Tom of Temecula
Tom of Temecula's JournalUS agency will not reinstate $900 mln subsidy for SpaceX Starlink unit
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday reaffirmed its 2022 decision to deny SpaceX satellite internet unit Starlink $885.5 million in rural broadband subsidies.
The FCC said the decision impacting Elon Musk's space company was based on Starlink's failure to meet basic program requirements and that Starlink could not demonstrate it could deliver promised service after SpaceX had challeged the 2022 decision. "The FCC followed a careful legal, technical and policy review to determine that this applicant had failed to meet its burden," FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said.
The FCC cited among its reasons SpaceX's failure to successfully launch its Starship rocket, saying "the uncertain nature of Starship's future launches could impact Starlink's ability to meet" its obligations.
The FCC had rescined the funding in August 2022 based on speed-tset data after Starlink had agreed to provide high-speed Internet service to 642,000 rural homes and businesses in 35 states.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/us-agency-will-not-reinstate-900-mln-subsidy-spacex-starlink-unit-2023-12-13/
I know that is not the point here, but it is time Elmo no longer receives our tax money.
Rudy Giuliani attacks poll workers' lawyers -- and claims they're tied to Hunter Biden
Fresh from the latest day of the civil trial brought against Rudy Giuliani by Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, Giuliani declined to discuss the case directly with reporters — but he lashed out at Freeman and Moss' attorneys, and claimed they had ties to Hunter Biden, reported Politico's Kyle Cheney.
Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and mayor of New York City who helped former President Donald Trump push conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, is accused of defaming Freeman and Moss with false claims that they were stuffing ballots during the vote count in Atlanta. A judge has already found for the poll workers on summary judgment, and the remainder of the trial is about assessing damages.
"I'm not going to discuss the case right now because it seems to get the judge annoyed," said Giuliani to reporters. "The reality is that I've never seen that many lawyers ... [from] the most expensive law firm in America, this is multi millions of dollars being spent, it can't be ignored that the chief lawyer represented Burisma and is close to Hunter Biden."
"Gottlieb represented the crooked company Burisma, which is alleged to have paid $5 million to Hunter Biden and $5 million to Joe Biden in a communication to a highly reliable FBI source," Giuliani continued.
https://www.rawstory.com/giuliani-2666572621/
"Burn Them All Down": In leaked memo, Amazon fumed over piece by Riverside artist
At The Cheech in Riverside early this year, an anti-warehousing exhibit, “Life Logistics,” which featured 20 San Bernardino-area artists, took on the Inland Empire logistics industry. The piece that grabbed me the most was a stylized image in triplicate of an Amazon warehouse in flames, surrounded by the slogan “Burn Them All Down.”
Artist Toni Sanchez of Riverside was happy to tell me about it and to pose for a photo. She and her provocative art led my March 12 column on the exhibit. Then we all moved on. Or did we? It turns out that “Burn Them All Down,” and my interview with Sanchez, made Amazon hot under the collar.
The company, as you may have heard, says it will no longer donate to The Cheech. That was one revelation in a leaked, eight-page document — a “community engagement plan” — that outlines the company’s hearts-and-minds strategy to win the Inland Empire to its side. The Associated Press confirmed the memo’s authenticity and Amazon hasn’t disputed it.
In 2024, Amazon’s internal memo sniffs, “we will not fund organizations that have positioned themselves antagonistically toward our interests.
https://www.sbsun.com/2023/12/12/in-leaked-memo-amazon-fumed-over-piece-by-riverside-artist/
https://twitter.com/sbsun/status/1734660687866077638
Trump Is Now Selling Pieces of His Georgia Mugshot Suit
Donald Trump has come up with a new way to monetize the Georgia election case against him: selling pieces of the suit he wore for his Fulton County Jail mugshot photo.
The former president hyped his latest fundraising effort in a message posted to Truth Social on Tuesday. But according to the message, supporters will have to buy 47 NFTs, or “TRUMP DIGITAL TRADING CARDS,” in order to receive the clothing item. “Don’t wait, they’ll go FAST (I believe!),” he added.
The Trump digital trading cards website says customers who splash the cash on the Mugshot Edition NFTs, which cost $99 each, will get, along with the piece of the suit, the chance to have dinner with the former president at Mar-a-Lago, one of only 2,024 available physical trading cards that may be autographed, a Commemorative Dinner NFT card, a signed poster from NFT artist Clark Mitchell, a hoodie, and a presidential pen.
In his advertisement video posted on the same website, collectrumpcards.com, he said the Mugshot Edition NFT was “a true collector’s item” and “something to give to your family, to your kids, and grandchildren.” He continued, “Some people call these cards pop art or modern art… They give me muscles where, believe me, I don’t have them.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-is-now-selling-pieces-of-his-georgia-mugshot-suit#:~:text=Donald%20Trump%20has%20come%20up,to%20Truth%20Social%20on%20Tuesday.
https://collecttrumpcards.com/#Suit
Tucker Carlson Addresses Trump Running Mate Speculation With Next-Level Toadying
Former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson has poured cold water on speculation that he may join former President Donald Trump on the Republican 2024 ticket. Trump himself has suggested he may be open to the idea of the conspiracy theorist — who frequently promoted racist and far-right talking points on his prime-time Fox show until he was fired in April — as his running mate if he secures the Republican nomination.
But when fellow Fox alum Megyn Kelly asked Carlson on her SiriusXM show on Monday if he would serve as Trump’s right-hand-man if requested, Carlson said it would be “so unimaginable.” “I mean, I haven’t led a life that prepares a person for politics,” Carlson told Kelly. “As I said, I don’t think I have any horrible skeletons or anything. It’s not that. It’s just that that’s not how my brain works. I’ve never done anything like that. I can’t imagine spending time with politicians.”
In private messages that were released in March as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Carlson said he hated Trump “passionately.”
To Kelly on Monday, though, Carlson ― who on the same day launched his own streaming platform ― had nothing but praise for the four-times-indicted former president. “I’m a total sucker for Trump,” he claimed. “Personally, I get along with Trump really well. The closer I am physically to Trump, like if I’m with him in the room, I always love Trump and I think it’s impossible not to, and you know the experience. He’s just charming.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tucker-carlson-trump-running-mate-speculation_n_65783195e4b0881b79186748
SIPHONING: Expert witnesses are draining Trump's defense funds
Every civil attorney knows that some portion of the case is going to require expert testimony, whether it is a medical malpractice suit or a case involving a special part of a complex machine, an expert will be required — and it’s no different for Donald Trump other than the fact that he’s had multiple cases involving multiple witnesses.
The other thing about expert witnesses is that they cost a fortune. Their bills are as timely as they are high.Trump has already had to shell out $2.5 million in expert witness fees over the last 30 days, and that figure will likely triple over the next six months. It is not surprising that Trump has paid an amount most would consider enough for a very nice retirement account.
Experts are the only type of witnesses who can provide opinion testimony. The guy who saw the car crash cannot say, “In my opinion, the red car was going so fast that the blue car didn’t have time to get out of the way… ” No. The witness is a fact witness, and the jury understands matters generally known by the public.
However, an expert who possesses specialized knowledge, including how banks evaluate the terms of a loan, can testify as to their opinion to the jury, such as, “In my opinion, a bank can’t properly do its due diligence based on false numbers and risks losing a ton of shareholder money.”
https://occupydemocrats.com/2023/12/12/expert-witnesses-draining-trump-funds/
Elon Musk Vows To Lobotomize His AI So It Stops Being Left Wing - Promises To Take "Immediate Action."
On Friday, X owner Elon Musk announced that his new venture xAI's foulmouthed chatbot Grok would become available to X subscribers. But despite promising that the chatbot would be "anti-woke," the bot quickly turned out to be anything but. After Musk's fanboys gave the tool for a spin, they were appalled to find it arguing that trans women are real women and that "diversity and inclusion are essential for creating a fair and equitable society." The absolute horror!
Unsurprisingly, Musk, who has long championed turning his social media platform into a cesspool of regressive and downright racist ideology and conspiracy theories, promised to take "immediate action to shift Grok closer to politically neutral." The mercurial CEO's comments were in response to a chart showing the results of a "Political Compass Test," shared by research scientist David Rozado, which showed that Grok was even further left-leaning than OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Musk's pandering shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody at this point. The entrepreneur has repeatedly bent over backward to appeal to his increasingly far-right-leaning fanbase on X, from claiming that he was afraid of shooting cops in video games to inviting renowned sex trafficker Andrew Tate and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, best known for harassing the surviving family members of a school shooting, for a chat on X over the weekend (he also reinstated Jones' account, after the old regime suspended him years ago for bad behavior).
Another possibility: Grok has already been caught simply plagiarizing ChatGPT's answers, which could explain Rozado's findings.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-grok-ai-left-wing
https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1733574728789746081/photo/1
Pro-Trump defense attorney says Jack Smith will win Supreme Court gambit
A criminal defense attorney who opposes Donald Trump's prosecutions said that he expects special counsel Jack Smith to prevail in his plea for the Supreme Court to allow the case to move forward.
Hours after Smith took his case to the Supreme Court, attorney Ken Belkin explained why the special counsel would likely prevail. Trump has appealed the case, claiming he is immune from prosecution for election interference because he was president at the time of the alleged crime.
"If [Smith] loses it, I guess that then this whole case gets thrown out," Belkin told Newsmax on Monday. "But I don't see that. It's a question of fact, not law. So it's really proper for the trier of fact, meaning the jury, to determine if he was acting within the scope of his presidential authority or not," he said.
The attorney, however, said he opposed Trump's prosecution. "This really reeks of election interference," he opined. "I mean, how many trials is this man running for president supposed to participate in in the opening months of the election year 2024?"
https://www.rawstory.com/jack-smith-supreme-court/
A financial news site uses AI to copy competitors -- wholesale
One of the most highly-trafficked financial news websites in the world is creating AI-generated stories that bear an uncanny resemblance to stories published just hours early by other competitors. Investing.com, a Tel Aviv-based site owned by Joffre Capital, is a financial news and information hub that provides a mix of markets data and investing tips and trends. But increasingly, the site has been relying on AI to create its stories, which often appear to be thinly-veiled copies of human-written stories written elsewhere.
In early November, the blog CryptoNewsLand wrote a short item noting that the token XRP had “witnessed a resurgence in both its price and investor activity” in recent days. Just a few hours later, Investing published a similar article citing nine of the same statistics as those in the CryptoNewsLand story, as well as the same dataset from Santiment. Both articles were four paragraphs.
On the same day, longrunning financial news site The Motley Fool published a story comparing Microsoft’s stock performance to Google’s. In its piece, Motley Fool noted that Microsoft seemed poised for growth in the AI and gaming parts of its business, while Google was bringing in more revenue than Microsoft overall through Google Search and YouTube alone. Just an hour later, Investing published an article comparing the same two stocks, making the exact same points about the strengths and weaknesses of both businesses.
In each instance, Investing disclosed that its stories were written with the help of AI, with oversight from an editor. But unlike news aggregators, which link or credit other news sources, Investing did not note or credit anyone except its own AI.
https://www.semafor.com/article/12/10/2023/a-financial-news-site-uses-ai-to-copy-competitors-wholesale
Kanye West is secretly in the process of setting up his own news channel
Move over Will Ferrell, there’s a new Anchorman in town. I can reveal Kanye West is secretly in the process of setting up his own news channel.
The Touch The Sky rapper, who goes by the name Ye, has been quietly developing the idea for months and has even launched a demo website which his team have been using to test their production.
It would be launched in the States but his fans could tune in from anywhere around the world.
When Kanye was slammed last year for making anti-Semitic comments several broadcasters refused to give him air time and scrapped interviews with him, so I can imagine he sees this as a way of making sure his voice is always heard.
https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/9829849/kanye-west-career-change-tv-station/
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