* This is an archive of my own blog and online notes, with weekly entries collected by month. The current week in stand-alone format is available here. Feel free to CONTACT ME if so inclined.
DAYLOG MON 27 OCT 25 / AI FOR WARDRONES: The war in Ukraine has been very much dominated by drones. As discussed in an article from KYIV INDEPENDENT ("AI drones in Ukraine -- this is where we're at" by Kollen Post, 25 October 2025), artificial intelligence technology is becoming an ever more significant element -- if in limited ways.
Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi commented in August: "Virtually all of our technological weapons have elements of artificial intelligence." Syrsky also warned that, as everyone knows, AI "makes mistakes".
The idea of a fully autonomous AI-powered drone is attractive, but not technically possible today, particularly because it poses substantial command-&-control challenges. Andriy Chulyk -- a co-founder of Sine Engineering, which makes drone guidance modules and software -- says:
QUOTE:
We're not going along the route of that full autonomy. Tesla, for example, having enormous, colossal resources, has been working on self-driving for ten years and, unfortunately, they still haven't made a product that a person can be sure of.
END_QUOTE
As with most AI technology these days, battlefield AI is not replacing humans, instead performing a supporting role. One reason for the conservative approach is that a handheld drone can't haul very much computing power, so it can do some things but not others.
One notable example is first-person view (FPV) killer drones. Even with AI, they still have to be flown by a remote pilot -- but AI can be used to pick out and zero in on a target. Jamming gets worse as the target is approached, but an AI can't be jammed.
In the same way, deep-strike drones can't be built to seek targets on their own, lest they hit Russian civilian targets -- though AI can be used to support terminal attack. Fast interceptor drones, built to take down Russian Shahed and other killer drones, also use AI for terminal attack -- since Russian drones typically take evasive action when they are attacked, and AI can react more quickly and effectively than a drone pilot.
Yaroslav Azhnyuk -- founder and CEO of two companies, The Fourth Law (TFL) and Odd Systems -- says that current interceptors "still rely on FPV technology." Odd Systems started out as a mass FPV producer and is working on interceptors. TFL produces small and cheap -- roughly $70 USD -- AI vision modules for FPVs. These modules are continually being improved to permit more accurate targeting in the face of camouflage or uncertain lighting.
Aznyuk says full autonomy is a distant goal. Some of the Western-built drones deployed in Ukraine are much smarter than Ukrainian drones, but these smarter drones are also much more expensive. The balance between smarts and cost is still being determined. In the meantime, work on AI for weapons is in high gear -- if in large part because it's the current fad.
DAYLOG TUE 28 OCT 25 / WHAT TO DO ABOUT ICE: Americans are now painfully aware of the way that Donald Trump's Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) storm troopers are terrorizing the streets of our cities, snatching up people without concern for legal niceties.
Commenter Paul Waldman, of THE AMERICAN PROSPECT, released an essay on PUBLIC NOTICE ("ICE is out of control and beyond repair", 27 October 2025) that looked into the issue. After Trump came into power, he massively increased ICE's budget and swelled its ranks.
Physical and educational requirements for ICE have been minimized, as has been training time, to get more agents on the streets -- these agents being told they can do things any way they feel like doing them. ICE leadership not in tune with the new order are being purged. It seems the FBI is similarly being "dumbed down".
In any case, only goons want to join ICE these days, with videos appearing daily of their thuggery. What to do about it? Waldman says: "Put simply, ICE needs to be stripped down to the studs."
Democrat leadership has recognized the threat, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announcing: "The tables will turn one day." -- and warning that although ICE agents won't be prosecuted soon for their crimes, they may not remain safe forever. Pritzker has set up an accountability commission "tasked with capturing and creating a public record of the conduct of federal law enforcement agents and recommending actions to hold the federal government accountable."
Similarly, New York Attorney General Letitia James set up a portal where people can report ICE abuses and upload pictures and video so her office can determine if laws have been broken. Representative Nancy Pelosi and colleagues have warned that ICE agents are liable for crimes under local and state laws -- with Federal AG Pam Bondi and her people threatening to "investigate and prosecute" any California officials who try to hold ICE agents accountable.
Over the longer run ... reasonably assuming that the Democrats take back the House in 2027, they not only need to push for laws, but also need to conduct hearings on ICE abuses to sway public opinion. The public is already taking an increasingly dim view of ICE.
If the Democrats return to the White House in 2029, they will need to "de-Trumpify" the Federal government. As for ICE, everyone hired under Trump needs to be fired, and ICE agents would no longer wear masks; they would have to wear badges and ID while adhering to the law in their actions. ICE agents and officials who committed crimes will be held responsible for them. As Waldman says, ICE does serve a useful function, but it has to be "completely remade. And it's not too early to start preparing."
DAYLOG WED 29 OCT 25 / GROKIPEDIA: Elon Musk is never up to any good, the latest example being a competitor to Wikipedia titled "Grokipedia", generated by Musk's Grok AI bot. To no surprise, Grokipedia puts a Right spin on its articles.
One Jason Koebler, a co-founder of 404 MEDIA, writes in an essay there ("Grokipedia Is the Antithesis of Everything That Makes Wikipedia Good, Useful, and Human", 28 October 2025) says that Grokipedia is not so much a Wikipedia clone as it is an "anti-Wikipedia". Musk, who is down on Wikipedia because the Wikipedia page on him is unflattering, launched Grokipedia to retaliate, with Koebler saying that it "serves no one and nothing other than the ego of the world's richest man."
Right now, Grokipedia is much weaker than Wikipedia, with only a fraction of the articles, no pictures, and poorly-organized writing -- Koebler saying it's what happens when an LLM is commanded to create an "anti-woke encyclopedia", which is effectively what Musk did.
Musk seems to have a veiled agenda in creating Grokipedia. Attempts to shift Grok replies to the Right only made it blatantly fascistic; Grokipedia instead provides Grok with a biased knowledge base that isn't so obviously bogus. Beyond that agenda, Koebler feels Grokipedia will fail, as did previous attempts to "compete" with Wikipedia -- probably the most notorious being "Conservapedia", created in 2006 by RWNJ Andy Schlafly. It never got more than niche participation and use.
Koebler says in summary that Grokipedia is everything that Wikipedia is not: "It is not an encyclopedia, it is not transparent, it is not human, it is not a nonprofit, it is not collaborative or crowdsourced, in fact, it is not really edited at all." It's AI trash.
CO2 & CROP YIELDS: I did some poking around in Grokipedia's materials on climate change. It seemed generally on the level, the skews in the narrative being subtle. One claim that was rising CO2 levels improve crop yields. I was skeptical and investigated.
Yes, it is true that, in principle, higher CO2 concentrations do improve crop yields -- but only if all other things are equal, and they're not. Rising temperatures, droughts, and rough weather reduce crop yields, and most studies predict climate change will do just that. Like I said, Elon Musk is never up to any good; nobody with sense would believe anything he said, and nobody with sense would trust Grok's replies. How Grok and Grokipedia play out over the longer run, however, remains to be seen.
DAYLOG THU 30 OCT 25 / DEM POLICY PAPER: A recent report from WelcomePAC, which supports Center-Left candidates, gave a prescription for how the Democratic Party can recover from the 2024 election disaster. According to POLITICO, suggestions included:
QUOTE:
Talk more about the economy and less about democracy. Reject corporate interests and ideological purity tests. Keep the progressive policies that are popular -- like expanding health care and raising the minimum wage -- and moderate on issues like immigration and crime.
END_QUOTE
It all sounds safe as milk on first sight, but on second thought it felt like too much like saying: Focus on the economy, forget about LGBT / reproductive rights and climate change. One Dave Karpf, posting on BlueSky, had a number of insights:
Dems have been pushing practical issues like the economy all along, while the GOP hardly cares about helping voters; they still win, knowing that "Haitians are eating the dogs and cats" is a more persuasive pitch than "we'll help you buy a home".
The bottom line here is that people who voted for Trump don't care about policy positions -- but on the other side of that coin, those who voted for Kamala do. Maybe the Dems lose nothing supporting LGBT and reproductive rights, or climate-change action, while losing something if they don't. Why betray voters when it buys nothing?
GOP control of the media presents a major easy challenge -- but trying to move to a mythological "Center" is unwise. In an era of extreme polarization, there are no compromise positions; no Center to move to. We have to know our principles and stick to them.
I should add myself that the USA is in a highly unstable state: voters are disoriented, and polls tell us little. The Dems need to stand on principle and have clear direction. We can only have faith that voters want to do the right thing, and realize the GOP does not.
DAYLOG FRI 31 OCT 25 / JUDICIARY V TRUMP: There are times when it seems that nothing can slow Donald Trump -- but law blogger Jay Kuo points out in an essay on THE BIG PICTURE ("Trump's Getting Thumped In Court", 30 October 2025) that the judiciary is not so friendly to him. Trump, through Attorney General Pam Bondi, has worked hard to subvert the Department of Justice, replacing competent prosecutors with unqualified stooges willing to go as low as needed.
The first problem is that these stooge prosecutors have to be confirmed by the Senate, and there are enough conscientious GOP in the Senate to keep that from happening. The end result is that the courts are increasingly inclined to disqualify the stooges.
This is particularly noticeable in Trump's efforts to legally persecute his political enemies. New York State AG Tish James, targeted in a dubious indictment, has replied to state that Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor, was not lawfully appointed. James has an excellent case, backed up the reality that the courts are increasingly questioning the "presumption of regularity (POR)" for the Trump Regime -- the POR being a legal concept requiring the courts to assume the government is working in good faith.
The POR is undermined when Trump sends out ranting broadcast messages demanding that his enemies be crushed; Bondi and her people are almost as bad. That's the second problem, the courts are inclined to dismiss obviously malign and frivolous Trump cases with prejudice. The lower courts are not friendly to Trump, not generally willing to judge him kindly, are now often judging against him, and becoming stricter about compliance -- the Trump Regime also having an inclination to defy court orders. The latest example is the courts telling Trump to come up with a plan to provide stalled SNAP (food stamp) benefits.
However, there's also the issue of SCOTUS, which has tended to give Trump generous benefit of doubt. A big example is SCOTUS permitting "racial profiling" in actions of ICE agents against non-white Americans.
The puzzle in this is that it is not exactly obvious how even a conservative SCOTUS can remain complacent about an unhinged president who is outspoken in his dictatorial tendencies. It would seem there would be limits, and signs are the limits are being reached -- SCOTUS, for example, for now restraining Trump from sending the National Guard to Chicago, with the court to formally consider the matter in late November.
Earlier in November, SCOTUS will consider if Trump has the right to impose tariffs without Congressional approval, and whether gay marriage is legal. There is public apprehension over both cases, but the decisions are by no means foregone conclusions.
* I have to add that I find Jay Kuo a relief. It is true that things are very bad -- but completely hopeless? NO. As JK points out, the Trump regime is dim-witted, incompetent, and unpopular, pretending to be strong when it is weak. We have to remember that as the fight continues.
BACK_TO_TOPDAYLOG MON 03 NOV 25 / UKRAINE CRUISE MISSILES: The war in Ukraine appears to be intensifying as the Russians ramp up air strikes and ground offensives, but it's by no means obvious the Russians are winning the fight.
Ukraine's retaliatory air attacks are inflicting serious pain on Russia. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha recently commented: "Ukraine's long-range power is the key to forcing Russia to stop the war. The further we can act, the shorter the war will be." Sybiha added that that Ukraine's own potential in this area and the number of successful strikes is growing every week.
While prop-powered drones are the mainstay of the effort, jet-powered cruise missiles are becoming increasingly important. Ukraine has a bewildering variety of cruise missiles, the best-established being the mid-sized "Neptune" -- originally an antiship missile from the Soviet era, but now with land-attack capability, and in two long-range variants with a reach of about 1,000 km (620 miles).
Recently, the Destinus "Ruta" cruise missile has gone into service. It's a medium-sized torpedo-like weapon, with straight wings. Details haven't been revealed, but it is thought to have a range of up to 500 km (310 miles) and a warhead of up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds). Apparently, the Ruta can also be configured as a reusable drone, being recovered by parachute. Very significantly, the missile is "smart", capable of autonomous navigation and targeting, and can operate as part of a "swarm". The sophisticated guidance system was designed by the Spanish firm Grupo Oesia.
That suggests the big Fire Point FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile -- with a range of 3,000 km (1,860 miles) and a 1.15-tonne (1.25-ton) warhead also has a sophisticate guidance system. If reports can be believed, a fair stockpile of Flamingoes has been built, but so far its use has been limited -- operational tests, it appears, for debugging. Once the bugs are worked out, existing Flamingoes will be updated and used, presumably with devastating effect.
[UPDATE: Although the Flamingo has a "unitary" blast warhead by default, it appears that there is work on cluster and penetrating warheads as well -- to destroy soft area targets like factories, and hardened / underground facilities respectively.]
* In closely related news, it appears that Russian guerrillas -- "partisans" as they are better if more ambiguously known -- have been conducting a war against Russian railroads, burning controller boxes and causing derailments, with some attacks on other targets. Not much is known about the guerrilla groups, though one of them -- "Chernaya Iskra (Black Spark)" -- has worked with Ukrainian intelligence on strikes deep into Russia. There's a big story there, but not one that will be revealed any time soon.
DAYLOG TUE 04 NOV 25 / PUSHBACK ON DEEPFAKES: Artificial intelligence has opened up a huge can of worms -- one particular problem being "deepfakes", synthetic imagery and video using real people. Laws are being passed to deal with the problem.
Somewhat surprisingly, given the Trump Regime's fondness for AI fakery, back in May he signed into law the bipartisan "Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks (TAKE IT DOWN) Act". The TID Act was specifically targeted at malicious deepfakes, particularly but not restricted to deepfakes portraying intimate acts of minors or non-consenting adults. It required platforms to have a notification mechanism and remove the deepfakes on request.
The TID Act is highly targeted and limited. Now Danish legislators are working on a much more ambitious law, which will give people effective copyright control over their face, voice, and body. Under the law, a plaintiff can demand the removal of a deepfake, and obtain compensation for damages if applicable. Platforms will be liable to stiff fines if they don't respond to complaints quickly.
The "lifetime+" copyright on personal identity goes beyond deepfakes. Popstar Dua Lipa posted a picture of herself online, to be sued by the person who took the shot. Under the Danish law, the photographer would be in violation of her "personal" copyright. That suggests the complications of the new law, with people weaponizing it to go after legitimate content. Satire and critical speech are protected under the law with regards to politicians and, to an extent, public figures, Exactly how that plays out remains to be seen.
It appears the legislation will be voted on soon; if it passes, it should be in force late this year or early next. We'll see how it goes.
TRUMP OFF THE RAILS: Today, off-year general elections are in progress in the USA, of which more will be said later. Trump, it seems, is unusually agitated over the elections, sending out a stream of over-the-top, incoherent broadcast messages. BlueSky commenter Ron Filipkowski said: "At some point we might have to consider the fact that he might be mentally unstable." I replied: "That's major irony firepower there, RF." The recognition that Trump is falling apart is becoming universal.
DAYLOG WED 05 NOV 25 / ODD-YEAR ELECTION: Odd-year general elections are the least significant general elections in the USA -- but the one yesterday was huge, with a Blue tsunami sweeping the USA.
The biggest news was that Zhoran Mamdani won in New York City to become NYC's first Muslim major. He won with 50.4% of the vote, as compared to 41.6% for Andrew Cuomo and 7.1% for Curtis Sliwa. Cuomo had the bad fortune to be endorsed by both Trump and Elon Musk.
Second biggest news was that California passed Proposition 50, which authorized gerrymandering to counter Trump's efforts to gerrymander Red states. That's not going well for Trump, with the "big Blue wave" yesterday hinting the effort could actually cost the GOP more seats -- but "dummymandering" is another story.
There's more. Democrats Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger won governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia respectively, with Democrats making substantial gains in the legislatures of both states. Spanberger's opponent, Winsom Earle-Sears, ran a smear campaign against her, attacking Spanberger for her support of transgender rights. The GOP has been relying on the anti-transfolk message, but it's run out of steam, one Lydia Polgreen commenting on BlueSky:
QUOTE:
I am taking particular pleasure in the complete collapse of trans-as-unbeatable-wedge-issue narrative this morning. ... it has to be on voters minds to matter. The results in VA demonstrate that it is very much NOT on voters minds.
END_QUOTE
Pennsylvania voters made sure the state Supreme Court remained solidly Blue, while the down-ballot vote was heavily Blue in that state, in Connecticut, and even Mississippi -- where voters dislodged the GOP super-majority in the legislature. Georgia elected two Dems to the utilities commission for the first time in decades, while voters in Colorado approved a measure to tax the wealthy to fund a school lunch program. Colorado has long voted down tax increases, so that's news.
The Era of Trump is coming to an end. Pete Buttigieg commented: "Trump tries to build a fake wall of inevitability around everything he does. Today, voters -- from sea to shining sea -- broke through all that, and this is just the beginning."
DAYLOG THU 06 NOV 25 / BREAKING THE SPELL: While Trump and his stooges have tried to downplay their major electoral defeat on Tuesday, it's obvious Trump has taken a big hit -- and they know it.
Trump likes to pump himself up as invincible, but people are no longer being fooled. Even before the election, California Governor Gavin Newsom, speaking with activist Brian Tyler Cohen on Saturday, commented on how feeble Trump is:
QUOTE:
Where's Donald Trump? He's not out here campaigning !NO ON 50! He's not campaigning for Republican candidates in New Jersey, in Virginia. No one wants to be associated, no one wants to be seen with him. That's how historically weak Donald Trump is.
END_QUOTE
Newsom felt, it turned out very correctly, that a win would reinvigorate Democrats and Democratic leadership: "I think [it] will create a pathway not just to ending the shutdown, but also a pathway to getting [Hakeem Jeffries] back in the speakership."
Trump, he added, is holding opulent parties while citizens are paying higher costs for food, with food stamps and health care being cut: "He's betraying his own voters [thanks to] his recklessness, and his total disregard for them, and his obsession with one person only, himself."
Cohen brought up how Trump planned to send DOJ poll watchers to California, New Jersey, and elsewhere to monitor the election -- obviously to find pretexts to scream "FRAUD". Newsom replied California was prepared:
QUOTE:
We're going to flood the zone in the five counties where he's sending the DOJ to monitor their activities to call all this out in real time. ... that is exactly the approach we need to take all across this country next year.
END_QUOTE
That was a significant but under-appreciated aspect of the election: Trump has made a lot of big noise all along about gaming elections, but a lot of the gaming is just making the noise to scare people. His interference with this election amounted to little.
Trump has demonstrated an astounding resilience, magically retaining strong support from the GOP and his voters, who disregard his many failings. The support is fading, while the failings are becoming obvious. The spell is breaking as his decline becomes apparent. As Pete Buttigieg put it, Trump wants to convince people he's "inevitable". Events this week have shown it's more like he's "terminal". We need not fear the next election if we remain diligent and united. The Trump Regime is scary -- but also juvenile, dimwitted, and incompetent.
DAYLOG FRI 07 NOV 25 / WINNING IN UKRAINE: As discussed in an article from UKRAINIAN REVIEW ("How NATO Can Prevent a 'Forever War' in Ukraine" by Alina Ohanezova, 6 November 2025), the war in Ukraine drags on, seemingly forever.
Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen -- and the present Secretary general, Mark Rutte -- are calling for action to end the war, from deploying troops and air defense systems, to engaging industry and obtaining financial resources. Rasmussen suggests:
QUOTE:
We have to help the Ukrainians protect themselves against Russian missiles and drones by building an air shield helping the Ukrainians shoot down Russian missiles and drones. NATO countries neighboring Ukraine can be the location for a NATO-based air defense and missile system.
END_QUOTE
Makes sense: if NATO nations have to build a defensive umbrella against Russia, the umbrella ought to be extended over Ukraine. Deploying European troops in Ukraine, even as a token force, would tell Putin that the EU will not give up on Ukraine.
Rasmussen wants to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, putting economic pressure on Russia to give up the war. He also wants to give Ukraine more long-range weapons, though it seems Ukraine is acquiring that capability with the Flamingo cruise missile.
Mark Rutte, on his part, wants improved cooperation between the Alliance and the defense industry, with Rutte saying there are three key factors of success: quantity, creativity, and cooperation. Very significantly, Rutte pointed out that Europe was now able to produce more ammunition than Russia, with old production lines expanded and new production lines -- including those at new companies, and in collaboration with Ukraine -- being set up. Rutte says:
QUOTE:
We are making more than we have done in decades. We need to build on this progress in other areas, from high-end air defense and low-cost drone interceptors.
END_QUOTE
Separately, Rutte noted that Russia is not acting alone, instead working to build up a military alliance with China, North Korea, Iran and a number of other states to challenge the West. Europe has a long-term challenge, and will need to think long-term in response.
BACK_TO_TOPDAYLOG MON 10 NOV 25 / STEALING ELECTIONS? As discussed in an article from THE GUARDIAN ("Trump's assault on voting intensifies" by Andrew Gumbel, 9 November 2025), Donald Trump is clearly determined to cheat on elections.
All along, Trump has screamed !THEY CHEATED! when elections don't go his way, while maligning mail-in voting -- and as of late, has been using the Department of Justice (DOJ) to threaten legal action against elections he calls "unfair". Trump has notably been pressuring Red states to gerrymander to obtain more GOP seats, while Trump's stooges have been playing up a "third term" for Trump -- on top of floating ideas for Trump to take forcible control over elections. The Trump Regime has attempted to dictate how states can run their elections, while the US Supreme Court has been weakening voting rights laws. Marc Elias, likely America's most prominent and active election lawyer, says:
QUOTE:
Those of us engaged in this fight are witnessing a wholesale attack on free and fair elections. From executive orders [XO] to budget cuts, the Trump Administration is undermining election security and promoting voter disenfranchisement.
END_QUOTE
There is a real threat, but Justin Levitt -- a lawyer who advised the Biden Administration on voting rights -- points out there is much less there than meets the eye: "Donald Trump is a marketing machine, and what he is doing right now is marketing power he does not have."
Trump issued an XO in March to dictate how states run elections, with Levitt saying the XO was just "a piece of paper with a scrawly signature on it". The Federal courts have blocked the XO; it didn't really carry any weight in the first place, but Red states might find it to their liking and try to implement it. Levitt says: "It's an attempt to fool people. Trump's primary power is the power we give him when he asserts he is in control of everything, and we believe him." Trump wants people to capitulate in advance.
Jasleen Singh, a lawyer with the Brennan Center for Justice, makes it clear that Trump's actions against elections need to be taken seriously, but adds that we shouldn't be deceived by Trump's bluster: "The law is on our side. We have the right to vote. We have the right to participate ... Part of this is not letting voters forget the power that they have."
The Trump Regime pretends to be big and bad, but in reality it is weak. There is much fear of Trump "declaring martial law" and ending elections, but he has no substantial power to do so. The threat is more that he is after public support to undermine the legitimacy of elections -- though his declining popularity works against that.
Elizabeth Frost, a lawyer with the Marc Elias Law Group, says: "Everyone is seeing the polls. Literally none of [Trump's] policies are popular, so they are terrified of [elections]." Frost says they respond with more bluster:
QUOTE:
The more Trump can say that the vote count can't be trusted, the more it serves his purpose ... Either voters will be repressed by laws or they will be repressed by misinformation and made-up bombastic nonsense.
END_QUOTE
Levitt says, however, that Trump's legal actions against elections are unserious: "The quality of lawyering they are doing now is, in a word, garbage. You're going to see the [DOJ] lose a lot of cases, and these are cases they should lose."
DAYLOG TUE 11 NOV 25 / CAVING IN? There has been considerable fuss in the wake of a Senate deal to end the ongoing government shutdown, with 7 Democrats and an independent crossing the aisle to seal the deal.
Many on the Left were outraged at the deal: it came to no agreement on healthcare subsidies, with millions of Americans faced with losing coverage. The Dems did get restoration of SNAP / food stamp benefits, return of Federal employees to work, and full airline operations.
There was much unhappiness over what was described as "caving in", with demands that Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer resign -- even though he voted NO on the bill. The Senate Dems were seen as buckling under to Trump extortion. Following the recent "Blue Wave" in an odd-year general election, the Dems appeared to have capitulated for no good reason.
Yes, it was very disappointing -- but on reflection, the Dems were hardly on the threshold of a major win; the Dems care about citizens, Trump and the GOP do not. That would seem to be the message the Dems want to get out to the world. Besides, the budget deal only covers a few months: come 2026, the fight starts all over again. It looks like kicking the can down the road, seeking a more advantageous position for the fight.
* Commenter Laurence O'Donnell took a sympathetic view of the Democrats, saying that they had obtained concessions from Trump and the GOP on guaranteeing SNAP for a year, even increasing its budget, and ensuring Federal employees got back pay.
The deal has to go through the House next. Speaker Mike Johnson has been stalling on swearing in Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, but now says he will do so. That is very important, because she may provide the vote to subpoena the files relating to the late Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious sex trafficker of teen girls and good friend of Trump. Trump, who traditionally has never exerted himself to conceal his wrongdoing, has been extremely insistent on obscuring his relationship with Epstein.
O'Donnell also defends Chuck Schumer, pointing to the difficulty of being a Senate leader, a job often compared to "herding cats": nobody dictates terms to a senator. As O'Donnell points out, during the Biden years, Schumer was able to drive many wins in a Senate divided 50:50.
Sure, this is not a happy situation, but it's hard to say we're much worse off now than we were. We have a long-term struggle with the Trump Regime, and this is only a small part of it. A year from now, this incident is unlikely to seem all that significant, one way or another; it's just another piece of the long-term nightmare.
DAYLOG WED 12 NOV 25 / TROLLING FOR HIRE: Those who spend any real time online in social media know perfectly well how common trolls, spammers, and the like are -- but exactly who they are is rarely clear. As discussed in an article from FUTURISM ( "AI *Phone Farm* Startup Gets Funding from Marc Andreessen to Flood Social Media With Spam", by Joe Wilkins, 27 October 2025), a Bay Area startup named "Doublespeed" is upfront about selling services to troll and spam.
Doublespeed operates "phone farms" -- meaning racks of smartphones, each hosting a simulated AI user, to plaster social-media sites with AI-generated postings -- in the form of spam ads, social media messages, or fake reviews. Costs of the service range from $1,500 to $7,500 USD a month. It is not clear if Doublespeed provides support services such as fake accounts to generate LIKEs, forwards, and replies to get postings to trend.
Doublespeed is supported by a million-dollar cash injection from "a16z" AKA "Andreessen Horowitz" -- a venture capitalist firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz in 2009. Doublespeed's activities are violations of social-media rules, but social media seems to be ambivalent about content moderation, with the result that AI bot accounts are heavily polluting social media -- a phenomenon that tech critic Cory Doctorow calls "platform decay".
* I got to thinking about the contrast between the current AI era and the emergence of personal computing in the 1980s. Back then, there was a bottom-up ferment of technology that opened fun new doors for users -- video games, for example. The AI era, in contrast, seems to be driven from the top, with the tech bros working to replace existing digital and other services with AI services that are cheaper but schlocky -- and easily scaled up, resulting in "flooding the zone" with AI junk. It's not fun, it's creepy.
End users are fed "slop" like pigs at the trough. The sad fact is that AI really is a revolutionary technology that can do great things -- but it's been grossly oversold, used for jobs it does poorly. Will it work out better over the long run? In the case of Doublespeed, will there come a time when mass online fraud is illegal, and there are effective ways to defeat such spammers? Maybe in the time when robust online ID is normal, putting an end to fakes -- but we're not close to that yet.
DAYLOG THU 13 NOV 25 / NEWSOM IN BRAZIL: California Governor Gavin Newsom went to Belem, Brazil, for the "Conference of the Parties (COP) 30" meeting, the "parties" being signatories of the international agreement to deal with climate change. The Trump Regime regards climate change as a "con job" and didn't attend COP30. Newsom attended to show that the USA, despite Trump, still cares:
QUOTE:
The reason I'm here is in the absence of leadership coming from the United States. This vacuum. It's rather jaw-dropping. Not one representative. Not one. It's a global competitive responsibility for us to assert ourselves more forcefully in the absence of national leadership.
END_QUOTE
Newsom used the meeting to take his trademark shots at Trump, saying that Trump is "an invasive species, he's a wrecking-ball president. He's trying to roll back progress of the last century. He's trying to recreate the 19th century. He's doubling down on stupid."
Newsom said that Trump was handing leadership on climate change to China: "You know who is cheering, who is singing his praises? President Xi of China. They are sitting back and dominating supply chains, because they understand the great opportunity of clean energy."
Recently, Trump announced that the coast of California would be opened up to oil and gas drilling, with Newsom replying:
QUOTE:
Over my dead body, full stop. He said he wants to open up the coast of California, but he doesn't want oil-drilling rigs off the coast of Florida, not across the street from Mar-a-Lago. He's silent on that. But it's not going to happen. It's dead on arrival.
END_QUOTE
Newsom is one of 24 state governors in the US Climate Alliance, holding the line in the absence of the Federal government, and believes climate action "creates opportunity" for California. He admits that selling the idea to the public is a challenge:
QUOTE:
Climate change can seem abstract. We need to talk in terms that people understand. It's about people, places, lifestyles and traditions. If we put things in those terms, we can start winning people over.
END_QUOTE
As for Trump, Newsom says: "Trump is temporary, and I hope folks around the globe remember that. He will be remembered in years, not in decades. And he's reckless, he's chaotic, mercurial, and he's transactional, but people have to stand up. You stand up to a bully."
That's right: Trump is a temporary affliction. Unfortunately, we don't know how long "temporary" will last, and don't know how much damage will be done before he goes away.
DAYLOG FRI 14 NOV 25 / INTERNET RADIO REVISITED: Back in October, I discussed my discovery of and tinkerings with internet radio here. Now I've reached a stable state and have a system that works for me.
I'd been trying to survey online radio stations, but there are hundreds, maybe thousands of them. There's a master app named "TuneIn Radio" -- but on playing with it, it was unwieldy to use, and was so aggressive in displaying ads that it proved a nuisance. I have a range of interests in music, but not remotely extending to the full musical universe -- and so I gave up exploring, and am now focusing on two online radio stations: National Public Radio (NPR) and Soma FM out of San Francisco.
I mentioned the NPR app in October; its big feature is a list of NPR jazz stations across the USA. I did find a nice jazz radio app, with a notable set of French jazz stations, but the NPR app gives me most of what I need. I listen to jazz at mealtimes. I slip NPR some money on occasion.
Soma FM has a few dozen different channels, with a focus on electronic / ambient music, though it covers a broad range. I listen to the "Drone Zone" channel through the night, or occasionally "Space Station Soma". Soma is supported by donations; I've given them a bit of money as well.
I've got the NPR and Soma FM apps together on the tablet in my kitchen and a smartphone in my bedroom. I've also got a smartphone in my gym room playing trance music -- the pulsing beat of trance being good for workouts. That phone is old; I was originally using it in the bedroom, but it was too ancient to run the Soma app, so I switched it to the gym room.
I had to try a number of different trance radio apps before I found one that would work with the old phone. I've tinkered with different trance channels, but for now I've settled on "Trancebase FM", out of Moers, Germany. Listening to the DJs and ads in German is kind of fun, though I don't understand much of it. I could do well better with Japanese.
Shuffling the phones around turned out to be more work than I expected -- due to incompatibility with apps, cabling issues, and balky bluetooth. All three systems use bluetooth speakers, with some speakers pairing up more easily than others.
OK, I'm pretty much set now. While I was writing this, I did think of finding a station for 8-bit (chiptune) / game music, which would also be fun in the gym room. I searched around and found a little old app for "RainWave Radio", which installed OK on the old phone. It's something I listen to every now and then.
BTW, I was a bit puzzled early on that some online radio stations have a ".fm" domain name. FM radio domain? Naw, it stands for "Federation of Micronesia", with Micronesia cheerfully licensing its domain to online radio stations, for a modest fee.
[UPDATE: There's been a push on BlueSky to boycott the Spotify music-streaming system, because it's been running recruiting ads for ICE. I've been posting this article in replies to suggest alternatives to Spotify, and getting some response on it.]
BACK_TO_TOPDAYLOG MON 17 NOV 25 / CAVING IN REVISITED: Outrage over the deal the Senate Dems struck to end the government shutdown continues, with Chuck Schumer remaining the main target. The complaint is that Schumer could have won big, and then threw it all away for nothing.
Put briefly, however, no big win was in the cards: there was little chance of getting a deal through the Senate and then the House that Trump wouldn't would have then vetoed. Trump didn't care if the government was shut down. The Dems pushed the issue as far as they could, with Trump proving to the USA that he didn't care if SNAP / food stamp recipients went hungry, that Federal employees didn't get paid. The Dems did; having shown what was going on, the Dems had no good reason to drag out the shutdown.
Law blogger Jay Kuo suggested in a Substack essay that the Dems, as an opposition party, have two goals:
Back in March, the Dems completely caved in on a continuing resolution, standing back while Elon Musk worked to wreck the government. The Dems believed that shutting down the government might just make things worse. They looked spineless, and accomplished neither goal.
This time around, the Dems decided to stand fast, using their filibuster power to protest against Trump's disastrous efforts to wreck the healthcare system. They persisted for like 40 days, resulting in the longest US government shutdown in history.
The Senate Dems demonstrated their political power, but they could not affect serious change. Again, Trump discredited himself with the public by refusing to fund SNAP, with the Dems deciding they'd just cause useless suffering if they persisted. Kuo believes the Dems could have held out longer, but that might well have demonstrated they were willing to throw voters under the bus to make a political point. Yes, agreeing to pass the unsatisfactory bill made the Dems look bad, but what else was going to happen?
The Dems and Schumer are of course taking a lot of flak, but does it matter? In the end, the Trump Regime continues its decay in public opinion. The outrage against the Dems is hard to take seriously. It's not worth fighting over. All the Dems have really done is kicked the can down the road a few months. Come early next year, the fight starts all over again. It's hard to say what will happen then, but it is easy to think Trump will be in a worse position than he is now.
DAYLOG TUE 18 NOV 25 / AI CRACKDOWN: The introduction of a new generation of artificial intelligence technology over the past few years has proven troublesome, with governments considering regulations to bring AI tech under control.
As discussed in an article from FUTURISM ("China Is Cracking Down on AI Slop" by Joe Wilkins, 14 November 2025), China is taking a lead in AI regulation under a "Clean Up the Internet: Rectifying the Abuse of AI Technology" campaign.
There are two big problems with AI tech: plagiarism and misinformation. In the present case, China is focusing on misinformation, having already required that AI content be labeled, that all synthetic data to be clearly identified as such. I would think that means, say, AI and images videos have to carry a watermark. Now the rules are being extended to forbid using AI to spread rumors, generate pornographic or violent images, impersonate others, abuse minors, and to troll online or manipulate web traffic. The European Union is working along similar lines, while the US is lagging.
PICHAI ON AI BUBBLE: In the meantime, the AI industry appears to be nearing a "bubble" crisis, with massive investments in the technology far outstripping current financial return. In an interview with the BBC, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said there was some "irrationality" in the current AI boom. He felt Google could weather a crash, but cautioned: "I think no company is going to be immune, including us."
Pichai referred to the "dot-com" bubble of the late 1990s, when an excess of enthusiasm for the internet led to an economic crash -- but noted that didn't mean the internet became a dead end. He believes that, in the wider view, things aren't so much different for AI: "I expect AI to be the same. So I think it's both rational and there are elements of irrationality through a moment like this." That echoed Jamie Dimon, boss of US bank JP Morgan, who told the BBC in October that AI would pay off -- but some money would "probably be lost".
Pichai felt that Google's broad-based AI effort -- the company makes its own AI chips, while conducting research on a number of AI fronts -- would allow it to weather a storm. He does have major concerns, in particular the need to expand energy generation to support AI. The International Energy Agency estimated that AI soaked up 1.5% of the world's electricity consumption in 2024. Pichai still believes that AI is indeed a revolutionary technology, and those who can determine how best to use it will have a crucial advantage.
DAYLOG WED 19 NOV 25 / LENACAPAVIR AGAINST HIV: As discussed in an article from NPR ("A breakthrough drug to prevent HIV, an unprecedented rollout" by Jonathan Lambert, 18 November 2025), for years the USA provided aid to help control HIV in the developing world.
The Trump Regime decided to halt that aid -- but now the USA is coming back to the fight, with the US State Department approving the use in two African countries of a new HIV-control drug named "lenacapavir", developed by Gilead Sciences. The drug, which is injected into the abdomen or thigh, only needs to be administered twice a year to provide to block HIV infection. The drug does not activate the immune system against HIV, it instead jams the assembly of the virus in the cell.
The State Department authorized sending Eswatini and Zambia 500 doses of lenacapavir each. Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), a global HIV prevention organization, praises the quick deployment of the new drug. Warren adds: "Obviously very small supplies, really just a down payment, but they're the first of what we think to be many doses in these two countries and in other countries."
The delivered doses are the first step towards providing at least 2 million doses to countries afflicted by HIV, most of them in Africa. The plan is being driven by the Global Fund -- an international NGO that works to combat HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria in the developing world. The Global Fund is collaborating with Gilead and the State Department to make the plan happen. Gilead is providing the drug at cost, not making any profit on it, with the drug eventually to be produced by licensed generic manufacturers.
The State Department's involvement is welcome, but as Warren points out, the Trump Regime's foreign aid cuts not only boosted the spread of HIV, but also undermined the systems and programs needed to distribute lenacapavir. National health ministries will administer the drug, but NGOs such as AVAC are involved as well, and they've been hurt by funding cuts. Warren says: "We are starting from a deficit that we didn't have to, that was a making entirely of the US government's own."
Lenacapavir amounts to two big steps forward in the face of one big step back. Gilead officials say the next countries to get the drug will be Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, with more countries being lined up.
DAYLOG THU 20 NOV 25 / PUTIN'S SABOTEURS: As discussed in an article from EURONEWS ("Low-level agents in Germany: Russia's covert shadow force" by Johanna Urbancik, 27 October 2025), while Russian President Vladimir Putin conducts his war in Ukraine, he's also conducting a covert war against Ukraine's European allies. Such actions are most visible in ongoing drone incursions over European military, critical infrastructure, and civilian facilities -- such as major airports.
The drones haven't inflicted any serious damage, but they are highly disruptive, for example interfering with airport operations. Nobody has been able to prove Russia is sending the drones, but nobody doubts it either.
Some of the drones are military types -- but some are off-the-shelf civilian types, it seems operated by "low-level agents (LLA)" on the margins of Russian intelligence networks. The LLAs are recruited on social media, particularly Telegram, being paid small sums to carry out minor tasks such as flying drones, setting fires, sticking up propaganda stickers and spraying graffiti, or causing other kinds of damage. The LLAs are typically male and uneducated.
They may be sympathetic to Russia, but they're mostly in it for the money. They don't know who they're really working for, and don't really care as long as they get paid. They don't do much real harm, but they're destabilizing; they make trouble on the cheap.
During recent German elections, over 270 cars across several German states were plastered with spray foam and stickers featuring the likeness of Green Party chancellor candidate Robert Habeck, along with the slogan: "BE GREENER". DER SPIEGEL investigated and unsurprisingly determined the exercise was a Russian sabotage campaign. More dramatically, one "Dieter S." was arrested after signing a contract to carry out explosive and incendiary attacks on military, infrastructure, and industrial sites in Germany. The goal was to disrupt German support for Ukraine, one proposed target being a rail line used for arms shipments to Ukraine.
The Russians are increasingly relying on the amateurish LLAs because tighter security measures have made it much harder for the Russians to deploy professional agents. LLAs end up being more a sign of Russian weakness than strength. Security professionals call the Kremlin's use of LLAs as "acts of desperation". Dr. Hans Jakob Schindler, terrorism expert and head of the international Counter Extremism Project, says that the Russians see the LLAs as completely expendable: "Low-level agents are 'discarded' in every sense. Their only aim is to create uncertainty and gather information."
LLAs who get caught can face severe penalties, ranging in Germany to up to five years in prison for "anti-constitutional sabotage", and up to ten years for "espionage-related activities" -- though, as a good rule, the LLAs don't do much spying, they're just hired as troublemakers. Of course, those who recruited the LLAs remain out of reach.
DAYLOG FRI 21 NOV 25 / TRUMP SINKS: It has long seemed that Trump's popularity with American voters couldn't be dented, but now his support, is collapsing. Jay Kuo, in an essay on THE BIG PICTURE ("The Great Unraveling", 18 November 2025), suggests why.
Kuo points to four big reasons.
Republicans in Congress, it seems influenced by Trump's sinking poll numbers and Democratic success in the November elections, were highly supportive in the vote to release the Epstein files. Incidentally, it's not clear how much help the House Dems will get out of the files -- but they've got no shortage of other evidence, so the push to release the files may be mostly to get under Trump's skin.
In any case, the idea of a third Trump impeachment, one that might actually work, is no longer preposterous. Trump's obvious physical and mental decline likely factors into his declining popularity as well. Just this week, he told a female journalist: "Quiet, Piggy." -- and talked about hanging six Democrat critics. These days, such comments are no longer being ignored.
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