Gnomon: MAGA: Make America Go Away
@tronc.bsky.social
I support resistance to 'Cognitive Technology' (CT) especially in education but more widely wherever relationships drive social health. In its current form CT, by design, severely limits public participation in shaping futures.
From: Jonathan Rauch, 25Jan26
*Yes, It's Fascism*
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/america-fascism-trump-maga-ice/685751/
Rauch has reached a point where it is clear that fascism is at large in America. Not so long ago people might have pooh-poohed the idea He writes that (1/5)
*Yes, It's Fascism*
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/america-fascism-trump-maga-ice/685751/
Rauch has reached a point where it is clear that fascism is at large in America. Not so long ago people might have pooh-poohed the idea He writes that (1/5)
February 14, 2026 at 5:51 PM
From: Jonathan Rauch, 25Jan26
*Yes, It's Fascism*
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/america-fascism-trump-maga-ice/685751/
Rauch has reached a point where it is clear that fascism is at large in America. Not so long ago people might have pooh-poohed the idea He writes that (1/5)
*Yes, It's Fascism*
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/america-fascism-trump-maga-ice/685751/
Rauch has reached a point where it is clear that fascism is at large in America. Not so long ago people might have pooh-poohed the idea He writes that (1/5)
It is clear that Trump is a clownish parody of Generalissimo Franco. From reading Paul Preston's book (not an easy read) we learn how, like Trump, he shepherded loyalists and sycophants who allowed him to carry on relentless mass murder ...
www.amazon.co.uk/Franco-Biogr...
www.amazon.co.uk/Franco-Biogr...
www.amazon.co.uk
February 13, 2026 at 5:40 PM
It is clear that Trump is a clownish parody of Generalissimo Franco. From reading Paul Preston's book (not an easy read) we learn how, like Trump, he shepherded loyalists and sycophants who allowed him to carry on relentless mass murder ...
www.amazon.co.uk/Franco-Biogr...
www.amazon.co.uk/Franco-Biogr...
/1 Geoffrey Hinton's (very dark) Nobel Speech ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f5W...
Might he become a modern Midgley?
Thomas Midgley discovered the usefulness of lead in petrol engines. Great! 😏
... see /2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f5W...
Might he become a modern Midgley?
Thomas Midgley discovered the usefulness of lead in petrol engines. Great! 😏
... see /2
Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel Prize in Physics 2024: Banquet speech
YouTube video by Nobel Prize
www.youtube.com
February 13, 2026 at 5:25 PM
/1 Geoffrey Hinton's (very dark) Nobel Speech ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f5W...
Might he become a modern Midgley?
Thomas Midgley discovered the usefulness of lead in petrol engines. Great! 😏
... see /2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f5W...
Might he become a modern Midgley?
Thomas Midgley discovered the usefulness of lead in petrol engines. Great! 😏
... see /2
From the UK :
The political mood among voters is ... nihilism.
Things are so f**ked up, no-one who has any plan for what to do. Right now, we have moved beyond apathy - no-one is offering a fix ...
See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnCe...
The political mood among voters is ... nihilism.
Things are so f**ked up, no-one who has any plan for what to do. Right now, we have moved beyond apathy - no-one is offering a fix ...
See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnCe...
Mandy Lifeboats! Private Eye on Peter Mandelson, Epstein & Keir Starmer's Chances
YouTube video by Private Eye Magazine
www.youtube.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:53 PM
From the UK :
The political mood among voters is ... nihilism.
Things are so f**ked up, no-one who has any plan for what to do. Right now, we have moved beyond apathy - no-one is offering a fix ...
See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnCe...
The political mood among voters is ... nihilism.
Things are so f**ked up, no-one who has any plan for what to do. Right now, we have moved beyond apathy - no-one is offering a fix ...
See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnCe...
I have thought for a while that Trump's political doppelganger is Mussolini but after reading up about the Spanish Civil War he is better fit for Franco - amoral, duplicitous, vicious and yet, like him, a spineless prancing coward ...
February 12, 2026 at 11:28 PM
I have thought for a while that Trump's political doppelganger is Mussolini but after reading up about the Spanish Civil War he is better fit for Franco - amoral, duplicitous, vicious and yet, like him, a spineless prancing coward ...
I understand how LLMs (or any pattern matcher AI) are trained using supervised training, but there is more talk about LLMs adding content autonomously.
Really?
Suggestions/links to useful sources appreciated.
Thanks
Here's a e.g. of the idea: theamericanscholar.org/baby-shoggot....
Really?
Suggestions/links to useful sources appreciated.
Thanks
Here's a e.g. of the idea: theamericanscholar.org/baby-shoggot....
Baby Shoggoth Is Listening - The American Scholar
Why are some writers tailoring their work for AI, and what does this mean for the future of writing and reading?
theamericanscholar.org
February 9, 2026 at 12:00 PM
I understand how LLMs (or any pattern matcher AI) are trained using supervised training, but there is more talk about LLMs adding content autonomously.
Really?
Suggestions/links to useful sources appreciated.
Thanks
Here's a e.g. of the idea: theamericanscholar.org/baby-shoggot....
Really?
Suggestions/links to useful sources appreciated.
Thanks
Here's a e.g. of the idea: theamericanscholar.org/baby-shoggot....
"In the world of tech, so many of the leading tycoons and V.C. geniuses have a way of convincing themselves that because they have made a fortune, because they know one big thing, they know *everything*. Everyone else is a Luddite or a dewy-eyed fool."
bit.ly/45VDRL5
bit.ly/45VDRL5
The New Yorker Daily Newsletter
bit.ly
February 8, 2026 at 5:23 PM
"In the world of tech, so many of the leading tycoons and V.C. geniuses have a way of convincing themselves that because they have made a fortune, because they know one big thing, they know *everything*. Everyone else is a Luddite or a dewy-eyed fool."
bit.ly/45VDRL5
bit.ly/45VDRL5
Anyone who says that “immigrants should just follow the rules” has missed the fact that the rules are impossible to follow.
Luxury Kafka: doctorow.medium.com/https-plural...
Luxury Kafka: doctorow.medium.com/https-plural...
Luxury Kafka
US Immigration on the easiest setting.
doctorow.medium.com
February 6, 2026 at 1:38 PM
Anyone who says that “immigrants should just follow the rules” has missed the fact that the rules are impossible to follow.
Luxury Kafka: doctorow.medium.com/https-plural...
Luxury Kafka: doctorow.medium.com/https-plural...
I feel such sympathy for Americans. US society now occupies the wasteland, a terrible place to live or visit. Once a beacon of hope, inventiveness, style, creativity, great music (etc.) we idiot Europeans are now realising how naive we have been to view Amerika as a positive force ...
February 5, 2026 at 12:12 PM
I feel such sympathy for Americans. US society now occupies the wasteland, a terrible place to live or visit. Once a beacon of hope, inventiveness, style, creativity, great music (etc.) we idiot Europeans are now realising how naive we have been to view Amerika as a positive force ...
The bleak story of the cyber-industrial age: collating 'data' as a substitute for actually doing anything to help people ...
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Over half of DWP disability assessors quit in a year over feeling ‘despised’
Government research also reveals that 40 per cent of new recruits left within three months
www.independent.co.uk
February 2, 2026 at 4:54 PM
The bleak story of the cyber-industrial age: collating 'data' as a substitute for actually doing anything to help people ...
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Hmmm ...
"...it is puzzling that the question of screen time [used for teaching] in schools is left out of discussions. ... No social media ban will compensate for an education system that conditions [students] to turn to screens for every task."
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
"...it is puzzling that the question of screen time [used for teaching] in schools is left out of discussions. ... No social media ban will compensate for an education system that conditions [students] to turn to screens for every task."
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
What good is a social media ban when screens are rife in classrooms? | Letters
Letters: Device use is prolific in schools and is part of everyday activities, writes Kristyna Skriczka, while Arianny Avrile Saviñòn describes the effects of excessive screen time on children’s emoti...
www.theguardian.com
February 2, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Hmmm ...
"...it is puzzling that the question of screen time [used for teaching] in schools is left out of discussions. ... No social media ban will compensate for an education system that conditions [students] to turn to screens for every task."
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
"...it is puzzling that the question of screen time [used for teaching] in schools is left out of discussions. ... No social media ban will compensate for an education system that conditions [students] to turn to screens for every task."
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Ethically I don't like educational elitism which is based on the idea of selecting people (youngsters) according to a menu of policy driven aptitudes and talents ... yet it might be a strategy to help the UK counter American imperialism ...
www.ft.com/content/68f6...
www.ft.com/content/68f6...
China’s genius plan to win the AI race is already paying off
A network of ultra-competitive high-school talent streams has been turning out the leading lights of science and tech
www.ft.com
February 2, 2026 at 4:35 PM
Ethically I don't like educational elitism which is based on the idea of selecting people (youngsters) according to a menu of policy driven aptitudes and talents ... yet it might be a strategy to help the UK counter American imperialism ...
www.ft.com/content/68f6...
www.ft.com/content/68f6...
I guess it's a useful word:
Patrimonialist
a sleader, for example (and glaringly), Trump treats state resources as personal property. Power is maintained by personal loyalty, clientelism, and the distribution of rewards to a network of followers rather than through rational-legal bureaucracy.
Patrimonialist
a sleader, for example (and glaringly), Trump treats state resources as personal property. Power is maintained by personal loyalty, clientelism, and the distribution of rewards to a network of followers rather than through rational-legal bureaucracy.
February 1, 2026 at 11:25 PM
I guess it's a useful word:
Patrimonialist
a sleader, for example (and glaringly), Trump treats state resources as personal property. Power is maintained by personal loyalty, clientelism, and the distribution of rewards to a network of followers rather than through rational-legal bureaucracy.
Patrimonialist
a sleader, for example (and glaringly), Trump treats state resources as personal property. Power is maintained by personal loyalty, clientelism, and the distribution of rewards to a network of followers rather than through rational-legal bureaucracy.
"Tim Cook is the least obnoxious of the techlords who have sucked up to Trump and MAGA. But he too has done his creepy duty of abasement."
daringfireball.net/2026/01/poli...
daringfireball.net/2026/01/poli...
daringfireball.net
January 30, 2026 at 10:35 AM
"Tim Cook is the least obnoxious of the techlords who have sucked up to Trump and MAGA. But he too has done his creepy duty of abasement."
daringfireball.net/2026/01/poli...
daringfireball.net/2026/01/poli...
Who is this? Just one guess is all you need:
He suffers from excessive and often incoherent talkativeness.
He suffers from excessive and often incoherent talkativeness.
January 24, 2026 at 2:40 PM
Who is this? Just one guess is all you need:
He suffers from excessive and often incoherent talkativeness.
He suffers from excessive and often incoherent talkativeness.
"The violence of ICE is the future of "AI" and education."
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/the-ruffled-...
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/the-ruffled-...
The Ruffled Mind
There's a scene in the 1927 film Metropolis in which Freder, the son of the city's mayor, is playing in the "pleasure garden" when a young woman named Maria brings the children of the working class up...
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com
January 23, 2026 at 12:03 PM
"The violence of ICE is the future of "AI" and education."
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/the-ruffled-...
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/the-ruffled-...
"You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through [economic] integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination."
Mark Carney, Jan 21/1/26. Davos.
Mark Carney, Jan 21/1/26. Davos.
January 21, 2026 at 12:31 PM
"You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through [economic] integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination."
Mark Carney, Jan 21/1/26. Davos.
Mark Carney, Jan 21/1/26. Davos.
Speech by Mark Carney at Davos (English at 11min on ..)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=miM4...
I wouldn't normally do this but here's a link to the text as posted on X (may the cosmos destroy it):
x.com/OccupyDemocr...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=miM4...
I wouldn't normally do this but here's a link to the text as posted on X (may the cosmos destroy it):
x.com/OccupyDemocr...
x.com
January 21, 2026 at 11:43 AM
Speech by Mark Carney at Davos (English at 11min on ..)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=miM4...
I wouldn't normally do this but here's a link to the text as posted on X (may the cosmos destroy it):
x.com/OccupyDemocr...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=miM4...
I wouldn't normally do this but here's a link to the text as posted on X (may the cosmos destroy it):
x.com/OccupyDemocr...
Reading Sinclair Lewis's 'It Can't Happen Here'. Excellent and timely satirical rendering of Nazism/Fascism. Way too familiar (writing as a UK observer). Prescient? Yes, a lot. Best joke? The president's surname is 'Windrip' and, like 'Trump', a euphemism for a noisy, obnoxious fart.
January 21, 2026 at 11:21 AM
Reading Sinclair Lewis's 'It Can't Happen Here'. Excellent and timely satirical rendering of Nazism/Fascism. Way too familiar (writing as a UK observer). Prescient? Yes, a lot. Best joke? The president's surname is 'Windrip' and, like 'Trump', a euphemism for a noisy, obnoxious fart.
Thanks to Greenland for this:
MAGA - Make America Go Away
MAGA - Make America Go Away
January 20, 2026 at 3:40 PM
Thanks to Greenland for this:
MAGA - Make America Go Away
MAGA - Make America Go Away
Trump's Quisling politics:
"... much of the world believes his nation-first, “Make America Great Again” approach is instead helping to make China great again."
"...under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies ... feel ever more distant."
bit.ly/4sNvafK
"... much of the world believes his nation-first, “Make America Great Again” approach is instead helping to make China great again."
"...under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies ... feel ever more distant."
bit.ly/4sNvafK
Trump is making China – not America – great again, global survey suggests
Exclusive: US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies feel ever more distant, results show
www.theguardian.com
January 15, 2026 at 10:44 PM
Trump's Quisling politics:
"... much of the world believes his nation-first, “Make America Great Again” approach is instead helping to make China great again."
"...under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies ... feel ever more distant."
bit.ly/4sNvafK
"... much of the world believes his nation-first, “Make America Great Again” approach is instead helping to make China great again."
"...under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies ... feel ever more distant."
bit.ly/4sNvafK
Cant: hypocritical and sanctimonious talk, typically of a moral, religious, or political nature. (Oxford dictionary).
The Royal Society is oozing it from every orifice.
PS: Musk is NOT a scientist ... merely what we Londomers call a wide boy ...
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
The Royal Society is oozing it from every orifice.
PS: Musk is NOT a scientist ... merely what we Londomers call a wide boy ...
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
Royal Society president reignites Elon Musk row by defending lack of action
Society should only eject fellows for fraud or other defects in their research, says Paul Nurse
www.theguardian.com
January 15, 2026 at 10:22 PM
Cant: hypocritical and sanctimonious talk, typically of a moral, religious, or political nature. (Oxford dictionary).
The Royal Society is oozing it from every orifice.
PS: Musk is NOT a scientist ... merely what we Londomers call a wide boy ...
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
The Royal Society is oozing it from every orifice.
PS: Musk is NOT a scientist ... merely what we Londomers call a wide boy ...
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
Keir Starmer is not an idiot, although he is very, very boring. This situation is an outrageous, flagrant breach of the law, and specifically of human rights law, a specialism on which he built his reputation. Now he lives in moral squalor ...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Rights group disputes claim ministers cannot act over Palestine Action-linked hunger strikers
Human Rights Watch says attorney general has power to facilitate immediate bail, one of activists’ key demands
www.theguardian.com
January 15, 2026 at 10:16 PM
Keir Starmer is not an idiot, although he is very, very boring. This situation is an outrageous, flagrant breach of the law, and specifically of human rights law, a specialism on which he built his reputation. Now he lives in moral squalor ...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Musk is sooooo stupid!
"Real fascism is arresting thousands of people for social media posts."
BBC News - X could 'lose right to self regulate', says Starmer
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"Real fascism is arresting thousands of people for social media posts."
BBC News - X could 'lose right to self regulate', says Starmer
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
X could 'lose right to self regulate', says Starmer
It is currently illegal to share deepfakes, but the law against creating them has not yet come into force.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 13, 2026 at 8:38 AM
Musk is sooooo stupid!
"Real fascism is arresting thousands of people for social media posts."
BBC News - X could 'lose right to self regulate', says Starmer
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"Real fascism is arresting thousands of people for social media posts."
BBC News - X could 'lose right to self regulate', says Starmer
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...