Hello. I pet a baby cow this weekend. But stuff
still happened. So what's up? Okay, state folk,
which way are we going? Before I get to the general
state side stuff, I want to talk about a poll
that's currently circulating, showing that Republicans
are souring on the direction of the country.
APNORC had a poll, and that poll showed that
Republican sentiment about if this country's
going in the right direction dropped dramatically
this month. Like from 70 % to like 49%, like
a huge drop in sentiment. So what caused this?
Are they turning on Trump? Probably not, but
I want to talk about this for a little bit because
it's interesting. There's fractures, but it's
not an about face. It's fair to assume, since
this drop happened pretty recently, that it was
in part impacted by the Charlie Kirk assassination.
There are a lot of people who are white conservatives
that don't pay much attention to the news, who
saw that the news is showing that someone who
looks a lot like them just got shot in the neck.
A person who looks a lot like them and says a
lot of the things that they say... got shot in
the neck. Now, a lot of people get shot in a
lot of places all the time in this country, but
rarely is it a white conservative talking head
getting shot on video in HD. So there's that
aspect of it, but there's also the massive crackdown
on free speech that's been coming from the White
House ever since the assassination. An obvious
example of this is the Jimmy Kimmel situation
where he got pulled off air for a very tepid
statement. I want to be clear that I don't care
about Jimmy Kimmel. I don't at all. But his statement
was that the MAGA world is working overtime to
paint the shooter of Charlie Kirk as some leftist
extremist. That was the statement. That was the
thing that got him taken off air. They're claiming
that that was like hate speech or something.
It is now that I will point out that a recent
report came out showing that the Fed has made
no link between the shooter and any leftist group
whatsoever. So he, that was just the truth. But
it doesn't matter. He got pulled anyway. And
of course, immediately Democrats were like, ah,
Makimel. But Republicans were not uniform in
their response. There was plenty that are cheering
on the move and like, yeah, that the White House
should absolutely go after people that I don't
like personally. But others actually seem to
remember that Free speech and not having a government
chilling speech is actually part of their platform.
And they were like, I don't know how to handle
this one. The White House is now trying to crack
down on the left talking about rooting out left
wing terrorism, which isn't a thing in this country.
So now this is just my opinion. But with everything
that's going on with the vitriol, with the response
from the White House, with the assassination,
with the heightened tensions, I think even Republicans
are like, what the fuck is happening here? In
interviews with Republican voters about this
subject matter, they talked about a variety of
things, mostly stuff like the economy, and how
they can't get a job. Or how they feel like there's
a lot of violent rhetoric going on, and just
anger, and we're at each other's throats. Which
is... I mean... The president's fault, to a degree?
Like, obviously it's not just him, but the guy
spends every single day railing against people
while fucking up the economy. I think they're,
um... I think they're a little annoyed by that.
So yeah, we've got like an administration that's
trying to crack down on free speech that's using
the death of some dude as a reason to go after
people. The economy is bad, the job market is
bad, public health is bad, public mental health
is inaccessible. Birth rates are low, public
safety is low, crime is on the rise. There's
only so long that culture war quote -unquote
victories can keep people satisfied. Those don't
feed the hungry. The Trump administration has
already shown that they're willing to fire officials
who put out a report that makes the government
look kind of bad. And now they're getting rid
of the annual report on hunger, citing that it's
too overly politicized. This report being a key
way that we can analyze what hunger and poverty
looks like in the country. But we're just gonna
get rid of it. Legislating against trans people
doesn't give health care to your elderly parents
when they need it. Funding ICE more than most
militaries doesn't make it so that corporations
pay reasonable salaries. And multiple crypto
schemes from the literal President of the United
States of America doesn't ease housing market
problems. At the end of the day, I want to remind
you of this. There's a lot of people out there
that want the same thing as you do. They want
safety, security, and a future. Unfortunately,
a lot of people don't have the time or space
or tools to learn how to effectively bring about
that change. And so their dissatisfaction and
lack of direction make them perfect prey for
those who want to profit off of sewing division.
There are absolutely bad actors out there, but
those bad actors are dwarfed by people who just
want to not be hungry tomorrow. And unfortunately,
when people want to not be hungry tomorrow, they're
willing to believe a lot of things that make
them feel like they might not be hungry tomorrow.
And so it's everyone's job to help make sure
that we all know how we actually get fed. Which
is to say eat the rich. Moving on. Stateside.
Still. The TikTok sale is happening. Kind of.
But it's not. But it's not a sale, but it is
a sale. And it's... Not gonna do anything. A
deal has reportedly been met about the acquisition
of TikTok by U .S. agencies because national
security, apparently. Oracle, Silver Lake, and
A16Z, which are three giant tech investment firms,
are going to have an 80 % stake in the U .S.
operations of TikTok. Oracle is gonna be controlling
user data, and they're gonna lease... The algorithm
from China? Whatever the fuck that means? It
was apparently the algorithm, that was the problem.
You know, China was able to influence our national
discussion or whatever, it's like a national
security thing, and that is still just gonna
come from China? I guess? We really don't have
a lot of information, so we don't actually know,
but that's what the current reporting says. But
it does look like a new US -specific app will
roll out, and people on TikTok will need to move
over to that if you're in the US. I don't have
high hopes for this. Oracle is owned by Larry
Ellison, and Larry Ellison is a massive Trump
supporter and one of the richest people on the
planet. He's basically Elon Musk, but you haven't
seen him as much. Now, notably, this guy's son
is now the CEO of CBS and Paramount. That makes
the Ellison family, which is one of the richest
families in the world, also one of the most influential
families in media. They're working to put Barry
Weiss, who is a massive quote -unquote anti -woke
conservative journalist, as the editor -in -chief
of CBS News. Now's a great time to subscribe
to my newsletter if you don't do that already.
We're waiting for the details, we don't exactly
know how this is gonna work, but as a reminder,
don't ever put all of your eggs in one corporate
basket when it comes to media. This is why I
am everywhere. This is why I have so many profiles,
including places that I personally self -host,
to have no worries about losing everything if
a company goes shitty. So diversify. Thumbs up.
Let's talk about Mississippi, where two different
men were found hanging from two different trees
on the same day, hours apart from each other.
Mississippi has a long and very unfortunate history
of lynchings. Even in modern day, there have
been at least eight of them since 2000. And that's
a severe undercount. But recently, two different
men were found hanging from trees, both in Mississippi,
within like three hours of each other. The first
was Trey Reed, a black 21 -year -old student
of Delta State University who was found hanging
from a tree. Initial reports were that he had
broken limbs in addition to being found dead
on the tree. Those reports were proven untrue.
He did not actually have broken limbs. At least
that's the data that we have now. But that doesn't
change the fact that virtually immediately authorities
said No foul play. This was a suicide. Before
we knew anything else, they were already saying
they didn't suspect foul play, which is what
they do every time this happens. A few hours
later, Corey Zoukades was found hanging from
a tree. He was a white homeless man who we don't
really know much more about. That investigation
is also still ongoing. In Reed's case, the coroner
has already declared it a suicide, but the family
is rejecting that. A foundation by former NFL
player Colin Kaepernick is going to be paying
for a private secondary autopsy on read. This
is obviously horrible. Like, we don't know what
happened. We're not going to get good info. There's
not an interest in getting that good info. But
it's very difficult to ignore that, right when
we have this escalated sense of political violence,
two people are found hanging from trees, one
black and one homeless, two groups that are often
targeted by conservatives. Quite literally, a
conservative commentator on Fox News suggested
that we should involuntarily euthanize homeless
people. He still has a job, by the way. Last
thing for stateside, let's talk about them H1B
visas. H1B visas are used by companies to bring
in foreign talent to fill in positions that otherwise
are difficult to staff. Or at least, that's what
they're supposed to be. In reality, H -1B visas
are used a lot by the tech industry to hire on
foreign workers to pay them significantly less
than they would have to pay an American worker.
They might just be paying them the lowest possible
legal wage they can do to still use the visa,
or they hire them at a position that's way lower
than they're actually qualified for. They also
then have an employee who's essentially beholden
to them. They own that visa, and if the employee
fucks around, they could just cancel the visa.
So giant corporations love it, and especially
big tech companies. They will get thousands and
thousands of these per year. So what happened?
Because it is still whack. Pretty much out of
nowhere, Trump signed a proclamation that adds
a $100 ,000 fee to H -1B visa applications. There
was already a fee, but it was essentially trivial.
Now, it's a hundred grand! When this came out,
there was not a lot of information. People were
poring over it, and immigration lawyers were
like, I don't know what to make of this, but
it sure seems like people need to be on U .S.
soil by midnight tonight or face a hundred thousand
dollar reentry fee. Now, since then, the White
House has clarified that that's not the case.
These are only for net new visa applications.
But that seems like the kind of thing that you
should include in the original statement. know
like maybe maybe work through stuff just a little
bit longer and like think about it 70 % of H1B
visas are awarded to Indian nationals and India
has made a statement basically saying like this
sucks India's higher education system focuses
a lot on international job placement so this
is like a primary pipeline for that And while
I also believe that H1B visas should be significantly
overhauled, slapping a hundred thousand dollar
price tag on them doesn't do a whole lot, especially
when we don't really have a mechanism to even
collect that money. And also, also, it seems
like they put in a stipulation where they can
just waive the fee if they feel like it, because
of course they did. But ultimately, I don't think
this is going to bring jobs back. Like, they're
just going to offshore the jobs. H1B visas are
offshoring with less steps. Without that, they're
just gonna offshore. It won't be until companies
face actual penalties for pulling bullshit and
screwing over American workers that they're gonna
do something. But we'll never actually do that
because any time we pass legislation that's gonna
actually hold companies accountable, everyone's
like, oh, but they're gonna move now. If we pass
legislation, the companies who treat us like
shit will leave. Darn. Oh no. Elsewhere. Let's
talk about a treaty of the seas. 60 different
countries have signed on to a historic Treaty
of the Seas, potentially saving them from catastrophic
damage. Essentially, it's a treaty that says
there's a bunch of international water that we
really should protect if we want to keep having
a planet in the future, so let's protect that.
The treaty establishes zones that need to be
protected from things like underwater mining
and fishing and so on and so forth, and it's
the first of its kind. A healthy ocean is really
important for not destroying the planet from
climate change, like the ocean sucks up a lot
of CO2. and also produces a lot of oxygen, and
is important. And while this is not some sort
of, like, binding, massive piece of legislation
that's gonna really do a whole lot, it's at least
a step in the right direction. It's gonna be
on individual countries to actually enforce it
and police the areas and such, but maybe they
will? I can be optimistic. Notably, a few key
players haven't fully agreed to it yet, the US,
China, Russia, and Japan being those key holdouts.
The US and China have, like, Sort of signed on
Russia and Japan have kind of like looked at
it, but hey save the plankton What's next oh
dear Bridget McCrone the first lady of France
and wife of Emmanuel McCrone. This is weird.
She's gonna Submit scientific evidence to a court
of law to prove that she's a woman This is where
we are. Because apparently these are the only
people that drive the news now. Candice Owens,
a right -wing podcaster from the US, has been
staunchly asserting that Bridget McCrone was
born a male. This has been a thing the right's
been doing a lot of just like taking pictures
of women and being like, they're trans. Because
reasons. I genuinely don't know like why they
do this. I can't think of a worse use of anyone's
time. But where we are now is that the wife of
a foreign national leader is going to submit
evidence to a court of law to prove that she's
a woman because of a podcaster, and because of
transphobia, and because why is this happening?
Anyway, fun fact, I was born a man. Sue me for
something. Let's talk about urine and China.
Two drunk teenagers from China decided to pee
in some hot pot. Big ol' trough of broth. Urine.
Anyway, they also recorded it and posted it on
the internet. Which brings me great joy. It makes
me so happy to know that teenagers do dumb bullshit
regardless of country of origin. So they got
caught and it kind of sucks for everyone involved.
The restaurant in Shanghai where they peed in
the hot pot had to make good by basically everyone
who ate there for like a week. They gave them
all refunds and paid out extra for like Damages
they had to replace all their stuff and now they
have a shitty reputation for being the piss pot
place Now the teens were charged but also their
parents are being held liable for like failure
to properly Guardian their children so that means
the parents are gonna be held liable for the
for the hot pot piss as well Anyway, silly teenagers.
Don't be in hot pot. That's fucking Gross. Anyway,
other note on China, as much as teenagers peeing
in a hot pot is a pretty big fucking deal, it's
also worth noting that China is eclipsing the
rest of the world with their green energy rollout.
In one fiscal quarter, China added more renewable
energy than the entire energy grid of Turkey.
That's a lot of capacity. Meanwhile, in places
like the US, we are cutting back on wind energy
because Our leader doesn't like how windmills
look, even though they're not even windmills.
So anyway, maybe we should all just be pissing
in the hot pot. Let's pop over to Israel, where
Netanyahu is being a little too defensive. So
I talked earlier about Charlie Kirk getting popped,
and for whatever reason, Netanyahu has found
it to be imperative that he makes it clear that
Israel didn't do it. After the shooting, there
was conspiracy theories circulating about Israel
having a role in the death of Charlie Kirk, and
not litigating that here? But it was so rampant
that Netanyahu has made statements about it.
Multiple of them. Multiple times. This guy has
said Israel had nothing to do with Charlie Kirk's
death. And then he went as far as to say that
this conspiracy theory is being funded by Qatar,
the place that they just recently bombed, despite
being a US ally. Critics have noted that Netanyahu
was strangely loud about Charlie Kirk's death
right when it happened. Like, before we had a
lot of information, he was already posting about
it. And then he goes on to be like, we didn't
do it! But what's far more important than literally
anything involving Charlie Kirk ever is that
Israel recently killed 31 journalists in Yemen.
On September 10th, they made multiple airstrikes
against multiple newsrooms in Yemen, killing
31 journalists who were working on finalizing
that week's newspaper. This is the second deadliest
attack on journalists ever recorded by the Center
for Protecting Journalists, and it's completely
unacceptable. Israel is going for records with
regards to killing journalists at this point,
and it's fucked up. But at least we know that
they didn't kill Charlie Kirk, according to Netanyahu.
Hey, do you like what I do? And do you also want
to help me keep doing it? If yes, thank you.
You can head to isupport .dev to find links to
a whole bunch of different ways to support me.
And as always, just sharing my content helps
a ton. So thank you for being here. Thank you
for sharing it. Let's move on. Technology! NVIDIA
bought a bunch of Intel stock. Intel has not
been doing particularly great financially recently,
and recently the government invested about $10
billion in purchasing Intel stock, and now Nvidia
is buying about $5 billion of stock. In doing
so, they're announcing a partnership where Nvidia
and Intel will like cross create chips to cross
integrate their technologies into both data centers
and personal computers. What this really means
is that it seems like the U .S. is trying to
position itself to better hold their ground on
the semiconductor market. China just recently
banned the of AI chips from Nvidia. That's not
necessarily a one -to -one reason why this is
happening, but other countries are catching up,
and we are falling behind. And it also doesn't
really help that, like, we don't have a ton of
manufacturing here, and a lot of our market value
from a company like Nvidia comes from speculation
that AI is gonna matter in the future. Which
it probably will, but is it gonna matter this
much? Like, these kinds of moves are being discussed
as national security. The continued success of
Nvidia and Intel are a matter of national security,
which seems like a bad place to be colors. I
see them. Most of them. You know Jackson Pollock,
the guy who does like the paint splatter paints?
You know, the guy that makes the art that has
everyone give the most tepid take ever of modern
art isn't really art. That guy. So he has a really
famous painting in the MoMA that they wanted
to figure out. what he used as a pigment for
a specific blue in the painting. Jackson Pollock
did a lot of his work by just flicking paint
at the canvas, and so a lot of the colors on
his works are just single pigments. Knowing what
pigments, like what specific pigments were used
to create what colors, helps with things like,
one, just art history, but two, preventing counterfeits.
Historians thought for a while this was manganese
blue that he used, and they were right, that
is what it is, but how they figured that out
is rad. They took a sample from the painting,
again, like lots of globs, so they took like
a tiny little little scraping of the blue and
they put it under a microscope, or they put it
under a science object. They hit it with a bunch
of lasers and then measured the vibrations in
the molecules to create a unique signature for
the pigment. They could then go and test that
signature against other pigments and Wouldn't
you know it? They were right. It was, it was
that blue. Fun fact, it's the same blue pigment
that was used in pool floors. So if you were
a person in the US between like the 70s and 90s,
the concrete in a public pool, that blue, it's
that same pigment in that neat gaming. One of
my favorite series is Horizon. Zero intellectual
property. Chinese tech juggernaut Tencent is
producing a game called Light of Motoram. Mo
-Mo -Materam. Motoram. I'm not looking it up.
I don't care. In the promotional materials, it
appears to be a game where you play as a sort
of tribal hunter in a world inhabited by robot
animals, and you play as a character who's like
a redhead with a bow. This is completely different
from the Horizon series, where you're a tribal
hunter in a world filled with mechanical animals,
and you're a redhead with a bow. So Sony, who
makes the Horizon franchise, is pretty upset,
especially because the marketing materials look
identical, but Tencent has responded by saying
no. They're trying to get a copyright on something
that's far too specific. A world in which people
are tribal hunters using bows to hunt down specifically
mechanical animals that looks very specifically
this one way. Now I will say the two do look
very very similar, but digging in a bit it does
seem like Tencent's game is pretty different
from the Horizon series. Visually, looks very,
very similar, and the promotional art looks incredibly
similar, but keep in mind that stuff like this
can be done on purpose to create these kinds
of situations to get attention. Lightning Round.
After a decade -long search, researchers found
a 140 -year -old ship that was lost to a storm
in Lake Michigan. And another boat, which might
be found in 140 years, was sunk by orcas. A man
died while riding a roller coaster at Universal
Epic Universe. That's really sad. I also did
not know that Universal Epic Universe was...
a park? That name is very bad. A man in the UK
who was using Snapchat to prey on more than 40
children has been caught and jailed. A judge
dismissed the terrorism charges against the alleged
shooter of the United Healthcare CEO Luigi Mangione.
Those were the big, big charges that we kind
of knew when they were originally levied against
him that that was not going to work. Like, that
was the state way overreaching. And finally for
today, California has made it illegal for law
enforcement officers to wear masks while performing
their duties in a direct blow against the Department
of Homeland Security and ICE. These federal agents
have been wearing masks while going around detaining
people, which isn't good at all. Hopefully more
states follow through with this and hopefully
actually enforce it. Thank you so much for listening
to today's episode of Stuff Keeps Happening.
Head to skh .news for sources, bonus content,
and the location of yet another 140 -year -old
ship at the bottom of Lake Michigan. My name
is Endeavorance. We'll talk again soon. Take
care and be well.