Five signs of an AI apocalypse; Fed workers get temporary reprieve; Trumpism without Trump; why stupid people are more dangerous than criminals
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Judge temporarily blocks the Trump administration from firing workers during the government shutdown. “It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost,” the judge said. “It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”
JD Vance just gave us a preview of Trumpism without Trump. The vice president doesn’t see why full-grown Republican men should have to apologize for being racist Hitler lovers.
Opinion: Trump says he ‘defeated’ inflation — so why do prices keep going up? This year will come to be known as the year everything in the country got more expensive.
Trump sinks underwater in every swing state in new polling. Trump’s net approval is now negative across all seven battlegrounds expected to decide the 2026 election — Pennsylvania (-2), Michigan (-5), Wisconsin (-8), Arizona (-2), Georgia (-1), Nevada (-3), and North Carolina (-3).
Legal questions arise as many airports refuse to play Kristi Noem’s shutdown message blaming Democrats. The video raises questions about whether it can be legally played, if the Department of Homeland Security can require airports to show it, and what happens if airports refuse.
I’m suffering from Trump fatigue… if you want a running play-by-play, go here.
Google will let you hide sponsored results in search — after you’ve seen them.
Why stupid people are more dangerous than criminals. (Video)
Signs of the AI Apocalypse:
Top US Army general says he’s letting ChatGPT make military decisions. (Video)
Over 50 percent of the Internet is now AI slop, new data finds.
Parasitic startup pollutes job market by applying to jobs for you automatically. “What if everyone applied to every job?”
Man embraces AI at work, gets rewarded by boss replacing him with it.
Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults. OpenAI will bring ‘erotica’ to ChatGPT once it rolls out age verification in December.
Late Night
Keep scrolling down. Lots of interesting stuff in On This Day, Birthdays, and Deaths.
Quote of the Day:
I used to think getting old was about vanity- but actually it’s about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial.
--Eugene O’Neill (Wikipedia link)
(More Eugene O’Neill quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Boss’s Day, Conflict Resolution Day, Dictionary Day, Get to Know Your Customers Day, Global Cat Day, International Credit Union Day, International ShakeOut Day, National Boss Day, National Cut Up Your Credit Card Day, National Department Store Day, National Dictionary Day, National Get Smart About Credit Day, National Learn a Word Day, National Liqueur Day, National Sports Day, Purple Thursday, Spirit Day, Steve Jobs Day, World Anesthesia Day, World Bread Day, World Food Day, World Restart a Heart Day, and World Spine Day.
Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA. (Not currently updating due to government shutdown.)
On This Day:
1996 – Eighty-four football fans died and 180 were injured in a massive crush at a match in Guatemala City.
1995 – The Million Man March took place in Washington, D.C. About 837,000 attended.
1991 – George Hennard ran amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20.
1987 – Baby Jessica McClure was rescued from a well in Midland, Texas after being trapped for 58 hours. (Video)
1984 – Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1978 – Cardinal Karol Wojtyła was elected to the papacy as Pope John Paul II, he becomes the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.
1975 – Three-year-old Rahima Banu, from Bangladesh, was the last known case of naturally occurring smallpox.
1973 – Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1970 – Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act during the October Crisis.
1970 – Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber released the “Jesus Christ Superstar” concept album. (Video)
1968 – Tommie Smith and John Carlos were ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute.
1964 – Leonid Brezhnev became leader of the Soviet Communist Party.
1964 – China detonated its first nuclear weapon.
1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis begins: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing nuclear missiles (the crisis will last for 13 days starting from this point).
1958 – Chevrolet introduced the El Camino.
1946 – Nuremberg trials: Ten defendants found guilty by the International Military Tribunal were executed by hanging.
1934 – Chinese Communists began the Long March to escape Nationalist encirclement.
1923 – Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, today known as The Walt Disney Company.
1919 – Adolf Hitler delivered his first public address at a meeting of the German Workers’ Party.
1916 – Margaret Sanger opened the first family planning clinic in the United States.
1875 – Brigham Young University was founded in Provo, Utah.
1869 – The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, was “discovered”.
1859 – Abolitionist John Brown and his supporters launch a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).
1846 – William T. G. Morton administered ether anesthesia during a surgical operation. He is credited with gaining the medical world’s acceptance of surgical anesthesia.
1817 – Italian explorer and archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni, uncovered the Tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings.
1793 – French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1997 – Naomi Osaka, Japanese tennis player
1969 – Wendy Wilson, American singer-songwriter
1968 – Todd Stashwick, American actor and writer
1958 – Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1947 – David Zucker, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1946 – Suzanne Somers, American actress and producer (died 2023)
1940 – Barry Corbin, American actor and producer
1931 – Charles Colson, American lawyer and politician (died 2012)
1928 – Ann Morgan Guilbert, American actress (died 2016)
1925 – Angela Lansbury, English-American actress, singer, and producer (died 2022)
1923 – Bert Kaempfert, German conductor and composer (died 1980)
1898 – William O. Douglas, American lawyer and jurist (died 1980)
1888 – Eugene O’Neill, American playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1953)
1886 – David Ben-Gurion, Polish-Israeli soldier and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Israel (died 1973)
1854 – Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, novelist, and poet (died 1900)
1831 – Lucy Stanton, American activist (died 1910)
1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer (died 1843)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2017 – Roy Dotrice, British actor (born 1923)
2010 – Barbara Billingsley, American actress (born 1915) (Video)
2007 – Deborah Kerr, Scottish actress (born 1921) (Video)
2004 – Pierre Salinger, American journalist and politician, 11th White House Press Secretary (born 1925)
2001 – Etta Jones, American singer-songwriter (born 1928)
1999 – Jean Shepherd, American radio host, actor, and screenwriter (born 1921)
1998 – Jon Postel, American computer scientist and academic (born 1943)
1997 – James A. Michener, American author and philanthropist (born 1907)
1997 – Audra Lindley, American actress (born 1918)
1992 – Shirley Booth, American actress and singer (born 1898)
1989 – Cornel Wilde, American actor (born 1912)
1981 – Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and politician (born 1915)
1978 – Dan Dailey, American actor, singer, dancer, and director (born 1913)
1973 – Gene Krupa, American drummer, composer, and actor (born 1909)
1972 – Leo G. Carroll, English-American actor (born 1886)
1959 – George Marshall, American general and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Defense, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1880)
1793 – Marie Antoinette, Austrian-born queen consort of Louis XVI of France (born 1755)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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Excellent analysis; your elucidation of the profound human cost inherent in reckless governance is particulary salient.