The Aiken formula

by liberal japonicus GftNC links to this article from the Independent about the surge being wound down. The Trump administration is ending the “surge” of thousands of immigration and law enforcement agents to Minnesota that sparked months of protests and led to the shooting deaths of two American citizens who were protesting the federal presence there. Homan goes on … Read more

What fresh hell is this?

by liberal japonicus From this article South Africans love a bit of online chaos, but this week’s trending clip of Trevor Noah took things to a whole new level. A hyper-realistic AI generated video surfaced on social media showing the Grammys host refusing to apologise to Nicki Minaj for a joke he made about her. … Read more

Unsure on the definition of ‘torn’

by liberal japonicus The discussion has shifted in the comments a bit to what it takes to move the Maga base, so I thought I’d put this up. I’m a fan of the NYT daily, (and Michael Babaro’s vocal fry!) but this one is rather depressing. Entitled Why Trump Voters Are Torn Over Minneapolis, after … Read more

Separated by a common language

by liberal japonicus I’m watching the UK meltdown over Peter Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein as well as Andrew Montbatten and am totally astonished that it seems siloed over in Europe. I’m at a loss which youtube videos and articles to share, but I open us this thread for your thoughts. A couple of things I’m … Read more

Bingeing on schadenfreude

by liberal japonicus From the creators of Jmail The creators (Riley Walz and Luke Igel) have expanded the project into a suite of “J-apps” to handle the different types of data in the 2026 release: Jmail.world: Continues to be the primary hub for emails. As of February 2, it has been updated with the latest … Read more

What’cha doing?

by liberal japonicus In one of my favorite programs, Phineas and Ferb, one of the characters always asks the eponymous pair this question and they reply with what they have planned, including a time machine, a portal to Mars, and equipping Santa’s sleigh with a gift cannon. This flippant title is to introduce GftNC’s recommended … Read more

Adam Tooze

by liberal japonicus I’ve mentioned my frustration with Klein a few times, but I was grateful to hear his talk with Adam Tooze. I think the title is rather misleading which continues to hang on to the idea that the US is central, because most of the podcast is about China. Here is the transcript … Read more

When will someone take this approach with our administration

by liberal japonicus Via Language Log, this jaw-dropping article analyzes video footage of appearances of Kim Jong Un’s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, to draw conclusions about her place in the North Korean inner circle. Using facial-recognition technology driven by artificial intelligence, Nikkei identified scenes in which Kim Ju Ae appeared out of 14,115 hours of … Read more