Zorro
Zorro's JournalHere's how Trump gets away with using dubious numbers
Much attention has been focused on Donald Trump’s use of words — that is, his peculiar style of oratory. But more attention should be paid to another feature of his discourse: his use of numbers.
Trump doesn’t use numbers the way most of us do, as “things that can be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided,” as Columbia University statistician Andrew Gelman put it. Rather, he uses them as rhetorical objects.
That habit was vividly on display during Trump’s televised speech Wednesday night. He claimed that President Biden’s immigration policies had admitted “11,888 murderers.” That his own tariffs and trade deals had brought in “$18 trillion of investment” from abroad. That deals he negotiated with drug companies and foreign countries had “slashed prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400, 500 and even 600 percent.”
I asked the White House for its sources for these figures, but didn’t receive a reply.
The exploitation of big or vague statistics to make a partisan point isn’t novel. It was perfected in the 1950s by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, whose claim about the number of communists in the State Department shifted from 57 to 205 to 81 to 207 in speeches to varied audiences.
McCarthy didn’t actually have a “list” of reds, as he claimed — his goal was to communicate that there were lots of them, the specific number unimportant.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-12-19/heres-how-trump-gets-away-with-using-fake-numbers
They graduated from Stanford. Due to AI, they can't find a job
A Stanford software engineering degree used to be a golden ticket. Artificial intelligence has devalued it to bronze, recent graduates say.
The elite students are shocked by the lack of job offers as they finish studies at what is often ranked as the top university in America.
When they were freshmen, ChatGPT hadn’t yet been released upon the world. Today, AI can code better than most humans.
Top tech companies just don’t need as many fresh graduates.
“Stanford computer science graduates are struggling to find entry-level jobs” with the most prominent tech brands, said Jan Liphardt, associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford University. “I think that’s crazy.”
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-12-19/they-graduated-from-stanford-due-to-ai-they-cant-find-job
North Korea just had its biggest year ever stealing cryptocurrency
North Korean hackers had their biggest year yet for stealing cryptocurrencies in 2025.
Cyber attackers sponsored by the rogue regime have swiped over $2.02 billion in crypto since January, according to the latest findings from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
Through early December, the Chainalysis report shows thieves supported by North Korea have stolen over 50% more in crypto this year than in 2024, bringing their total identified haul from crypto theft since 2016 to $6.75 billion.
The findings are just the latest example of how the heavily sanctioned nation has exploited security vulnerabilities in the crypto world to create a significant revenue source. As far back as 2019, national security officials for the US and UN have stated that funds stolen from these affiliated hacker groups support North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles programs.
"The reality is that cryptocurrency, because of its global 24/7 access, creates a unique value proposition for the regime to target," Chainalysis head of national security intelligence Andrew Fierman said.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/north-korea-just-had-its-biggest-year-ever-stealing-cryptocurrency-130002485.html
Man suspected in shooting at Brown University has been found dead in New Hampshire, AP source says
Source: Los Angeles Times
A man who is suspected of killing two and wounding several others at Brown University has been found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
The man was found dead Thursday evening.
Investigators believe the man is responsible for both the shooting at Brown and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who was fatally shot in his Brookline home Monday, the official said. Authorities have not formally confirmed a connection between the two shootings.
The official could not publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-12-18/police-are-investigating-link-between-brown-shooting-killing-of-mit-professor-ap-sources-say
Cybersecurity Staff Plead Guilty for Moonlighting as Hackers
Source: Bloomberg
Two former employees of cybersecurity companies pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal crimes for launching their own ransomware attacks in a plot to extort millions of dollars from victims around the US.
Ryan Clifford Goldberg, a former incident response supervisor at Sygnia Consulting Ltd., and Kevin Tyler Martin, who was a ransomware negotiator for DigitalMint, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by extortion, federal court records show. The pair acknowledged in the court filings that, along with a third person, they spent years trying to hack and extort businesses, in one instance receiving a ransom payment of more than $1 million in cryptocurrency from a Florida medical device company.
Laywers for Goldberg and Martin declined to comment. The third alleged conspirator hasn’t been charged in the case and isn’t named in the court records.
The trio worked in a part of the cybersecurity industry that has arisen to help companies negotiate with hackers to unfreeze their computer networks after an attack — sometimes by paying ransom. They were also accused of sharing their illicit profits with the developers of the ransomware program, known as ALPHV BlackCat, which they allegedly used to steal and encrypt the victims’ data.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-18/ex-cybersecurity-staff-plead-guilty-for-moonlighting-as-hackers?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2NjEwNzI0MiwiZXhwIjoxNzY2NzEyMDQyLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUN0hGRE9LR1pBSlYwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNjgyQTUwQzJCRDM0MTFCQTgwQjEwQjZEQjczQzM1MSJ9.BtvCWCvNQwDJTPBE9td4bpnSTe94v6TLWrpwVEOsdl8
California Turning Point USA club in jeopardy after city councilwoman's controversial comments
A Northern California elected official is under scrutiny over comments she made at an after-school meeting of a conservative students club, where she attributed her daughter’s sexual orientation to childhood trauma and repeated talking points criticized workplace diversity and the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The comments by Lincoln City Councilmember Holly Andreatta at Twelve Bridges High School also have drawn attention to the emergence of Turning Point USA groups at high schools nationwide. The conservative nonprofit estimates there are now at least 1,200 chapters of its high school program, Club America. Elected officials in Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas recently announced partnerships with the group to expand that reach to more schools in those states.
“Schools have always been — but especially now — are definitely a political battleground for the Republican Party, for conservative politics,” said Hava Gordon, a sociology professor at the University of Denver who studies youth activism.
The controversy over the Club America chapter at Twelve Bridges has roiled the community of Lincoln, a foothill city about 25 miles northeast of Sacramento. Dozens of students and parents spoke at a recent school board meeting, with some alleging the club created an unwelcoming environment by promoting hate speech and others defending its right to exist, according to the Sacramento Bee, which first reported on the dispute. A group of students say they’ve collected 300 signatures on a petition calling for the club to be disbanded, the paper reported.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-12-18/california-turning-point-usa-club-in-jeopardy-after-councilwomans-comments
NASCAR Driver Greg Biffle and Family Killed in Jet Crash, N.C. Congressman Says
Source: Wall Street Journal
A business jet carrying six people crashed while landing at an airport in North Carolina Thursday morning, according to authorities.
Former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, his wife Cristina and their children were killed in the crash, according to North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson.
“I am devastated by the loss of Greg, Cristina, and their children, and my heart is with all who loved them,” Hudson said.
NASCAR named Biffle among its 75 greatest drivers.
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/small-jet-crashes-while-landing-at-north-carolina-airport-88b46910?st=7TLn8u&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Woman kills 2 ex-husbands in Tampa, Bradenton, Manatee sheriff says
“Detectives let her know that they are there to speak about her ex-husband,” the sheriff said. “She says, ‘Which one?’”Manatee County detectives on Wednesday night arrested a 51-year-old woman accused of killing two ex-husbands in Tampa and Bradenton.
Investigators arrested Susan Avalon at her Citrus County home after the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said she allegedly shot and killed a 54-year-old man who answered the door at his Bradenton home earlier that day.
Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said Thursday that investigators believe the killing in Bradenton was part of a “brazen” double homicide that began earlier the same day in Hillsborough County, where Avalon allegedly shot her second ex-husband to death before traveling to Manatee County.
Wells said investigators realized the scope of the case expanded while confronting the suspect at her Citrus County home.
“Detectives let her know that they are there to speak about her ex-husband,” Wells said. “She says, ‘Which one?’”
https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2025/12/18/susan-avalon-tampa-bradenton-ex-husband-shooting-murder-manatee-hillsborough/
White House Dementia Care Unit Lets Trump Write Walk Of Fame Plaques All By Himself!
Last night, a dementia-addled loser interrupted the season finale of Survivor to yell at Americans in all caps for 20 minutes for not being sufficiently grateful for his tariffs and his elimination of mandatory transgender for everyone and their peasant obsession with “affordability” and “groceries.” He lied each time he breathed, and they were stupid lies, lies even the inbred pigs who still count themselves as part of the 36 percent who approve of him could tell are lies. (Maybe. They’re as stupid as he is, so maybe not.)
We sure hope Susie Wiles didn’t sign on to that speech, because it might tarnish the image of woRdL’s sMarTesT PolITiCaL oPreratTor that she was so desperately trying to cultivate in those Vanity Fair interviews. (Topic for discussion: What if Susie Wiles is actually a total dumbass, which is exactly what she looks like in the pictures that accompany the article?)
We have no reason to talk any further about his speech. It was dumb as shit. Everybody is laughing at it. We were at a concert at the time, and we opened up the internet afterward to see that the general consensus was that it was totally unnecessary for Trump to postpone his evening diarrheas for that — he could have just delivered the speech atop the toilet on Truth Social, like every other night — and that in comparison, Pete Hegseth’s preening Viagra overdose in front of the generals was the goddamned Gettysburg Address.
We want to talk about something else that’s actually related, because there’s a whole lot about last night’s speech that screams “keeping the patient comfortable,” and really, that’s the emerging story of his entire second failed presidency.
They’re putting up comforting, garish gold lettering to label rooms for Straight Liberace, so he knows where he is, and they’re repaving the Rose Garden to make him feel like he’s on his own patio at Mar-a-Lago, or maybe at a Panera off the interstate. They’re letting him bulldoze entire sections of the building so he can have a comforting ballroom. Why, at this rate, they might let him build a replica of that ugly bathroom at Mar-a-Lago, for the storing of the classified documents he’s actually allowed to have this time!
And then news broke yesterday that, in what they’re calling Trump’s Presidential Walk of Fame, they’ve put up new plaques underneath all the different presidential portraits, to better reflect President Poopsmells and his various sad loser grievances.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/white-house-dementia-care-unit-lets
Legalize it
Get the federal government away from marijuana, and let the states sort it out.President Donald Trump is going green. On Thursday, he plans to sign an executive order to loosen restrictions on marijuana. That’s fine, but it’s going to do little to fix America’s overall approach to the drug. It would be better to legalize pot federally and let states decide if they want to restrict it any further.
Cannabis is classified as Schedule I, the strictest enforcement category under the Controlled Substances Act. Trump wants to move it to Schedule III, which means it would still be illegal for recreational purposes but could be used in approved, highly regulated medical settings. The Biden administration attempted to make the change last year, but administrative reviews prevented it from going into effect.
Rescheduling would be a tax windfall for marijuana businesses currently unable to claim deductions for operating expenses, such as rent, payroll and marketing. A Schedule III classification allows sellers to write those costs off on their taxes. Anyone interested in helping cannabis corporations make more money — and seeing a lot more advertising for their products — will be thrilled.
But it also raises thorny legal questions. Manufacturers of controlled substances are supposed to register with the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is responsible for strictly regulating the products. Given that the federal government has not approved cannabis products for any medical purposes — and that the bulk of the industry’s products are recreational and still technically illegal — it’s unclear how such a framework could ever work.
https://wapo.st/44tqGAs
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