Malazan Empire: Azath Vitr (D'ivers - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

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From Trump's Truth Social posts:

Trump has planned an advertising blitz to try to make the midterms all about him, and Republicans are (very reluctantly) going along with it.

If people still associate Trump with his old reality TV catch phrase ("You're Fired"), that combined with his support for minimal regulations on data centers and AI could backfire spectacularly, because AGI for computer use has reportedly been achieved---just in time for Labor Day. Granted, so far that's only according to OpenAI and Nvidia; we'll find out soon whether it's being drastically overhyped or not. And Trump could try to intervene to postpone or restrict its adoption, while also deploying swarms of AI agents and deepfakes for propaganda purposes. He hasn't been shy about sending out checks in the past either, so perhaps he'll do that for laid off workers (with his name on every check again).

The mass firings and reduction in job openings will most likely be concentrated among young people who tend to be disproportionately left-leaning anyway, and may motivate them to vote in much larger numbers than usual. At least they won't have to deal with having to work on election day.

Of course, in-depth discussion of AI should be relegated to the dedicated thread, but the political significance of this development seems at least worth mentioning here.

https://forum.malaza...n/page__st__180

The Guardian article on Geese today had me give Getting Killed another listen... I still think the studio album sounds bad and boring, his voice sounds terrible on it, and the lyrics aren't all that great (even as satire). But the live performance the article links to is actually pretty good. Much better vocal sound (less burning goose, more Jim Morrison crossed with Bob Dylan---though it gets a bit irritating on Husbands when he switches from the Electro-Voice RE20 microphone (also used by Thom Yorke and Kurt Cobain among others) to the (bog) standard issue cheapo SM58 which is too bright on his voice), much better (and more lively) instrumental sound, generally better mix (more dynamic range helps---studio album dynamics suffer from being too squashed), and better performance too:



It felt as if the world had tired of rock music, yet Geese are the perfect soundtrack for this age of disquiet | John Harris | The Guardian

Still a bit overhyped (especially in terms of lyrics and originality), but that recording at least doesn't suck (for the most part).

Garak, on 06 September 2026 - 06:10 PM, said:

While I'm generally opposed to guns for civilians, I will grant that if that sniper rifle had been a sniper machine gun it might have taken out the insane tyrant who's threatening to end all trade with Canada, Mexico, China, Romania, and every other country that the US has a trade deficit with unless the federal reserve---which is supposed to be independent and immune from interference by the president---does his bidding and lowers interest rates. Unfortunately legal experts say Trump probably does have the legal authority to unilaterally enact a trade embargo.

Of course most of those ardent libertarian "freedom fighters" who voted for Trump will be happy so long as he lets them have all the guns and pollution they can handle...

Oh I get it now, by "freedom fighters" he means "people fighting against freedom" for people who aren't Trump or themselves.