislike her.
As California attorney general, she insisted that her subordinates greet her every day with a “Good Morning, General” and refused to engage with low-level employees. Her office as vice president was known to be a hive of discontent with an extremely high turnover rate. Harris is a political radical once labeled the most liberal senator by GovTrack. She raised bail money for communist rioters during the 2020 riots. She supports gun confiscation and giving free healthcare to illegals. This isn’t popular among any significant sector of the American electorate. As it stands now, only a few thousand voters have even seen Kamala in person as a candidate. I have yet to see a single yard sign with her name on it anywhere I go here in Michigan. She is behind the power curve by months. Trump has already made multiple enormous public appearances in all of the swing states. Kamala isn’t even close to that kind of ground game.
A real comedian: “Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what’s possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school..”
• US Democrats Make Harris-Walz Ticket Official (RT)
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will be the running mate of current Vice President Kamala Harris, the US Democrats have announced, with two weeks still to go before the party’s convention. Walz’s nomination was leaked to the media earlier on Tuesday, sinking the hopes of the faction urging the choice of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. “I am proud to announce that I’ve asked TimWalz to be my running mate,” Harris said on X (formerly Twitter). “As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his. It’s great to have him on the team. Now let’s get to work.” Walz responded by saying it was “the honor of a lifetime” to join the campaign. “Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what’s possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school. So, let’s get this done, folks!” he said.
President Joe Biden, who last month bowed out of the campaign in favor of Harris, hailed the choice of Walz as “a great decision.” On his personal X account – the same venue where he announced his withdrawal – Biden praised Walz as “a strong, principled, and effective leader” and noted he was the highest-ranking enlisted soldier to ever serve in the US Congress. The Harris-Walz ticket “will ensure that America continues to lead the world and play its role as the indispensable nation,” Biden added. Former President Barack Obama also endorsed Walz as the running mate for Harris.
The woman behind Ellis in the photo is Sidney Powell. Who was recently fully exonerated in the same case. As they got to Ellis. Curious.
• Jenna Ellis Flips, Will Aid Arizona Prosecutors In 2020 Election Case (ZH)
A lawyer who worked on Donald Trump’s 2020 election campaign will dodge a potential jail sentence by cooperating with Arizona’s Democratic attorney general, who’s charged 18 defendants with election interference over their participation in post-election challenges. Trump hasn’t been charged — yet — and is currently described as an unindicted co-conspirator. According to the agreement, nine felony charges against attorney Jenna Ellis have been dropped in exchange for her committing to “completely and truthfully” testify, and to turn over documents that could help prosecutors trying to build a case that centers on what Democrats like to call “fake electors.” These were Republicans who were encouraged by the Trump campaign to meet on Dec. 14, 2020 and sign a certificate asserting that they were “duly elected and qualified” electors, on the assumption that Trump had actually won the state’s 11 Electoral College votes.
“This agreement represents a significant step forward in our case,” said Attorney-General Kris Mayes in a statement issued Monday. “[Ellis’] insights are invaluable and will greatly aid the state in proving its case in court…I will not allow American democracy to be undermined — it is far too important.” In 2022, Mayes — who’s lauded by leftists for being openly lesbian and seeking to turn Arizona into an abortion safe haven for people in other states — defeated her Trump-endorsed opponent by just 510 votes out of more than 2.5 million. The remaining defendants — who’ve all plead not guilty — have been charged with nine felonies apiece, including forgery, conspiracy and fraudulent schemes. In addition to the self-proclaimed GOP electors, they include Rudy Giuliani and former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.
The Arizona cases aren’t expected to reach the trial phase until next year. In June, lawyers for defendants filed challenges to the prosecution, saying it ran afoul of an Arizona law that, like similar statutes in other states, takes aim at what is called a “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” or “SLAPP.” A motion filed for charged Trump lawyer John Eastman asserted that… “[Arizona’s anti-SLAPP law] is quite clearly aimed at preventing public officials from using the criminal process as a weapon to punish and prevent speech on political issues…Public officials have the right to voice their disagreement through open discourse guaranteed by the First Amendment, but they should not use indictments to silence their opponents, as the attorney general has tried to do here.”
Ellis was also targeted by Georgia prosecutors. In October, she tearfully pleaded guilty to a felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writing, telling a judge in an Atlanta courtroom that she regretted not having performed “due diligence” about the campaign’s claims of election fraud. “If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges.” She was sentenced to five years probation, $5,000 in restitution, 100 hours of community service and was ordered to write an apology letter addressing the citizens of Georgia. During the 2020 campaign, Ellis described herself as one member of an “elite strike force team” of attorneys, and frequently shared a microphone with Giuliani. She reportedly urged Trump to try persuading Mike Pence not to open election results from contested states on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Gabbard is unaware she has two Explosive Detection Canine Teams, one Transportation Security Specialist (explosives), one plainclothes TSA Supervisor, and three Federal Air Marshalls on every flight she boards..”
• Tulsi Gabbard Actively Under Surveillance via Quiet Skies Program (uDC)
In an exclusive breaking story, several Federal Air Marshal whistleblowers have come forward with information showing that former U.S. Representative and Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is currently enrolled in the Quiet Skies program. Quiet Skies is a TSA surveillance program with its own compartmentalized suspected terrorist watchlist. It is the same program being weaponized against J6 defendants and their families. Quiet Skies is allegedly used to protect traveling Americans from suspected domestic terrorists. The whistleblowers first shared the information with Sonya LaBosco, the Executive Director of the Air Marshal National Council (AMNC), a national advocacy group for the Federal Air Marshals (FAMs). According to LaBosco, at least one of the whistleblowers is ready to go on the record with pertinent documentation.
LaBosco shared that Gabbard is unaware she has two Explosive Detection Canine Teams, one Transportation Security Specialist (explosives), one plainclothes TSA Supervisor, and three Federal Air Marshalls on every flight she boards. LaBosco has attempted to contact Gabbard and her staff but has not received a response. LaBosco and AMNC President David Londo have repeatedly testified on behalf of FAMS. They have also written countless letters concerning the classification of innocent Americans as domestic terrorists to the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, the House Homeland Committee, the Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and the House Oversight Committee.
Because of ongoing whistleblower information, LaBosco believes TSA and Homeland Security are violating citizens’ constitutional rights in a “big domestic surveillance grab” that seems to be targeting conservatives. UncoverDC broke a story in November 2023 about A.J. Fischer’s infant son, who continues to be enrolled in the program because his father attended the Jan. 6 Capitol protests. J6 attendee Bryan Smith, who served 20 years with unblemished service, is also on the list. So is Christine Crowder, the wife of an active Air Marshal. Crowder was in D.C. on Jan. 6 but did not attend the Capitol protest. For what the Federal Government calls national security reasons, an individual is enrolled in the program without knowledge. Teams of Federal Air Marshals are assigned to individuals, following and tracking them from when they enter the airport and then on all their flights and transits until they reach their destination.
Enrolled individuals usually have a Quad S (SSSS) on the bottom right-hand corner of their boarding passes, but not always. They are often flagged for extra searches, frequently so lengthy that they miss their flights. According to LaBosco, Gabbard’s enrollment in Quiet Skies is likely politically motivated. Air Marshals were first assigned to Gabbard on Jul. 23, a day after she criticized Kamala Harris, Biden, and the National Security State in an interview with Laura Ingraham. FAMs were mobilized on Jul. 24 and assigned to their first flight with her on Jul. 25. Gabbard posted the interview on Twitter, as shared below.
https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1815697038371397993
In the context of what has transpired since 2020, there is ample reason to speculate that Gabbard may have been placed on Quiet Skies because of her viewpoints and recent fallout with the Democratic Party. Gabbard fell out of favor with the Democratic party when she switched parties to become an Independent in 2022. In addition, during her 2020 Presidential Campaign, Gabbard was highly critical of U.S. interventionism and endless wars. She continues to be very outspoken and critical of the Biden administration. Hillary Clinton smeared Gabbard during the 2020 campaign by suggesting she was a “Russian asset.” Gabbard answered Clinton with a defamation lawsuit filed on Jan. 22, 2020.
LaBosco is outraged with what has transpired with FAMS over the past few years. What was a straightforward law enforcement function has now been shoved under the TSA, the federal government’s bloated administrative arm. LaBosco and Londo are working overtime to shut down the Quiet Skies program. However, their primary mission is to restore FAMs to their rightful place as law enforcement, not political pawns of the administrative state.
“..both Khelif and Yu-ting were informed that they tested positive for XY chromosomes and were allowed to appeal the findings..”
Appeal what exactly?
• This Boxer Is Male: IBA Press Conference To Address Olympic Gender Issue (MN)
The International Boxing Association (IBA) held a press conference Monday and categorically confirmed that the two fighters currently participating in Olympic women’s boxing are “male,” because they failed a previous gender chromosome test. As we have highlighted, a furore has erupted over Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan and Imane Khelif of Algeria who are both now in the semi-finals of the women’s boxing in Paris. Both fighters were previously disqualified from competing in the women’s category by the IBA. During the IBA gathering, CEO Chris Roberts said that the 2022 test results for the fighters by an independent laboratory in Istanbul “demonstrated the chromosomes we refer to in competition rules that make both boxers ineligible.” Roberts emphasised that both Khelif and Yu-ting were informed that they tested positive for XY chromosomes and were allowed to appeal the findings to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with the IBA offering to cover the costs. Roberts noted that Yu-ting chose not to appeal, and Khelif did initially but then withdrew the appeal.
Both boxers were then re-tested in India during the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships, with the same results being recorded. Dr. Ioannis Filippatos, the former Chair of the IBA Medical Committee, also spoke at the press conference and was adamant that the fighters should not be competing as women. “Medicine is knowledge, it is not opinion,” Filippatos said, adding: “One passport can give to us the opportunity to be men, and, tomorrow when I go back to Athens, it’s possible to go to my government and… change my name from Ioannis Filippatos to Ionnia Filippatos. That means I am a woman tomorrow? Please. The nature and the biological world do not change.” Some of the journalists became extremely agitated with Filippatos’ comments, but he doubled down, and explained that he is relaying medical test results. “Why are you attacking me?” he stated, adding “The blood results look and say — the laboratories — that this boxer is male,” he asserted.
The IOC, refuses to back down from describing the fighters as women, with spokesperson Mark Adams claiming “These athletes have been competing in senior competitions for six years with no issues. These women were eligible for this contest, remain eligible for this contest and compete in this contest.” “I cannot tell you if they were credible or not credible [gender tests] because the source from which they came was not credible and the basis for the tests was not credible,” Adams further claimed, despite the source being the IBA. “For that reason there was no consideration of whether they were correct or not correct because they had no bearing for the eligibility of boxing here,” Adams added. Khelif is scheduled to fight later today in the Welterweight semi-final, and Yu-ting will fight tomorrow in the Featherweight semi-final.
“..they have failed to understand that it is not their choice and that they are bringing on war by failing to stand up to Washington and Israel..”
• The Road to War (Paul Craig Roberts)
It is OK for Israel and Washington to escalate the situation, but not for Iran or Russia. Here is the way it works. Israel assassinates a Muslin leader on Iranian territory, and then the media goes into action calling on Iran not to escalate the situation. Iran doesn’t, and from Iran not “escalating the situation” another leader is assassinated. Iran is again called on not to escalate the situation. The reason we are headed to war is that Russia, Iran, and China are provoked time and again, and their response is to wait, and wait, and wait some more while Washington and Israel get prepared, thus reducing the effectiveness of any action taken by Russia, Iran, and China. Iran has now waited so long before responding to Israel’s assassinations that Israel has had time to prepare an underground bunker for Netanyahu and his war party. Iran had a chance to catch them in the open and blew it.
Now Iran says it wants to punish Israel but avoid all-out war. No meaningful action will be forthcoming from Iran. Putin waited eight years from 2014 to 2022 before he accepted the obvious fact that he had to act in Donbas. If he had acted in 2014 there would have been no war. Like Russia and Iran China issues endless “warnings.” But as the warnings never are backed by action, no one pays any attention to the warnings. Russia, Iran, and China are right not to want war. But they have failed to understand that it is not their choice and that they are bringing on war by failing to stand up to Washington and Israel.
“..blacklisting systems are now being used to control public access to information by choking off the revenue of sites..”
TAE knows what that is like.
• The House Moves Forward With Investigation of Blacklisting Company (Turley)
We have been discussing media rating systems being used to target advertisers and revenue sources for certain cites and companies. NewsGuard and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) have been criticized as the most sophisticated components of a modern blacklisting system targeting conservative or dissenting voices. I recently had a series of exchanges with NewGuard after a critical column. Now, the House Judiciary Committee under Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is moving forward in demanding documents and records from leading companies utilizing the GARM system, a company that I have previously criticized. It is a welcomed effort for anyone who is concerned over the use of these blacklisting systems to curtail free speech. However, time is of the essence. The demand to preserve evidence went to various companies, including Adidas, American Express, Bayer, BP, Carhartt, Chanel, CVS and General Motors.
In my new book, I discuss the rating systems as a new and insidious form of blacklisting. Notably, Elon Musk has now filed a lawsuit against GARM and may be able to get more evidence out in discovery on the operations of this outfit. It is an effort to strangle the financial life out of sites by targeting their donors and advertisers. This is where the left has excelled beyond anything that has come before in speech crackdowns.Years ago, I wrote about the Biden administration supporting efforts like the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) to discourage advertisers from supporting certain sites. All of the 10 riskiest sites targeted by the index were popular with conservatives, libertarians and independents. That included Reason.org and a group of libertarian and conservative law professors who simply write about cases and legal controversies. GDI warned advertisers against “financially supporting disinformation online.”
At the same time, HuffPost, a far-left media outlet, was included among the 10 sites at lowest risk of spreading disinformation. Once GDI’s work and bias was disclosed, government officials quickly disavowed the funding. It was a familiar pattern. Within a few years, we found that the work had been shifted instead to groups like the GARM, which is the same thing on steroids. It is the creation of a powerful and largely unknown group called the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), which has huge sway over the advertising industry and was quickly used by liberal activists to silence opposing views and sites by cutting off their revenue streams. Notably, Rob Rakowitz, head of GARM, pushed GDI and embraced its work. In an email to GARM members obtained by the committee last month, Rakowitz wrote that he wanted to “ensure you’re working with an inclusion and exclusion list that is informed by trusted partners such as NewsGuard and GDI — both partners to GARM and many of our members.”
GARM is being used by WFA to achieve what GDI failed to accomplish. The WFA sites refers to Rakowitz as “a career change agent” who will “remove harmful content from ad-supported digital media.” Rakowitz’s views on free speech are chilling and his work shows how these systems can be used to conceal bias in targeting the revenue of sites with opposing views. Rakowitz has denounced the “extreme global interpretation of the US Constitution” and how civil libertarians cite “‘principles for governance’ and applying them as literal law from 230 years ago (made by white men exclusively).” He appears to be referring to free speech. If so, it is deeply troubling. Some of us believe that free speech is a human right, not just an American right. Those “white men” include philosophers from the Enlightenment whose ideas were incorporated in the Framer’s view of inalienable rights like free speech.
The threat against free speech today is being led by private groups seeking to exercise an unprecedented level of control over people can read and discuss. Pundits and politicians, including President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama, have justified their calls for censorship (or “content moderation” for polite company) by stressing that the First Amendment only applies to the government, not private companies. That distinction allows Obama to declare himself to be “pretty close to a First Amendment absolutist.” He did not call himself a “free speech absolutist” because he favors censorship for views that he considers to be “lies,” “disinformation,” or “quackery.”
The distinction has always been a disingenuous evasion. The First Amendment is not the sole or exclusive definition of free speech. Censorship on social media is equally, if not more, damaging for free speech. Those who value free speech should oppose blacklisting systems, as was the case during the McCarthy period. Now that conservatives and libertarians are being blacklisted, it is suddenly less troubling for many on the left. Rakowitz now wields massive influence over public discourse in this collaboration with corporations and groups like GDI. As was done to the left in during the McCarthy period, blacklisting systems are now being used to control public access to information by choking off the revenue of sites. The current anti-free speech movement is the most dangerous in history due precisely to this sophistication and the unprecedented alliance of corporate, media, academic, and government interests.
A dirty world.
• Rumble Joins X In Massive Lawsuit Against ‘Advertising Cartel’ (ZH)
Social media platform X has filed a lawsuit against an ‘advertising cartel’ who have colluded to control online speech, as revealed on last month by an interim staff report released by the House Judiciary Committee. In a Tuesday filing against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and several members – including CVS Health, Mars, Orsted and Unilever, X alleges that the group abused its influence over marketers and ad agencies to unfairly discriminate against X, prompting an ad boycott. “These actions were all against the unilateral self-interest of the advertisers; they made economic sense only in furtherance of a conspiracy performed in the confidence that competing advertisers were doing the same,” reads the complaint. In an open letter, X CEO Linda Yaccarino alleged that GARM’s “behavior is a stain on a great industry, and cannot be allowed to continue,” adding “It’s also clear that there are likely others who suffered at the hands of this activity.
This case is about more than damages – we have to fix a broken ecosystem that allows this illegal activity to occur.” Shortly after lawsuit was filed, video-sharing platform Rumble joined the lawsuit. The conspiracy centers around an initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), created by the WFA, that established arbitrary standards for the content on digital platforms where its members may want to advertise. GARM used those one-size-fits-all standards to perpetrate an advertiser boycott against Rumble and other platforms. The suit also notes that GARM has vast reach since it counts the six largest ad agency holding companies among its members, including defendant WPP. The House report details a coordinated effort by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative to demonetize and suppress disfavored content across the internet.
As we noted last month, the WFA is a global association representing over 150 of the world’s biggest brands and over 60 national advertiser associations which created GARM in 2019. This alliance quickly amassed significant market power, representing roughly 90% of global advertising spend, which amounts to nearly one trillion dollars annually. GARM’s Steer Team reads like a who’s who of corporate America, including heavyweights such as Unilever, Mars, Diageo, Procter & Gamble (P&G), GroupM, AB InBev, L’Oréal, Nestlé, IBM, Mastercard, and PepsiCo. These corporations not only wield immense economic influence but are now revealed to be leveraging this power to control online discourse under the guise of “brand safety.” As Axios notes;
“Last month, conservatives on Capitol Hill held a hearing to address complaints from conservative media firms, mainly the Daily Wire, that GARM was colluding with ad-buying giant GroupM to discourage clients from buying ads on their sites because of conservative politics. The lawsuit references a report published earlier this month by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee that argues that GARM used “shadowy corporate coordination” to silence conservatives.” Meanwhile, Jonathan Turley also notes that House Judiciary Committee under Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is moving forward in demanding documents and records from leading companies utilizing the GARM system, a company that I have previously criticized. It is a welcomed effort for anyone who is concerned over the use of these blacklisting systems to curtail free speech. However, time is of the essence.
[..] Notably, Rob Rakowitz, head of GARM, pushed GDI and embraced its work. In an email to GARM members obtained by the committee last month, Rakowitz wrote that he wanted to “ensure you’re working with an inclusion and exclusion list that is informed by trusted partners such as NewsGuard and GDI — both partners to GARM and many of our members.” GARM is being used by WFA to achieve what GDI failed to accomplish. The WFA sites refers to Rakowitz as “a career change agent” who will “remove harmful content from ad-supported digital media.” Rakowitz’s views on free speech are chilling and his work shows how these systems can be used to conceal bias in targeting the revenue of sites with opposing views.
“..Tesla is the only path that could even hope to hold a candle to Google. Even then, the probability of being a counterweight to Google is small. It just isn’t zero..”
• Elon Musk Revives Lawsuit Against OpenAI and Co-founders (ET)
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, X, and SpaceX, has reignited a legal battle against OpenAI and its co-founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, months after initially dropping his lawsuit. The revived complaint, filed Aug. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses the defendants of multiple counts, including fraud, breach of contract, and violations of federal civil racketeering laws. Musk had originally sued in February before dropping the suit in June with no explanation given at the time. Musk’s revived lawsuit includes several allegations against OpenAI, Altman, and Brockman—at the heart of which is a claim that Altman and Brockman “intentionally courted and deceived” Musk into co-founding OpenAI under false pretenses. Musk asserted in the 81-page suit that he was misled into believing that OpenAI would be a nonprofit organization focused on developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies “for the benefit of humanity,” operating as a counterbalance to for-profit tech giants.
According to the lawsuit, OpenAI’s co-founders allegedly manipulated Musk by making repeated promises and assurances that the organization would remain open-source and not driven by profit. The suit defines “open source” as the practice of making AI technology and research freely accessible to the public, allowing for transparency and collaboration. “Altman assured Musk that the non-profit structure guaranteed neutrality and a focus on safety and openness for the benefit of humanity, not shareholder value,” the suit claimed. “But as it turns out, this was all hot-air philanthropy—the hook for Altman’s long con.” Musk claims that these representations were part of a scheme to attract significant funding and expertise, which he provided, including “tens of millions of dollars” and the recruitment of top AI scientists. The complaint further accuses Altman and Brockman of engaging in “rampant self-dealing” and transforming OpenAI into a for-profit entity in partnership with Microsoft, thereby abandoning its original mission.
Musk argued that OpenAI’s pivot to a for-profit model has resulted in substantial unjust enrichment for the defendants, which he contends was at the expense of the nonprofit’s mission. OpenAI responded to the latest legal filing in a statement. “As we said about Elon’s initial legal filing, which was subsequently withdrawn, Elon’s prior emails continue to speak for themselves,” a spokesperson for the company told The Associated Press in an emailed statement. In March, OpenAI released emails purportedly written by Musk showing initial support for making the company for-profit to secure the necessary funding to compete with Google DeepMind. Musk also supported the idea of merging OpenAI with Tesla. “We may wish it otherwise, but, in my and [redacted]’s opinion, Tesla is the only path that could even hope to hold a candle to Google. Even then, the probability of being a counterweight to Google is small. It just isn’t zero,” Musk wrote in an email dated Feb. 1, 2018.
Musk’s legal team has outlined several demands for relief, including compensatory and punitive damages, restitution, and surrendering ill-gained profits. The lawsuit seeks to impose a “constructive trust” on the alleged ill-gotten gains of the defendants, demands an accounting of all profits derived from the purported misconduct, and requests a judicial declaration that the licensing agreement between OpenAI and Microsoft is “null and void” or that certain OpenAI technologies fall outside the scope of this license. Additionally, the complaint seeks an injunction to prevent further harm, alleging that the defendants’ actions have caused substantial injury to Musk’s reputation and commercial interests, impacting his ability to recruit leading scientists.
Why AI can be worrisome.
• CCP Develops AI Weapons, Ignoring Global Risks (ET)
Cutting-edge weapons powered by artificial intelligence are emerging as a global security hazard, especially in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to several experts. Eager to militarily surpass the United States, the CCP is unlikely to heed safeguards around lethal AI technologies, which are increasingly dangerous in their own right, the experts have argued. The nature of the technology is prone to feeding some of the worst tendencies of the regime and the human psyche in general, they warned. “The implications are quite dramatic. And they may be the equal of the nuclear revolution,” said Bradley Thayer, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, an expert on a strategic assessment of China, and a contributor to The Epoch Times. The development of AI-powered autonomous weapons unfortunately is rapidly progressing, according to Alexander De Ridder, an AI developer and co-founder of Ink, an AI marketing firm.
“They’re becoming quickly more efficient and quickly more effective,” he told The Epoch Times, adding that “they’re not at the point where they can replace humans.” Autonomous drones, tanks, ships, and submarines have become a reality along with more exotic modalities, such as the quadruped robot dogs, already armed with machine guns in China. Even AI-powered humanoid robots, the stuff of sci-fi horrors, are in production. Granted, they’re still rather clumsy in the real world, but they won’t be for long, De Ridder suggested. “The capabilities for such robots are quickly advancing,” he said. Once they reach marketable usefulness and reliability, China is likely to turn its manufacturing might to their mass production, according to De Ridder. “The market will be flooded with humanoid robots, and then it’s up to the programming how they’re used.” That would mean military use, too. “It’s kind of inevitable,” he said.
China International Industry Fair in Shanghai on Nov. 2, 2015. (Getty Images)
Such AI-powered machines are very effective at processing images to discern objects—to detect a human with their optical sensors, for example, explained James Qiu, an AI expert, founder of GIT Research Institute, and former CTO at FileMaker. That makes AI robots very good at targeting. “It’s a very effective killing machine,” he said. On a broader level, multiple nations are working on an AI capable of informing and coordinating battlefield decisions—an electronic general, according to Jason Ma, an AI expert and data research lead at a multinational Fortune 500 company. He didn’t want the company’s name mentioned to prevent any impression he was speaking on its behalf. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the CCP military, recently conducted battle exercises in which an AI was directly put in command. The U.S. military also has projects in this area, Ma noted.
“..Ukrainians collectively pay anywhere between $700 million and $2 billion per year for fraudulent ways to avoid mobilization..”
• 800,000 Ukrainians Have Gone ‘Underground’ To Dodge Draft – MP (RT)
An estimated 800,000 Ukrainian men have gone “underground” due to the threat of military mobilization amid the conflict with Russia, a senior MP in Kiev, Dmitry Natalukha, has told the Financial Times. The lawmaker stated the case for economic-driven exemptions from the draft. Kiev introduced a harsh new system for military conscription earlier this year, which was intended to discourage draft avoidance through the threat of serious punishment. One consequence was that businesses operating legally in Ukraine are now at a disadvantage compared to those in the ‘shadow economy,’ the FT explained. Draft-dodgers change their addresses and prefer to be paid in cash to stay under the radar, it added. “We are working at the limit,” the HR director of a large steel mill told the newspaper, explaining the issues his company faces due to workforce shortages.
The FT reported on Sunday how Ukrainian MPs plan to tackle the problem by revamping the system for draft exemptions. One proposal penned by Natalukha, the chair of the Economic Development Committee, would allow businesses to shield up to 50% of their employees from mobilization by paying a fixed fee of about $490 per month. A competing bill would protect anyone with a wage over a threshold of $890, who are presumably of greater value to the war effort when contributing to the economy than they would be if sent to fight. Natalukha told the FT that his proposal would keep around 895,000 men from military service and generate roughly $4.9 billion for Kiev’s war chest.
He previously argued in Ukrainian media that his bill is preferable to the alternative because it does not fuel the perception that only poor people who cannot bribe their way out of the draft have to fight. Ukrainians collectively pay anywhere between $700 million and $2 billion per year for fraudulent ways to avoid mobilization, he estimates. The current system allows the government to decide which agencies and businesses are essential for Ukraine and offer them partial or full immunity from mobilization. An update last month, for instance, issued waivers to 100% of the employees of NGOs that receive foreign grants and are engaged in political activities. Moscow perceives the conflict as a US-driven proxy war, in which Ukrainians serve as “cannon fodder” and are forced to fight by their Western-dependent government.
“..usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information to cause unrest, incitement to disobey the law, incitement to insurrection, association to commit crimes and conspiracy.”
• Venezuela Opens Probe Into Opposition Over ‘Insurrection’ Attempts (RT)
Venezuela has launched a criminal investigation into Western-backed opposition figures Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado, after they called on the armed forces to abandon their support for the country’s legitimate president, Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) on July 28 declared Maduro the winner of the country’s presidential election. On Friday, Venezuelan authorities ratified Maduro’s victory after the final ballot count revealed that he had won 52% of the vote, compared to 43% for main rival Gonzalez. The opposition contested Maduro’s victory and proclaimed Gonzalez as the elected president in a letter posted on X (formerly Twitter), also calling on the country’s security forces to “stand by the people” and protest the result.
Gonzalez and Machado “falsely announced a winner of the presidential election other than the one proclaimed by the National Electoral Council, the only body qualified to do so,” Venezuela’s top prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, said in a statement on Monday. The former presidential candidate and his allies have openly incited “police and military officials to disobey the laws” by spreading false information, the statement added. The prosecutor general said Gonzalez and Machado will be investigated for “the alleged commission of the crimes of usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information to cause unrest, incitement to disobey the law, incitement to insurrection, association to commit crimes and conspiracy.” Protests erupted in the South American country following the announcement of the election results. Maduro condemned the unrest an attempted “coup against Venezuela.”
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez also accused the Western-backed opposition of attempting a “media coup” and condemned the protests. Washington backed the opposition candidate, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying on Thursday that “Edmundo Gonzalez won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election.” Caracas has been under US sanctions for over 15 years. Washington refused to recognize Maduro as president following the 2018 election, and declared the head of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, to be the interim leader of the country. Following Maduro’s reelection, Russia and China congratulated the incumbent. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that Venezuela’s opposition should admit defeat and congratulate the winner. Other countries that have recognized Maduro’s victory include Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
“..that doesn’t mean that there aren’t also legitimate underlying issues in desperate need of resolution..”
• UK Riots: Blame It All On The ‘Far Right’ (Marsden)
Every summer now, Canada is rife with forest fires. Some exploit the disasters to push an agenda, arguing that it’s a surefire sign of climate change, and ignoring that a lack of environmentally inconvenient controlled burns are the actual culprit. The same could be said for the riots that have swept Britain since three children were murdered in Southport at a day camp by a British 17-year old of Rwandan origin. The British government has long known that the migration issue was out of control, and newly-elected Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer has found the culprit. It’s the “far-right” Brits that are “targeting” Muslim and “other minority communities.” Because who, en route to doing a little shopping in Mayfair, isn’t tired of passing their “Nazi salutes in the street” as they stretch their arms in between putting beatdowns on cops, as Starmer suggests.
The “far-right” is to these riots what “climate change” is to forest fires: a politically useful pretext to deflect from the long-festering negligence of the political class. It’s not like the average Brit is buying Starmer’s gaslighting. In fact, Starmer himself owes his recent electoral win to the growing popularity of the right wing, with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party significantly eating into the popular vote of the center-right Tories last month. These are voters who feel that Rishi Sunak’s Tories didn’t go far enough in an election where “immigration and asylum” was the second most important issue for voters, (after cost of living), according to a YouGov poll. When nearly a fifth of your population has just finished telling pollsters that the immigration issue dictates their vote, it’s probably a dumb idea to get up in front of them and suggest that the real problem is those who are just imagining that to be an actual issue, because they’re a bunch of racists.
It probably doesn’t help that the Brit accused in this particular attack is of Rwandan origin, when Rwanda has been all over the UK headlines for former Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plan to deport asylum seekers there – an initiative that Starmer has now cancelled. Much has been made in the Western press of all the erroneous allegations flying around in the initial wake of the attack suggesting that the alleged perpetrator was an asylum seeker himself. The fog of war always comes on thick around breaking news, particularly online. But what’s the actual argument here? That the guy’s not actually a migrant himself so people should calm down? Everything’s just fine then, because this one single case, upon closer inspection, doesn’t actually tick the boxes for what the establishment considers to be a legitimate expression of anger?
Also complicating the issue is the fact that Southport itself has long been described by locals as a festering cesspool of crime, drugs, and violence, where teenagers seem to be out of control. The High Parkers drug gang that has plagued the area doesn’t seem to have a visible minority in sight among their mugshots, but various things can be true at the same time without being mutually exclusive. Southport clearly has a long-documented crime problem. The crime isn’t exclusively committed by minorities. The suspect is of minority origin in this case. The UK has a migration problem that transcends this single incident, but which it has clearly served to catalyze. And not everyone who’s evoking the problem within the convenient context this incident provides is just a racist yob.
While every protest or riot is an opportunity for special interests to exploit, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t also legitimate underlying issues in desperate need of resolution. How hard would it have been for Starmer to acknowledge all of these realities instead of just whitewashing everything by trying to make people believe that there’s no actual problem anywhere here beyond the “far-right”?
It ain’t over..
• UK Travel Alerts Issued Worldwide (RT)
Several countries, including Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia, have issued safety warnings to their citizens about travelling to the UK in light of widespread anti-immigration protests across the country. Multiple demonstrations turned violent across Britain over the weekend, as anti-immigration protesters clashed with police following the murder of three children by a teenager of African descent last week. According to media reports, at least five countries have now issued travel warnings to their citizens. Malaysia was the first country to issue a notice to its citizens in the UK on Sunday, urging them to “stay away from protest areas” and “remain vigilant.”
The Indonesian Embassy in London issued a similar appeal, urging its citizens in the UK to be cautious, especially if traveling or doing activities outside the home, and to “avoid large crowds and places that have the potential to become gathering places for masses or groups of demonstrators.” Nigeria issued a travel alert on Monday, warning its citizens planning to visit the UK that demonstrations in parts of the UK have been “large and in some instances unruly” and that “there is an increased risk of violence and disorder.” In its warning on Monday, the Australian government also advised its citizens to “exercise a high degree of caution,” saying: “Avoid areas where protests are occurring due to the potential for disruption and violence.”
On Monday, the official account of the UAE Embassy in London urged citizens of the country to “exercise the necessary precautions and avoid crowded areas.” India is the latest nation to have issued a warning. On Tuesday morning, the High Commission of India in London reportedly said it was “closely monitoring the situation,” and warned Indian citizens to “stay vigilant and exercise due caution while traveling in the UK” and avoid any areas where protests may be taking place. Dozens of British towns and cities have been rocked by protests against immigration and Islam since last Monday, when a British teenager of Rwandan descent stabbed three children to death and injured ten others in the town of Southport, near Liverpool.
Cybertrump
🚨BREAKING: Adin Ross gifts Donald Trump a Cybertruck with a wrap of the legendary photo with his fist raised after the assassination attempt pic.twitter.com/pStsV2VngI
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 5, 2024
Horse calf
A horse protecting his owner from a cow while he tags its calfpic.twitter.com/bSwQWiqzfQ
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 6, 2024
Yes!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820470529901699128
Sunbathing
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820744639197896823
Condor
Never sleeping again. This is the stuff of nightmares. pic.twitter.com/hwRaFj3YMv
— Cassandra MacDonald (@CassandraRules) August 6, 2024
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