SO MUCH RACISM: ‘Whites are psychopaths’ guest lecture at UCSF draws outrage.
Archive for 2024
February 15, 2024
THIS KEEPS HAPPENING: Another Harvard employee accused of plagiarism: ‘Especially worrisome.’
THEY CUT TAXES AND REGULATION. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT WAS AS NATURAL AS DAWN FOLLOWING NIGHT: Moving to Florida could save Jeff Bezos at least $600 million. How Florida became ‘nirvana’ for the superrich.
According to another filing with Securities and Exchange Commission, Bezos plans to sell 50 million Amazon shares total before Jan. 31, 2025, worth an estimated $8.5 billion (this initial sale was around 12 million shares). If all goes to plan—and assuming Amazon’s stock price stays the same—he will save around $600 million in taxes.
And that’s all short term. Bezos’s move to Florida also will save him significantly because the state doesn’t have an estate tax, says John Pantekidis, managing partner and general counsel at TwinFocus, which manages over $7 billion for ultrahigh-net-worth (UHNW) families. These benefits combined make the sunshine state an increasingly attractive place for high-net-worth and UHNW families to establish residence.
“For someone with that much wealth, just the estate tax savings alone can be $10 billion, never mind the income tax savings, which is ongoing,” Pantekidis says. “Florida is very, very favorable for someone like Jeff Bezos. They make it very cost effective for folks like Jeff to live down there. It’s ideal, it’s nirvana.”
It isn’t like any of this is a secret. Some states just choose to be stupid.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Super Cool That ‘Principled’ House GOP Majority Gave a Seat to the Dems. “People who disagree with me will no doubt say that George Santos’s wrongdoings were well beyond the level of foibles. Let’s just say that my definition foible when considering the behavior of people on my side will be greatly expanded during for the duration of this constitutional peril.”
12 HOURS ISN’T EVEN INTERMITTENT FASTING:
12 hours is all these fat spoiled children could stand? @thecrimson https://t.co/rzeBoYc90s
— Nick Searcy, RESURRECTIONAL FILM & TELEVISION STAR (@yesnicksearcy) February 14, 2024
21ST CENTURY DATING: Your AI Girlfriend Is a Data-Harvesting Horror Show.
“To be perfectly blunt, AI girlfriends and boyfriends are not your friends,” said Misha Rykov, a Mozilla Researcher, in a press statement. “Although they are marketed as something that will enhance your mental health and well-being, they specialize in delivering dependency, loneliness, and toxicity, all while prying as much data as possible from you.”
Mozilla dug into 11 different AI romance chatbots, including popular apps such as Replika, Chai, Romantic AI, EVA AI Chat Bot & Soulmate, and CrushOn.AI. Every single one earned the Privacy Not Included label, putting these chatbots among the worst categories of products Mozilla has ever reviewed. The apps mentioned in this story didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
You’ve heard stories about data problems before, but according to Mozilla, AI girlfriends violate your privacy in “disturbing new ways.” For example, CrushOn.AI collects details including information about sexual health, use of medication, and gender-affirming care. 90% of the apps may sell or share user data for targeted ads and other purposes, and more than half won’t let you delete the data they collect. Security was also a problem. Only one app, Genesia AI Friend & Partner, met Mozilla’s minimum security standards.
One of the more striking findings came when Mozilla counted the trackers in these apps, little bits of code that collect data and share them with other companies for advertising and other purposes. Mozilla found the AI girlfriend apps used an average of 2,663 trackers per minute, though that number was driven up by Romantic AI, which called a whopping 24,354 trackers in just one minute of using the app.
An online app knows everything you tell it — and can surmise much more — and once that data is out there, it’s out there.
I SURE WOULD LIKE TO LEAVE CALIFORNIA AFTER THIS … MAYBE TEXAS OR SOUTH CAROLINA: I’ve told Instapundit readers a bit about ACA7 already. It’s the new proposal to nullify Proposition 209–the 1996 initiative that banned preferential treatment based on race, sex, and ethnicity.
ACA7 passed the Assembly in this past fall. We’re trying to stop it in the Senate. That would save everyone a lot of time and money. Referendum campaigns are very expensive and time consuming. If we fail to stop ACA7 in the Senate, it will be on the ballot in November, and 2024 will be a wasted year for me and my fellow “NO on ACA7” volunteers. I don’t mean wasted in the sense of doing something useless … opposing ACA7 is important … but wasted in the sense that we shouldn’t have defend Prop 209 TWICE.
As you may recall, the last effort to repeal Proposition 209 was less than four years ago. That effort (known as Prop 16) was well financed. The proponents of the repeal had more than 14 times the amount of money we had. But we beat the pants off ’em anyway. Over 57% of voters rejected it.
Three differences could matter this time–one that cuts against us and two that cut against ACA7. It’s much trickier than Prop 16 was, and that’s a problem for us. It purports to just create a procedure for making exceptions to Prop 209. In practice, the exceptions will swallow the rule. We’ll need to work hard to make sure voters understand that. The good news is that we have excellent reason to believe that we will be better financed than last time. Last time, big donors thought we were going to lose. They didn’t want to waste their money. Now they see that we can win, and some are excited to help. The second thing that cuts against ACA7 is that this time around it is associated with the reparations movement. Reparations are not exactly a popular cause. California wasn’t even a slave state. But the California Legislature’s Black Caucus has designated ACA7 as part of its “2024 Reparations Legislative Package,” so I guess they think it will fly.
Maybe they were misled by the report of the California Task Force on Reparations, which claims that over 60% of Californians support reparations. But they only got that number by asking a loaded question:
The California Reparations Report claims that over 60% of Californians favor reparations. But that’s because they asked this LOADED question: “For the atrocities in California, I support/oppose the following specific measures for eligible Blacks.” That’s grossly misleading.… pic.twitter.com/3gBkknnKWk
— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) February 13, 2024
A much more professional poll showed that Californians oppose cash reparations by more than a 2 to 1 margin. That poll showed the support for other kinds of reparations was weak too. Only 29% of those polled thought Calif was doing “too little” for African Americans. By contrast, 48% said either “too much” or “about the right amount.” With those numbers, it is very unlikely that a majority can be mustered for reparations of any kind.
If you’re so inclined, please sign the petition, email senators, and/or like/retweet my tagged “No on ACA7” tweets. The software for emailing senators allows you to either send a form letter or copy the senators’ addresses and transfer them over to your own email system where you can write your own message.
Meanwhile, I’m going to Sacramento today to talk to Senators and their staff members. Wish me luck.
SALLY KORNBLUTH NEEDS TO GO: MIT Leaders Assembled a Faculty Advisory Group on Campus Anti-Semitism. Then They Ignored It.
WELL, GOOD: U.S. missile-defense satellites headed for low-Earth orbit. “The U.S. military partnered with SpaceX to launch a half dozen missile-defense satellites into orbit Wednesday in an effort to protect the United States against hypersonic missile attacks.”
THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX launches private lunar lander on eight-day journey to the moon.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: The PRC Peacetime Island Hopping Continues: …who is paying who? “Remember all those island groups we had to fight through in WWII? The planet still looks the same and the importance of geography has not changed. Cleo Paskal posted on X a Letter from President of Palau, Surangel Whipps, Jr. about the huge problem we have because the USA has not passed Compacts of Free Association. From this seat, this obtuse strategic malpractice by DC is almost as if executed on behalf of the People’s Republic of China. Read the letter and then ponder what is going on in DC that we are giving this gift to the PRC.”
When you understand that much of our leadership is on the payroll it all makes sense.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Meet the New Air Force, Same As the Old Air Force (Except Not Really). “The United States Air Force is about to fly into strange and uncharted territory with a bomber fleet that is part older than I am, part bleeding edge, more capable than ever — and still too small.”
I FEEL LIKE NOT LONG AGO BYSTANDERS WOULD HAVE ADMINISTERED BEATDOWNS TO THESE VANDALS HERE AND ABROAD, AND THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD THING: I’m Done With These Children and Their Tantrums: Climate Freaks Douse Constitution’s Case With Red Powder.
AT AMAZON, Shop the President’s Day Sale. #CommissionEarned
BOOM: Musk Says SpaceX Has Moved State Of Incorporation To Texas Amid Feud With Delaware.
The company made a filing with the Texas Secretary of State earlier on Wednesday to request the move.
In a post on X later in the day, Musk said the rocket company has “moved its state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas,” and shared a screenshot of a certificate from the Secretary of State’s office acknowledging SpaceX’s filing.
Musk also took a shot at Delaware, telling those with a company incorporated in the state: “I recommend moving to another state as soon as possible.”
Musk later shared a fan-made animated graphic of the SpaceX logo with a Texas map.
A day earlier, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reacted to news reports of SpaceX’s, saying on X: “Welcome Home!”
Delaware made a lot of money over the years being friendly to business. But it only took one hostile act to start changing that.
CDR SALAMANDER: War in the West Pacific? Really? You & What PGM Inventory? “We’ve talked for years about our shallow magazines; filled via the unholy coupling of peacetime accountants and pliable war planners selling the 72-hour war & Deterrence by Punishment snake-oil. No one goes to opening day of dove season with only a half-dozen shells, and no one should plan for a Great Pacific War like we have.”
THERE ARE SO MANY: Border crisis now No. 1 reason people don’t like Biden.
#CommissionEarned
A man whose debts must be paid by vengeance. A woman desperate to save her husband. A grieving father finding a young enemy soldier on his veritable doorstep…
These fantasy and soft sci-fi stories wonder whether or not heroes need families. Are we not told that families slow the hero down? Is it not typically implied that they get in the way of the adventure? Are they a burden, or truly the greatest strength from which the hero and those he loves can draw?
Six tales in this collection center on family, faith, and self-sacrificing love as men and women fight for the ones whom they hold most dear. Whether the enemy is inner turmoil, a nightmare, or a demon really does not matter. If the threat seeks to harm a member of the family, it is going to pay dearly.
WHAT HE SAID: Taking Trump Seriously.