Edward Snowden: 'I think we need to put Sam Altman in jail'

'Your computer that is connected to the Internet is frankly being controlled remotely by a model that is far away that you don't understand how it works.' 

The errors of AI are the responsibility of its developer.

It doesn't have to be this way. 

Hegseth impeachment, New Dems threatened by leaders, Gaza underwater, U.S. threatens Iraq, Saudi's turn to ISIS

 

• Pepe Escobar: After spending 95 minutes on the phone with Mohsen Rezaee, the secretary-general of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and number two of the Iranian government, three days later President Putin sent his private plane to Tehran to bring Rezaee and a small Iranian delegation to Moscow for a face-to-face meeting at the Kremlin. The meeting lasted near 3 1/2 hours. And crucially, Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was in the room, via encrypted phone. The end game is that Moscow now ranks its strategic partnership with Tehran at the level of its strategic partnership with Beijing, its highest. Significant technology assistance and transfer is under way. Russia has already delivered 12 advanced attack helicopters; a wide range of offensive and defensive equipment; and increased targeting capability, via satellite and fiber-optic drone technology. That means in practice that Tehran is even more prepared than before to absorb a US and/or death cult attack and to answer it with overwhelming force.  In parallel, the pathetic Iraqi Quisling government and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have seriously started threatening each other, in advance of what is now ominously in the open: imminent invasion plans of southern Iran, in the Ahwaz region, crammed with oil fields, by American troops deployed in Iraqi soil. The Islamic Resistance has already warned Prime Minister Al-Zaidi that any attempt to arrest Shi’ite leaders would mean the fall of his government. As if all of the above was not dire enough, some sort of shaping rhythm has been established by CENTCOM, which is now bombing Qeshm island for 2-3 nights running.   

• Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) reading the part of his impeachment resolution how Hegseth ordered US military to bomb Minab elementary school in Iran, 3 times killing at least 170 children, school staff and parents. Tuesday’s vote was a procedural attempt by Republicans to stop the impeachment push by sending the matter back to committee, the Associated Press reported.  The motion passed 211-204, with multiple Democrats and Republicans missing the vote. Massie was the lone Republican to cross party lines. Eleven Democrats refused to vote at all - they could have ensured the impeachment was a success.

• UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese describes children in Gaza remaining in tents flooded by freezing rainwater as “the shame of our time.” 70,000 displaced families’ tents were flooded during the first 12 hours of the storm, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. Displaced families continue to suffer amid widespread destruction and Israeli restrictions on the entry of shelter supplies.

• Tasnim News Baghdad: Disclosure of the details of the anti-Iranian mission sent by Trump to Iraq. Abdullah Ahmed Al-Dulaimi, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, claimed that Tom Barak, Trump’s special envoy to Baghdad, pressured the al-Zaidi government to close all the border crossings between Iraq and Iran, cut ties between Tehran and Baghdad, stop the import of goods between the two countries, and move towards establishing trade relations with the Persian Gulf countries. He added that during this visit, Barak told Iraq not to settle its debts to Iran with dollars, and that transactions between Tehran and Baghdad should be done only with Iraqi dinars, and that the country’s airspace should remain closed to passengers and goods from/to Iran. Al-Dulaimi stated that Barak threatened the Al-Zaidi government that if it refused to implement the American orders, it would suffer dire consequences. The Al-Zaidi government has agreed to the demands made by Washington so that this process can be implemented gradually and according to the schedule desired by the parties.  

• Tehran’s mayor made public transport in Tehran FREE since the war. It’s been 8 months and Iranians are still enjoying free metro, even before the war, metro tickets cost almost nothing. 

• US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee claims that anyone who opposes Trump’s war with Iran is being blinded by Satan. During an incredibly sycophantic recent interview on The Anchor Podcast, Huckabee was asked by the host if he believed European opposition to the US war on Iran was the result of mental problems. “I think it’s a spiritual issue,” Huckabee replied. “I know it sounds a little funny for an ambassador to be talking like this, but look, I see this as spiritual darkness, spiritual blindness,” adding that “Satan has blinded the minds of those and has captured their thinking.”
• Ahead of the election, thousands of Mississippians were moved to inactive status because the secretary of state's office paid $50,000 to use unverified data from credit bureau Experian to clean out voter rolls. Secretary of State Michael Watson told Mississippi Today that the rollout of the commercial data was "wildly successful." This unprecedented number of inactive voters led to more affidavit ballots, prolonging the count. These ballots must be 'cured', meaning to correct issues with voter identification or mail-in ballots, by Nov. 10. "Mississippi is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, state to vote in," one voter said. "As a lifelong Mississippian, I am used to us living in a legacy of constantly fighting back, and this is just in alignment with our legacy. And people ask folks from Mississippi, why do we live down here? Why do we stay out here with everything that we're facing? But we're fighters, and we won't ever stop fighting."

• Sludge: The nonprofit that helped get Professor Cornel West on presidential ballots in 2024 received all of its funding that year through a conservative political network that has been bankrolled by Elon Musk, tax records reviewed by Sludge show. People Over Party helped pay for petition drives to get the left-wing West onto state ballots in 2024 as Democrats warned he could play spoiler by drawing votes from Kamala Harris and helping Trump. A nonprofit called Interstate Priorities disclosed a $7.7 million grant to the group on its 2024 tax return, accounting for all of the revenue that People Over Party reported raising that year. 

• La Catrina Norteña: Now in Ecuador, people are calling for the ouster of the Miami-born Trumpist junior @DanielNoboaOk, who has his country mired in its worst security and economic crisis and who had the former left-wing presidential candidate Luisa González thrown in jail two weeks ago. "Out with Noboa, out, out with Noboa, out"...  
• Yemen military: Thousands of ISIS fighters have arrived to battle our forces in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is amassing mercenaries from every corner of the globe to kill us. We shall make an example of them—a lesson for every mercenary who has sold out his own homeland. Yemen has hit Saudi Aramco headquarters as a warning that more can come if they don't end their long war against the people of Yemen. 

• Ryan Grim: Incoming Rep. Don Leonard, a Democrat who flipped a deep red district in Ohio, said in a video he posted online that allies of Hakeem Jeffries had threatened “to make [his] life a living hell” if he didn’t get in line and support Jeffries [for House Majority leader] without conditions. Leonard's conditions: (1) A vote on a constitutional amendment to end Citizens United and (2) “end U.S. support for the war in Iran and the country, Israel, that led us into it.” Leonard said he was told he would never be re-elected if he didn’t play ball. Meanwhile, nobody has risen in opposition, though members can vote for someone whether they’re running or not. The situation presents something of a catch-22: Hakeem Jeffries isn’t vulnerable unless a challenger emerges, and a challenger won’t emerge as long as Jeffries is seen as invulnerable.  

The $400 Million Corruption Machine Built by Trump's Biggest Donors

OpenAI's president gave Trump $25 million. Trump moved to block state AI regulation.

UnitedHealth gave $5 million. Trump doubled their Medicare Advantage pay increase.

It all happens through MAGA Inc. and oligarchs are spending big to defend their cash cow this election.

Walk for the Earth - 700 miles thru Florida

The Animals Speak Out

by W.B. Park

Good evening. We’re here to try to convince you that unless you folks wake up, our whole eco system is going to crash. Agri-business and lawn sprinklers are draining our aquifers and swamps. DDT, dioxin, and a soup of other toxins are seeping into our drinking water and eating away our ozone protection. Mining and ranching interests slash and burn our jungles. Paper and lumber companies level whole forests in days. Developers concrete what’s left. As a result, our source of oxygen is disappearing. Our topsoil is eroding. Whole species are in danger. The food chain has holes. Cancer, respiratory diseases, miscarriages, dropping sperm counts…I mean, how bad does it have to get before you people start trying to help? Hello? Is anybody out there listening? 

This is a chapter from my book entitled 'Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire'. At the time of this I was working for the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice.

I drove the 700-plus mile Walk for the Earth route four times before our official beginning in late February, 1996. I had plenty of time to think about the enormous undertaking and what it was “all about.” During these long drives I mapped the walk route and scouted for places for the campers to sleep. I met with local groups along the way and got them to commit to join the walk when it passed through their community. 

Many of the groups took on the task of organizing meals for the walkers. I made contact with the local media to publicize the walk and the local issues we’d be illuminating. Quite often, there was a community forum to set up.

I knew that we were going to walk through communities of color where poor people were struggling, often alone, over local environmental issues. I knew we were going to try to help return a sense of power to people in our state who feel powerless in the face of corporate political dominance. What I didn’t know was that water contamination would be the issue that everyone talked about, up and down the state.

The Everglades are being diced up—big sugar, citrus groves, vegetable production and urban sprawl are impacting South Florida’s primary water source. We met with black people in Belle Glade and listened to their stories about water contamination from sugar cane production.

In Polk County, where miles and miles of phosphate mining has impacted poor communities, water contamination has reached epidemic proportions. While in this region, we met with black people whose communities were contaminated by the phosphate industry. There are no environmental groups speaking out for the people. Even the Audubon Society is taking money from the phosphate industry while poor people die from cancer.

While walking through the citrus belt of Central Florida, walkers met with Hispanic farm workers who talked over and over again about pesticide poisoning. We learned that drinking water is being contaminated by these chemicals.

Urbanization (whether in Miami, Orlando, Tampa, or Jacksonville) is creating massive amounts of pollution (from more and wider roads and millions of cars) that is getting into our underground water aquifer.

We held a protest in the Ocala National Forest where the Navy has had a bombing range since World War II. Once out in the middle of nowhere, the range is now being surrounded by urbanization.

Up in north Florida, in Perry, deadly dioxins are being dumped into the Fenholloway River by the Buckeye paper mill. The river carries the toxins from the plant right into the Gulf of Mexico where aquatic life is now dying as a result. We held a rally in front of the paper mill while standing in the pouring rain. 

At each stop, local authorities talk about dilution. They admit that pollutants are reaching the aquifer, but insist that they are diluted when they enter the enormous underground water systems. But this is a lie because pollutants are entering the aquifer up and down the state in such vast amounts that they must certainly be having cumulative adverse impacts.

What we learned from the local people we met on the walk is that they want someone to stand up with them. They want someone to tell it like it is. They can’t drink the water. They can’t eat the fish. The birds are dying.

Our walk was led by Bobbie C. Billie, the spiritual leader of the Independent Traditional Seminole Nation. His family, still legally at war with the U.S. government, is the one holdout family within the Seminole people who never submitted to the reservation system. Bobbie was the only person who was able to walk every single step of the 700 mile walk. On the weekends, members of his family would join us for the walk.

Bobbie C. Billie

One high school teacher from Miami brought a busload of her students to begin the walk in the Everglades and ended up bringing them back virtually every other weekend as well.

At the end of the Walk for the Earth, about 600 people turned out from all over the state to march the last three miles to the State Capitol in Tallahassee with us. Two days later, about 50-60 of us went into the capitol to lobby. Some of us held a day-long vigil inside the capitol rotunda, while others visited their representatives. One of our signs read, “The corporations control the government.” Corporate lobbyists, running around with their cell phones, were not amused. But many capitol staffers came by and discreetly whispered, “You’re right.” The native people from South America who joined us played their magical flutes inside the rotunda, and people were drawn to us like snakes responding to charmers. It was an exciting and empowering day.

When you speak the truth in the heart of power, sparks literally fly. The Walk for the Earth: A Journey for Future Generations was a success. We saw that with our own eyes. We heard it from the public with our own ears. And now we must speak about it with our own voices.

If there is to be a future for our children then we must move now to protect what little natural life is left in Florida. We must stand before the government and the corporations and say “enough!” We must call for a moratorium on growth and development in Florida. If we don’t, who will? 

Bruce 

Trump's ultimate betrayal on food security

In this episode of 51/49, James sits down with former Kennedy campaign advisor Tiffany Cianci to uncover the real reason why Trump turned on MAHA. 

Diving deep into Susie Wiles’ corporate lobbyist ties, RFK Jr.’s sudden pivot on Big Chemical, and the shocking MAHA Scorecard revealing NO kept promises to protect America's health and food supply. 

America's farmers are being forced into bankruptcy as Big Ag moves to take control of the nation's food production - grown with toxic chemicals that will kill us all.

Is this one more piece to the puzzle that reveals Mr. Big's goal of thinning the global superfluous populations?

The fast food rip-off

McDonald's prices have doubled in the last ten years.

The profits have gone mostly to shareholders, who got nearly $40 billion in dividends over the past decade while customers suffer and workers are underpaid.

Here's how fast food is the latest victim of enshittification. 

Gaza under water

 

How much longer will we allow this madness to go one?

So many are cheering for the Dems but what are they actually going to do to end this damn genocide?

This carnage was done by the US & Israel.

We all must speak out now in active protest to demand an end to this criminality!

Bruce

Sunday song

Trump heats up Iran attacks, Israel election shell game, South Korea & Canada join U.S. war$

 

• Iran’s top security deputy chief, Ali Bagheri, says Iran will no longer accept written promises from the US and demands concrete US actions before entering a new phase of diplomacy. He says the US has broken its commitments and derailed all 4 rounds of negotiations over the past 18 months.
• Iran has fired both interceptor missiles towards US aircraft as well as missiles/drones towards violating ships in the Strait of Hormoz. So far what’s been confirmed is that the US struck the port of Jask. 
• Yemen military: 200 killed or wounded—including women and children over the past 36 hours as a result of the Saudi-led aggression using military aircraft.

• Bahrain is set to put more than 60 Shia Muslim clerics on trial November 8. This would be one of the largest legal cases against Shia Muslims in the Arab world and the Persian Gulf region. Bahraini authorities have not disclosed the charges against the clerics. But everyone knows this is because Bahrain wants to suppress its Shia population and regularly links them to Iran on false and baseless accusations. 
• Failing at sea, US launches 'Task Force Iron Gate' to strangle Iran's overland corridors. US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the creation of a specialized initiative aimed at interdicting ground transit and maritime trade routes across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea. Despite Washington's boasts regarding petroleum export restrictions, Iran continues to leverage overland transport corridors and non-western trade networks to sustain its domestic manufacturing and defense independence, bypassing US extraterritorial sanctions entirely. 
• Gadi Eisenkot, a former Israeli occupation army chief of staff and the leader of the opposition bloc against war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, is proposing a “national emergency government” open to any party or Knesset member who accepts four principles. ⭕️Recognition of Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state.” ⭕️Acceptance of the values of Israel’s Declaration of Independence. ⭕️A duty of service for all, military, national or civil. ⭕️Recognition of Hamas as a “terrorist organization.” Eisenkot said he will approach all Knesset factions and invite their members to become partners. He cannot form a majority without the Arab-led parties, and these conditions are, in effect, a message to them. All he is doing is opening a door for Bloody Bibi to walk through back into government.

• Mikey Weinstein's Statement: "Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been literally inundated with desperate client calls from active duty, reserve, and guard armed forces members requesting immediate assistance from the Foundation. The majority are terribly distraught and bereft of any reasonable alternative other than their tragic consideration of resigning their commissions or enlistments prior to receiving otherwise promised veterans and retirement benefits. They fear not just for their careers, but the future of their families and nation. It is not merely 'politicizing' the military by Hegseth, but his incalculable, wholly unconstitutional malfeasance in attempting to Christian nationalize the military which is ripping asunder the good order, morale, discipline, and unit cohesion of our once proud force. Indeed, Hegseth’s essentially mandatory, monthly 'Jesus Praise Services,' held in the Pentagon's largest auditorium during the duty day and in uniform and televised on internal Pentagon Channel Number 2, is a perfect example of this criminal's pervasive and pernicious pattern and practice of illicit, immoral and illegal fundamentalist Christian extremism, supremacy, and tyranny.” 

• Bill Astore: This week’s elections were obviously a cry for change by the American people. Angry at Trump for failing to keep his promises to put America first, voters dealt MAGA and the Republicans a severe rebuke. The only real choice Americans had to express that rebuke was to vote blue, and they did. And then I saw this tweet this AM: Yes, Democrats are choosing leaders with LOWER favorability than Trump: 🔴 DONALD TRUMP = 38.5 🔵 HAKEEM JEFFRIES = 28.0 🔵 CHUCK SCHUMER = 24.7. It’s not yet a done deal that Jeffries will be Speaker and Schumer will be Senate Majority Leader, but either or both will serve to block meaningful changes to help workers in America. (One bad sign: Trump says he’s looking forward to working with Schumer again.) 

• Protesters in Paraguay chant: “Milei, Santi Peña, all the same shit!” Paraguayan President Santiago Peña was impeached and placed under house arrest Friday after the collapse of a prominent US-owned bank with ties to Paraguay's government. The fallout has left millions across the country without access to their money. The free-market project has been a disaster everywhere and Latin Americans are rising up against it. Trump/Rubio puppets are falling like dominoes.

• Korea Update: The US-Israeli war on Iran has become a political graveyard—and the US election results underscore just how politically costly this war can be. So why is South Korea quietly playing with fire? South Korea has repeatedly been drawn into US wars, from Vietnam to other military interventions. This time should be no exception to that historical pattern. The timing, the hypocrisy, the intense pressure from Washington, National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac’s apparent prioritization of US interests over Korea’s sovereignty, and President Lee’s retreat from his own pledge not to involve South Korea in the war are deeply troubling. This is an insult to the Korean people and a betrayal of the president’s own promise. South Korea must not be dragged into another US war. The government just approved a revised motion to extend the Cheonghae Unit’s deployment, more than doubling its operational area to waters south of Oman. The plan also includes deploying P-8A maritime patrol aircraft, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team, and unmanned mine-clearing equipment. The Progressive Party strongly condemns this decision as a backdoor deployment into the US-Israeli war against Iran and demands its immediate withdrawal. The government’s claim that this does not constitute direct participation in the Strait of Hormuz operations is misleading. The Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz are directly connected, with no buffer zone between them. Expanding operations into Omani waters risks drawing South Korea into the conflict.

• Two thousand Canadian troops are currently participating in the largest ever NATO exercise on Latvia’s border with Russia. A total of 3,000 soldiers and 1,000 pieces of military equipment are part of Resolute Reforger that began October 26 and is scheduled to end November 8. For the first time the entire Canadian-led Multinational Brigade Latvia has moved from its base in the western part of the country to mere kilometers from Belarusian and Russian territory. An imbedded CTV reporter was with Canadian troops in Daugavpils, which is 30 km from the border of Belarus and 50 km from Russia. In that city and elsewhere in eastern Latvia, Russian is the dominant language and many Russian-speaking Latvians see NATO as a belligerent force. A Canadian soldier remarked on divided local opinion telling CTV, “some have shouted insults at us”.        

• Eric Arnow: Obama, Joe Biden and his Undersecretary of State for Eastern European Affairs, Victoria Nuland knowingly and willfully backed a CIA coup to overthrow the democratically elected government in Ukraine…and he has the gall to talk about ‘Ukrainians fighting for their freedom’! Half the population has fled, two million have been killed, and the coup regime is reduced to forcefully kidnapping men off the street to be sent to the front to die...for BlackRock, and the other Wall Street firms, who bought publicly owned assets of the people of Ukraine. Following the coup, Ukraine passed a law allowing the sale of their country. 

• Zelensky, after the loss of the American Republicans in the US congressional elections, changed his tune and stated the need to build relationships with the new Democratic majority. Kiev intends to secure the provision of the previously agreed but not yet received $16 billion in US aid. Zelensky called the acquisition of additional Patriot air defense missiles the main military priority. 

Broken mosque, broken hearts

The minaret of their mosque collapsed during demolition work to widen a road for a Hindu pilgrimage. 

Now, Indian Muslims in Ujjain are working to repair their centuries-old building.