This midweek posting reiterates some history (and hysteria) -related points that I've put on soc.media, hoping some folks will pay attention to off-angle perspectives that are (I assert) more accurate and useful than most standard ones you're seeing.
More important are the Newer Deal Propopsals that I'll reiterate below. For example, how to smash the mad right's current, hypocritical fad-riff about Voter ID. And ways to ensure this madness never happens again.
But first...
== The Standard Pattern of Mafiosi ==
As usual, no one heeds underlying patterns. Like what's happening with Trump's bluster threats vs. Iran. Leveraging cynically off the recent courage and sacrifice of the Iranian people.
Superficially, there will be enough of a "nuclear deal" for Trump to crow about, though it will be functionally no better than what Obama got out of the mullahs. And that will just be surface stuff. For show n' brags.
* A pattern also followed by George Bush Sr. when he left Saddam in charge of Iraq, to murder a million southern Shiites, rather than just liberate everyone, as Gen. Schwarzkopf begged. Same pattern. That of mafiosi.
== Europe stand up! But offer help, not churlish ingratitude ==
This parade float is fair! Yes, it is tIme for Europe to rise up and defend vs Trumpists & Putinists! And yet, I resent those who are slagging “The U.S.” in general.
Americans (including we in the increasingly involuntary satrapy of California) are struggling with our Confederate siblings, cousins and neighbors, who are having another of their generational, murderously psychotic episodes (now phase 8 of our 250 year civil war.)
Hence, we could use help from those we saved - one lifespan ago. Not broad-brush yammers from ingrates whose nations prospered under the American Pax that gave the world its best 80 years, compared to any other era... compared to ALL other eras. Compared to all other eras combined. (Disagree? Then tabulate and refute it.)
Want Europe to stand up more? Great! In fact, it’s about time.
Might you have to carry civilization forward, if True America fails and the Confederate-psychopath-Putinist traitors win this dangerous round?
Yes, you might, and God bless you. And Canada/Australia/NZ/Japan and the rest.
In that case, many of us (not me) will flee to you. Just as your best fled to us, in the 1930s & 40s etc.
(I won’t run. I will stay and I will die on this hill. Or until we reach Appomattox.)
Help us if you can. We have a right (that we earned) to ask for it.
But I will not abide churlishly-generalized and sanctimoniously masturbatory, reductionist America-bashing. Our mad side may kill our good side, in this round of our bipolar civil war. Especially if you self-righteously backstab us, instead of helping.
But this blue light is what gave the world hope.
And it will be remembered that way, by history, even if a red and gray psychotic wave drowns the flame.
== And in the U.S. we have our own backstabbing sanctimony junkies ==
Again and again, I see folks on our own (blue American) side of this civil war, jerking off to sanctimony rather than standing up, the way our ancestors did, in earlier phases of our recurring psychotic (confederate outbreak) civil war, and closing ranks.
"Pelosi, Schumer... all the Dem politicians are weaklings and Republicans-lite!"
== And finally, a lagniappe for Britain ==
Now that Brexit is a topic again... Heed these signs that were waved by the REMAIN crowds during Brexit.
Britain-IN? An inspiring rallying cry!
73 comments:
Re: Iran: Maybe the speculations surrounding Iranian hacking attacks are true and the Ayatollah holds some kompromat. Or they wait until the protests after the traditional 40 days of mourning are over and the protests start anew.
Re: Europe: I am more and more sure that the war with Russia will come, and that we will win it. The only question that remains is how many figures the final number of dead will have, how long it will last, and how much is going to be destroyed.
Some Nerd news: Inleap Photonics, a start up company once invested in industrial cutting lasers, has announced that their current prototype can down up to 300 Type 1 and 2 drones per minute.They use a highly focused laser (instead of the lower focused British and Rheinmetall system).
The AfD is currently occupied with infighting over nepotism charges, but I doubt that will stop people from voting for them. Another AfD state party has been flagged as extremist (to a total of 5, plus the federal party), but it will take some time to work its ways through the courts, as this decision by the State Office of the Protection of the Constitution can be appealed.
There are signals that the CDU will give up their blockade and join those parties voting for a ban of the AfD. Even if they agree to indict, the trial may take years.
Putin doesn't dare wage open war with Europe. A pack of cranky Finn cub scouts could march into St Petersburg and likely be greeted as liberators. But even if that exaggerates, Vlad doesn't dare shift many forces around. Most of his soldiers are kept in place by Chechen and Korean Stopping Troops. If they are packed in trains to the Estonian border, there will be a juicy Kremlin visible from the train windows.
Everyone is braying that the Ukrainian drone operators embarrassed NATO in those exercises. Nope. That is HOW a modern military modernizes.
Help us if you can.
The question I ponder is:
How is you helped best?
By keeping the system stable in hope the next electoral cycles will fix the chaos, or accelerating the chaos that enough of you rise to remove the Epstein Class from power?
I think the first not the second.
Sadly, there's very little practical that we can do directly to help our American cousins through the long dark teatime of their soul. Just like with Iran, direct help will just be held up by the regime as evidence of "Foreign Interference". They already claim to their thralls that the sea of people marching for liberty and justice in Minnesota is just Soros-paid professional agitators. Giving evidence to further that lie would be counterproductive.
Similarly, "accelerating the chaos" will, I think, just strengthen the forces of chaos, not the forces for restoring order to America.
And so, the best we can do (other than our hopes, prayers, and encouragement, of course), is to tend the lights in the House of Many Mansions, hoping that the light in the window will help our friends find their way through the darkness.
I know this song wasn't supposed to be about international relations ...
We will see. I hope you are right.
(There is a window of opportunity between now and 2028-29, when we are projected to reach defense parity. Three additional factors have an influence: The war in Ukraine itself, the US elections in 26 and 28, and the ongoing economic and financial collapse in Russia proper.)
Prince Andrew has been arrested for crimes on Epstein's island.
Prince Andrew knew everyone.
So how long before he unalives himself or has a heart attack in his prison cell?
What's the over and under on his remaining life expectancy?
In contrast to my previous post ... maybe that is something that someone outside the US could do to help.
Andrew was arrested not just for cavorting with Epstein, but also for leaking state secrets to someone who could be fairly categorized as an enemy of the Crown. Which could be construed as Treason.
And ... well, the Tower is still there. And the sword is still there. It would almost seem a shame not to use them. Heck, due to Britain's "Special Relationship" with the US, it would be perfectly reasonable to invite the President of the United States to witness the spectacle.
Would do a world of good...
As the video below makes clear, being a member of the Epstein class is like being on a luxury yacht where you can do anything you want with impunity.
But once you try to leave, your body will be found floating in the water.
And so this elite group uses blackmail to keep its own members in line. As this interview with former Mob boss Mike Franzese shows "If you want to control a billionaire, get him on tape with a 12 year old".
Franzese was actually serving time in Epstein's cell after the Feds brought him down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvynP_2LS2Y&t=1217s
Billionaire Insider Exposes Epstein’s Real Blackmail Operation
But why would otherwise rich and powerful men knowingly put themselves in a position where they are certain to have their vile acts recorded and used for blackmail?
Because for them, doing something supremely vile - after getting bored with all the wealth and power and influence - is the ultimate power flex.
They do it for the same reason that wannabee gang members do a crime in order to get into the gang. Once you are in, the connections and benefits far outweigh the inconvenience of being blackmailed for the occasional floor vote or judicial ruling.
P.S. I recommend Franzese (whose father was a don) pod casts for a fascinating look on how the Mob operates from the inside (he actually appears as a character in the movie "Goodfellows" in the tiki bar scene). He knows how blackmail works and how rich people literally get away with murder. I especially recommend his video on how he made millions scamming the sale of gasoline in New Jersey.
Franzese in Goodfellas
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FwncifvTDy8
And for the record, I love Mob movies.
The six best movies in history are:
Goodfellas
The Godfather I
The Godfather II
Casino
Once Upon a Time in America
Public Enemy (with a special place in my heart for Angels with Dirty Faces, Cagney's scene when he goes to to the electric chair acting like a coward to keep the street kids from idolizing him is amazing)
Not included is The Irishman due to lack of veracity
We shall not speak of Godfather III for it is an abomination.
It's important to know history in order to peer ahead at rhyming themes, especially as Project 2025 used 1930s Germany as a playbook.
Foolish people declare "Hitler was elected!" as a parallel with Trump. Well, yes, sort of. But only sort-of. After the 1932 election, Nazis were the largest minority party and President Hindenberg appointed AH chancellor, but in expectation to fire him, 1st chance. SO the Nazis poisoned Hindenberg. Then they set the Reichstag on fire and blamed their opponents, then arrested enough left wing Bundestag members so the Nazis BECAME a majority. And it began.
And it helps to know stuff. Then you may know what comes next. Which is why I keep foretelling Next Stages, so that at least some will be thinking ahead. Like how Venezuela, then soon Iran and then Cuba will all follow mafia rules.
Above all, since Trump fired or re-assigned many counter-intel and counter-terror agents as soon as he resumed office, And then fired all the independent Inspectors general and military JAGs. it is blatantly clear that Heritage and Project 2025 traitors are planning a fallback to prevent the 2026 elections. If their surface push to change election laws fails, all that they will have left - to save their asses from prison - will be continued waves of BLACKMAIL... and even that will shatter...
...so you get your pick: a 9/11 terrorism event, like the one that rallied the nation around Bush... or a Reichstag Fire.
Either way, we need to be ready to hit the streets shouting "REICHSTAG FIRE!" AT THE TOP OF OUR LUNGS. People will get it.
It's way early, and yet I expect Celt witll get post-of-the-day
I read kong charles response to his brother's arrest, stand firmly for the rule of law.
How ironic that nerdy Charles turns out to be the hero instead of his cooler brother Randy Andy.
"We shall not speak of Godfather III for it is an abomination."
You'll doubtless get pushback, but I totally agree. When III came out, I did a whole binge of the previous two films (on VHS tape at the time) just to make sure I would recognize any references and remember all of the characters. I was so pumped for that film, and then had to feel the smile on my face freeze as the scales metaphorically dropped from my face. And then we're supposed to be enthralled by Michael dropping dead as some kind of homage to the first film, even though it didn't follow logically from anything in the rest of the plot?
Plus, the absence of Robert Duvall was the (opposite of) icing on the cake.
"Venezuela, then soon Iran and then Cuba will all follow mafia rules."
All I know of the mafia I know from movies (see above). But it does seem to me that someone like Don Corleone gains power by being loyal as well as expecting loyalty. DJT is the opposite of that.
Dr. Brin,
Do you have any sources about Hindenburg being poisoned? I remember nothing about that from my prior readings, only that he died of metastatic cancer - which, if it had spread to his lungs by 1934, would seem to obviate pettier methods. It would seem a greater risk to be implicated in poisoning a war hero than just letting a dead man walking die in his own time. (Not that the Nazis didn't do far more stupid things and get away from them for a time.)
Pappenheimer
Re: Prince Andrew actuarial chart
The Andy Formerly known as Prince probably has a pretty good life expectancy still. In the reign of QEII, he might have been set out in the Scottish Highlands to be hunted by the Royal Corgis.
Pappenheimer
Gimme another coupla examples of good and bad robots or AIs for my book dedication?
AIlien Minds
Dedication
To those human maker/creators
whose art promised us friends
like Samantha, Data, and ___...
…or else gave warnings
like poor Hal, Ava and Daneel.
And to those – natural, embodied and virtual –
who are making dreams come true,
with fewer nightmares.
Joe, of course. (A logic named). Guy just wanted to help.
Pappenheimer
(Marvel's) The Vision?
And Ultron as a bad robot.
Bad
Colossus the forbin project
HAL - 2001
M5 - ST ToS
Nomad - ST ToS
Agent smith - the matrix
Skynet - Terminator
Lore - ST TNG
Cybermen - Dr Who
Good
The Golem - Jewish tradition
Robbie the robot - forbidden planet
Robot - lost in space (warning will robinson!)
Data - ST TNG
Bolos
Computer - Starlost
Complicated
Rebellious robots - RUR
Alien monolith - 2001
Roy batty (and Decker) - blade runner
Borg hive mind - ST TNG
@Celt
Keir Dullea appears in all three sections of your list. Nicely done.
Good
I Sing the Body Electric
Lathe of Heaven hotdog vendor
Complicated
THX1138 cops
Bad as in Useless:
A Bad Day For Sales
...and I still refuse to visit the science fiction museum unless it has officially been declared a Twonky Free Zone
Bad
The Virus/ Vampire Fleets - Traveller RPG
Shodan - System Shock
The Calculator - Fallout Tactics
Ash - Alien I
David - Prometheus
GLaDOS -Portal
HK 50 Series- Knights of the Old Republic
The RABID AI in Cyberpunk 2077
Good
Rei Toei -Idoru/Bridge Trilogy
The Machine - Person of Interest
The Emperor of the Shi - Fallout
Call - Alien VI
C3PO/R2D2 - Star Wars
Alt Cunningham, Brendan, Delamaine -Cyberpunk 2077
It's Complicated
Wintermute/Neuromancer -Sprawl Trilogy
Helios/Ikarus -Deus Ex 1
Victor & Yes-Man -Fallout New Vegas
HK-47 - Knights of the Old Republic
Eto Demerzel- Foundation TV series
I suppose Hymie from Get Smart won't cut it. :D
Even Macron, who, as a good French Socialist, used to be very Putin'-friendly, and sold Russia crucial equipment after 2014 (in violation of EU law) has said many times that ""Russia, in fact, has started a new type of global hybrid war. This is absolutely clear to us, the Europeans. I say this for the African continent," (July 27, 2025).
A major problem, or excuse, has been too small of a Defense Industrial Base in Europe (although many French weapons perform better than US ones, for example Aster 30 better than Patriot).
That's why, under Trump, more than two third of the European new weapon procurement spending has been in the USA. Very curious, while thousands of Russian helicopters, tanks, armor and planes have French electronics and optronics (since 2014). This also means that anti-Trump stridency by European leaders is in full contradiction with their actions, a testament to what they really believe (namely that Trump is their friend, not to say dad…).
Europe is falling into a wave of violence. A non-violent 23 year old Catholic believer, Qentin Deranque, was pursued and lynched last week in Lyon (kicked to death) by a masked organization, "Jeune Garde" created by an ultra Islamo-left French Member of Parliament, Raphaël Arnault.
This time, finally, after years of doing nothing, and with elections looming, French justice has moved into action, and arrested and jailed eleven pseudo anti-fascists... And more arrests are coming. The rot in Europe is immensely deep, it's philosophical, and can be traced back to the 1950s… And, yes, amazingly, tied to an ancient tradition of pedocriminality. I wrote many essays on it.
Could things turn around and Europe rise again? The energy “degrowth” policy in place is succumbing under the evidence of corruption, and the blows of China, USA, AI, India, Brazil, and now an increasingly furious European plebs which does not like it when told it can’t drive or that electricity’s price is ten times what it used to be (after going all electric).
Some more suggestions, with reasons...
Good:
- Robbie the Robot (Forbidden Planet): for trying to save us from ourselves
- Rosie (The Wild Robot): for admitting they didn't know what they were doing (raising teenage goslings)
- Gaia (Horizon: Zero Dawn/Forbidden West): for caring for the place, selflessly.
- CYAN (Horizon: Frozen Wilds): for solving many Gaussian integer equations while keeping a super volcano under control.
Bad:
- Hades (Horizon: Zero Dawn): was only following orders, but clearly loved its job
Complicated:
- Hephaestus (Horizon: Frozen Wilds/Forbidden West): also loved its job, but did not appreciate those durn kids on its lawn!
- 'Arthur' (Passengers): not a true AI, but a very good depiction of an expert system come LLM.
Bad: Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers
SCOTUS just shot down Trump's tariff authority.
Watch inflation fall and the stock market explode in 3....2...1...
"the Court’s decision is likely to generate other serious practical consequences in the near term. One issue will be refunds. Refunds of billions of dollars would have significant consequences for the U. S. Treasury. The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers. But that process is likely to be a “mess,” as was acknowledged at oral argument."
Dang, I should have bought Costco stock yesterday.
When you said Rosie I thought you meant Rosie the cleaning robot from the Jetsons.
A bad robot from the Jetsons would be Uniblab.
Patrice your thoughts are welcome here. Our civil war is a world war, and maybe only Zelensky can save us.
Thanks all. So far, I've chosen:
To those human maker/creators
whose art promised us friends
like Samantha, Data, Rosie and Robbie...
…or else gave warnings
like poor Hal, Ava, Ash and Daneel…
…or a Logic named Joe…
@Dr Brin,
Interesting that you conceive of R Daneel Olivaw as a villain. I know your reasoning for doing so, but it's an interesting take, as I've never read any of the Foundation or Robot novels with that perspective. Just as I never read Dune thinking of the Atreides as bad people.
I will note that Daneel was not written as a villain in The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun. The whole zeroth law thing was a retcon.
I recommend FOUNDATION'S TRIUMPH. I really really did a good job with Isaac's loose ends and I think where he was going... except that I took his implications to where he would not quite go, realizing Daneel has been lobotomizing all of humanity for 25000 years, 'for your own good.'
I did come up with a reason why that might have been justified and it required a genetic plague in our time making us all reflexively insane.
I root for the Atreides, but not their mutant mad son.
Huh I tried asking Google: "Did old Joe Kennedy support FDR saying "I'd rather lose half of my wealth to keep the workers happy than lose it all to revolution"?"
Coulda sworn Gemini woulda found that.
@Patrice:
Europe is not in flame, and the level of political violence in France is ... as it has been in the last two decades. Higher than elsewhere, sometimes somebody dies.
The rot is there, but it is certainly something entirely else.
It is "Catholicism", for the uninitiated a chiffre for white supremacy, hostility to the laizistic state France aspires to be, arch-conservatism, monarchism, and those undead dreams of colonialist empires and lots of revanchism that led to the disasters of Waterloo, Mexico, Sadowa, Sedan, Dien Bien Phu and Algeria.
It led to purposeful weakening of the European unity project (the Lissabon treaties would come in handy now) and the economic chains half of Africa was under (until the later coups started) even after gaining their "Independence".
Stephen Miller is a Fan of the Nobel "Camp of Saints", and his author Jean Raspail, who is one of the literary forefathers of this "Catholicism".
(From a European perspective, Melanchon and the populist Left are only slightly better, though. They are as willing to prostrate to Putin as the Right is.)
The rot lies in the dependance on nuclear energy with half a century old reactors which have to be cooled by imported electricity now and then and have to be shut down now and then to prevent nuclear disasters.(And let us not get started where all the Uranium is from.)
The rot lies in political elites ignoring the economic maladies of the governed. There are many parallels between areas in France, the Rust Belt and East Germany.
BTW, the world's greatest and oldest syndicate of child-abusers is the Catholic Church.
Would it be a stretch that the algos could have been modified to suppress and silence certain ideas lately?
Trump and his gang noted they would try other routes, while over here voices noted that they expect the tariffs to remain in place.
It nay be a bit soon to open the champaign.
@Dr Brin,
I think you just put way too much specificity into your question.
I did a search for this:
"Joe Kennedy" "I'd rather lose half of my wealth"
And the AI version of Google did return this:
The quote often attributed to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. regarding losing half his wealth is:
"I’d rather lose half of my wealth than all of it" (or variations like "I'd rather give up half my fortune than lose the whole thing").
So it's not as dumb as it looks.
"...a bit soon to open the champaign."
As an alumnus of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, I appreciate the typo, even if you have no idea what I'm on about.
Telling the good AIs from the bad is fraught with difficulties, mostly because the artificial creations thought most villainous tend to perform in strict accordance with their design specifications, as in the cases of WOPR & Skynet.
I therefore nominate the sarcastic Ktistec Machine from 'Arrival at Easterwine (RA Lafferty, 1973), the good android from the 'Questor Tapes' (Gene Roddenberry, 1974), the uncooperative computer ZERO from 'Rollerball' (Norm Jewison, 1975) and Proteus 4 from the 'Demon Seed (Dean Koontz, 1977).
That said, trust Celt & Der_Oger to misunderstand current events, as
(1) The recent SCOTUS ruling against Trump's tariffs is about as binding its prior 2023 rulings on the unconstitutionality of Biden's loan forgiveness plan & Harvard's race-based admission system, both of which are ongoing ever since SCOTUS declared them 'illegal'; and
(2) EU-based political violence & assassination has become a nearly every day occurrence, as in the case of the many 'nothing to see here' murders of a half-dozen AfD candidates & now Quentin Deranque's murder by the LFI, made even more desperate by the media's parodic cries of "all is well' while Europe burns.
In both the EU & the US, the Rule-of-Law has been increasingly revealed as an elitist & undemocratic fraud and sham.
Best
@Der Oger,
After I posted, it occurred to me that the region of France in question may well be spelled "Champaign" in German, which might be the origin of the county in Illinois and the one in Ohio with that name.
Here in the States, we spell the French region and the associated beverage "Champagne".
Celt,
You still have time, but I won't be doing it. At nearly $1K/share, P/E near 50, and a 0.5% dividend, I'd be risking a lot to make a little. Call options let you leverage your money more, but nearby ones currently have low volatility. Relatively cheap to buy, but that's because the stock is behaving in a relatively predictable way.
I won't be messing with it. There is a lot more volatility to be found among the chip stocks.
Even under vitamins, he's repulsive. Still, thanks for reminding me of Rollerball. As for the SCOTUS cancelling of the Trumpian tariff tantrum, well, I predicted they would choose specific issues to rule against him in order to pretend 'balance' when they will NEVER do a ruling that reduces or curb's the Putin Party's outrageous grabs of Nazi-level powers.
I think it would flow better with "and to a Logic named Joe" rather than "or".
The first "or else" provides a counterpoint between the first list and the second list.
The second 'or" just kinda hangs.
Off-topic... I know.
But... It's about the Fermi Paradox and how aliens might actually talk to each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZGyjR6Y9vw&t=16s
There has been no murder case in the AfD so far, only AfD members murdering others (see Walter Lübke).
And looking at the current state of the party, I would not be surprised if they started killing each other.
All is not well, and I often speak of "centrist" and "liberal" politicians fertilizing the ground for populist movements by catering to the wishes of the Epstein class and selling the future and common wealth of their constituents for their own power.
As an alumnus of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, I appreciate the typo, even if you have no idea what I'm on about.
Oh, it was indeed a typo... I believe I know that name from Jeff Rients from the OSR blogosphere ....
Complicated: Jack Williamson's Humanoids
Re: previous discussion on bio-genesis in our solar system
Sol's accretion disk eventually evolved into a star and planets. Along the way, several factors might have balanced locally to form long lasting, stable pockets. These include gravitational force, centrifugal force, temperature, energy gradients, element concentrations (including CHNOPS), molecule concentrations (including water), properties of the stellar ignition, and perhaps others. I'm not claiming to have coined the term, but I'll call them 'Goldilocks Pockets'. Neither Kant nor Laplace had the available computational power to build such a model, but we do. Assuming that is, that GenAI leaves a few scraps for science while it concocts its massive vat of snake oil.
Re: Fermi Paradox vid in this thread
The movie CLARA (2018), sometimes also called VOYAGER, used the entangled electron pair trick to make an FTL 'radio'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_(2018_film)
JPL, working jointly with a Toronto University, found and managed to establish contact with a civ on an artificial moon that was station-keeping at the L1 of a red dwarf. How they got one of the entangled electrons to Earth is not explained. This is not exactly the same as Ursula K. le Guin's 'Ansible', but I never fully understood her physics anyway.
A comment about Trump, Glyphosate and MAHA by Belle of the Ranch.
Somehow, Trump is the Anti-Midas: Everything he touches transforms from gold to shit, being it businesses, humans, nations, alliances and now his own political base.
Trump is the Anti-Midas: Everything he touches transforms from gold to shit
Dave Sim called that a kind of reverse alchemy, turning gold into lead. However, for Von Schitzenpantz, "into shit" is indeed more appropriate. Lead at least has some utility.
There has been no murder case in the AfD so far, only AfD members murdering others...
Der_Oger's comments are accurate & succinct:
There is literally 'no case', 'no story', 'no investigation' and 'no crime' when a conservative christian is assaulted, raped or murdered in the EU, as this goes against the official narrative that stabby & rapey diversity is 'our strength'.
From the 2016 Cologne Mass Rape attacks to the Mannheim 2024 attempted arrest of an AfD stabbing VICTIM rather than the actual muslim assailant, the official DW headlines always report "no political, racial, ethnic or religious motive" when conservative christians are brutalized.
This approach is currently on full display in France with the politically & religiously motivated murder of Quentin Deranque, a baby-faced 23 year old French Catholic who was 'kicked to death' by at least 6 members of the officially "nonexistent" Antifa party who, coincidentally, all happen to belong to the leftwing France Unbowed (LFI) party in this particular instance.
Even Der_Oger admits that his "centrist" and "liberal" politicians (have sold out) the future (of) their (own) constituents in their undemocratic pursuit of power, proving only that most European liberal democracies have already collapsed, leaving only the resurgent right to clean up this globalist-created political, racial & religious shit show. For better or WORSE...
With heavy emphasis on WORSE.
Best
More confirmation on the Resurgent German Right:
Thirty-one percent of respondents nationwide agreed with the statement: "What Germany needs now is a single strong party that embodies the will of the people as a whole."
https://amp.dw.com/en/germans-approve-of-democracy-but-say-it-doesnt-work-well/a-76058634
Best
Locumranch is again in panic mode. Just some facts:
1) The US murder rates are WAY higher than over here. Especially in red rural areas.
2) Over Here, 2024 have been recorded 1281+ cases of right-wing violence vs. 532+ left-wing cases, including property damage.
3) The main conflict isn't left vs. right or natural born citizen vs. immigrant. It is up vs. down (and a bit South vs. North, East vs. West).
4) The main problem I see is the betrayal of the SPD. They have abandoned the workers in favor of the retired, and public employees. And in favor of raw political power. And yes, in pursuit of policies that favor the Epstein class.(Not that CDU/CSU or AfD are any better, to the contrary.At least, we now and then try them for corruption and espionage.)
5) The victim may have had a baby-face, but he was a fascist first and foremost. Like people of color have to fear for their life in certain areas of France & Germany, I wouldn't advise fascists to invade certain parts of Hamburg, Berlin and Leipzig, where the "Volkswillen" looks quite different. Lyon seems to be sich a place, the attack was certainly not unprovoked.
6) I should mention that the fast and decisive action of the French police and justice system shows that that part of their system works.
At least, versus left-wing extremism.
7) Oh, and please. Everyone and his dog here knows about your sadistic tendencies and your obeyance-in-advance to a caste of billionaire bullies and global rapists. You do not care about christianity and it's core messages; you do not care about this guy, you just indulge in this opportunity.
@David: Daneel, after reading your interpretation in TRIUMPH, came off to me as tragic rather than villainous. Earth's Caves of Steel (and whatever caused them) long predated his construction, much less his transformation into the Zeroth-Law-mentalic Immortal Servant at the end of ROBOTS AND EMPIRE. Even having rewired his core imperatives, he's still too constrained to generate an actual solution, because even the Zeroth Law doesn't provide the moral framework for straightforward solutions like "figure out what was altered and generate a counter-plague to reverse the change." Which version of humanity commands the greatest positronic loyalty: the past, the present, the future? The Second Law was intended to settle such issues, except that the Zeroth Law demanded the avoidance of the triggers for the chaos-plague behavior. He needed the vast supermajority of humanity super safe before he could even attempt any real investigations.
Thus, the First Empire.
What Daneel really needed was another Elijah Baley, but with the chops to handle both the terrible truth and the mathematical complexities that framed Daneel's limited robotic understanding of the solution space.
In other words, he needed Hari Seldon.
The sum total of PRELUDE, FORWARD, and the Killer B trilogy pointed me to the conclusion that Hari Seldon, the singular human being, was even more important to Daneel than the Foundations he created. Seldon was the first truly sovereign human being in millennia that Daneel could confide in, and rely upon, in the same way as Baley. And his reactions could show Daneel the perspective and viewpoint that no robot, however advanced and programmed, could ever provide.
The First Foundation was as close as Daneel and Hari could manage to re-create the original dynamic and inventive civilization of Earth. The Plan and the Second Foundation were necessary to prevent the plague from ruining the First Foundation's development. But as the Second Foundation merely replaced robotic rule with mentalic-dynastic rule, it could not remain indefinitely either: Daneel could not permit another Settler-Spacer split. Gaia, the "Third Foundation", avoided that problem at the expense of the dynamism and individuality that made the First Foundation so successful.
Like Moses, Daneel could take humanity through a multi-millennial Sinai, but he could not enter the Caanan of cognitive sovereignty. I didn't think Seldon could either, but...?
Catfish, as I recall every element you just described is right there in F.TRIUMPH. Including the Giskardian robots needing Seldon's permission to destroy the archives.
The part I didn’t remember being spelled out was how much Seldon was Baley’s successor for Daneel *personally*, not just Giskardianism as a whole.
The tragedy being, Daneel was stuck for twenty thousand years for lack of a Seldon to kick him, and thus the whole galaxy, out of his pseudo-infinite loop.
The sum total of PRELUDE, FORWARD, and the Killer B trilogy pointed me to the conclusion that Hari Seldon, the singular human being, was even more important to Daneel than the Foundations he created.
I don't want to disrespect the authors, especially the one reading this. But am I alone in feeling that the series loses something when it becomes so much the story of one Great Man, when the original trilogy was about a civilization spanning many generations, and many different individuals who rose to the occasion when needed?
In the original short stories, Hari Seldon never even appeared as a living human being. That only happened in the framing story that Asimov wrote for the novel that collected the stories. But after a mere five books like that, the series (including the Killer B books) then culminates with seven whole books about Seldon. I'm uncomfortable with that in the same way that I am about the ensemble cast of the original Star Wars giving way to a series all about the divine family Skywalker. Or flashing on Congressman Moskowitz and "Trump appears in the Epstein files more times than God does in the book about God."
I've had this discussion before, and I always have to acknowledge that Foundation's Triumph did a great job of doing what it was supposed to do. It's just that when I wished upon a star for more Foundation stories, I was hoping for something different than the goal Dr Brin had. More stories after the fashion of the originals taking place between 498 and 1060 FE.
Der_Oger proves himself to be a huge hypocrite & liar:
1) US gun-related murder rates are about 25% lower in red rural areas than in blue urban areas, the blue urban rate of 5 /100,000 as compared to a red rural rate of 3.5/100,000, the red rural rate being artificially inflated due to high rural rates of self-harm;
2) EU studies from 2005 document that muslim immigrants to Europe commit violent crimes at 2.5X the rate of European natives which is why modern EU crime statistics no longer differentiate on the basis of race, religion or nation-of-origin;
3) Using TESAT & other statistical gimmicks, Europol deliberately misrepresents the etiology of violent criminality via the reclassification of leftwing, religious & migrant violence as ordinary crime to exaggerate right-wing extremism; and, finally
4) It is an undemocratic, unelected, pro-WEF & pro-Epstein European Union which has sold the citizenry of its member nations 'down the river', as evidenced by the many European leaders that have already been implicated by the Epstein files.
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/02/04/europe-in-the-epstein-files-how-far-is-the-continents-political-elite-implicated
hahahahaha
Larry Hart: the series loses something when it becomes so much the story of one Great Man
IMHO, the protagonist throughout was Psychohistory itself. That's why I got so deep into computational psychohistory. OGH said something recently about trying to capture what Asimov was moving towards. That's what I was doing, trying to anticipate where Asimov was headed. He was very interested in computers, especially the personal computers and networks that were the harbinger of the modern internet.
Looks like Samsung is moving their mega-fab from Texas to Ontario. I may rekindle my SELDON I psychohistory processor dreams if that kind of technology is right next door. But I'm getting old. We'll see.
Tell me this is a spoof, seriously?
https://ethicsalarms.com/2023/09/15/ethics-dunces-too-many-people-to-count-who-were-responsible-for-this/
Larry,
Heh. So does shit.
Lots of our primate cousins know exactly what to do with it.
LH I IMPLIED what happens after 500FE. Anyway, Seldon isn't THAT big or important. He serves as a convenient front man and his Plan works well to set things up for Daneels actual plan. And his MYTH lets Daneel convince the other Giskardians to eliminate the archives. But Hari does get the last laugh.,
1) Out of the twenty highest per capita murder rate counties, there are only two blue large metro areas; the rest are in the South.
2) That, even it was true, would make Americans still doubly more violent criminals.
3) Untrue. It is rather the other way round; Right-Wingers are often declared mentally i'll, while crimes of migrants are mentioned in News 15 times (Iirc) more than crimes of non-migrants.
And, besides that: There are qualitative differences between acts of right- and left-wing violence. The former is far more homocidal and directed against persons of color and LGBTQ persons, the latter against right-wingers and the police, as well as objects.*
4) Since only half of the documents are released, it is to early to make a final evaluation, but, unlike in the US, investigations are underway. In Britain, the King encouraged the Police to arrest his brother, an act the island has not seen since Charles, First of His Name, lost his head during the English revolution. Also, the elected European Parliament has passed laws that hurt the Technoligarchs and are considering to do more.
Or to be more bluntly: In the US, the Epstein class is not investigated, it runs the whole country.
*
The link to Amazon shows an entirely different cover photo
"Heh. So does shit [have utility]."
Ok, but the point of the reverse alchemy metaphor is "turning something valuable into something merely common."
The point of the scatalogical metaphor is "turning something beautiful into something disgustingly repulsive."
The latter suits DJT more appropriately. And it makes me think of all his gold-plated crap as turning to actual crap.
@Dr Brin,
I don't mean any of this as a dig at you or your fellow B's. I understand I'm talking about personal taste, and while mine is in line with 1940s Asimov, yours is much more in line with 1990s Asimov. Plus you are actually capable of writing the book, so you got to do what you want, not what I'd want.
With that out of the way and by way of explanation:
"LH I IMPLIED what happens after 500FE."
I would have preferred seeing several more adventures in that era, not just "And then a miracle occurred". But I know that's just me. Asimov himself had already deviated from the kinds of Foundation stories that enamored them to me.
Well, tell me that THIS is a spoof:
https://www.threads.com/@guy_fawkes_news/post/DVD13vDkdrZ
"John Barron" calling into a talk show to complain about the worst supreme court decision ever. The imitation is good enough that at first I thought this was really DJT himself calling, but it sounds more like decades-younger Trump than 2026-Trump. Not sickly enough, and the train of thought doesn't derail.
One more issue I had with all of the post-1980 Foundation novels, even the ones Asimov himself wrote. And I think I'm on firmer ground here than just "personal taste".
After the long search for the planet of human origin, Foundation and Earth ends on an ominous cliffhanger about the Solarian being different enough from humanity to essentially be an alien being. The final lines of that book just beg for a sequel. And not only was this never followed up on in the succeeding seven novels, but it was never even treated as something that mattered.
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