Members gathered on Monday night’s Monthly Hang with Max & Friends with special guest Rashed Main, managing editor of News Beat—another show engineered by the great Manny Faces. In this week’s Members Only Newsletter, Unf*ckers were treated to:
An article from News Beat’s Rashed Mian about the crumbling international rules-based order.
The Tuesday “Top Five” headlines and snippets of must read articles for the week.
Ryan Stanco’s “Not For Nothing” segment about Rudy Giuliani’s coffee ($30/bag!!!), Red Lobster and the Doomsday Glacier.
And more Max Notes.
So what are you waiting for? Sign up today to become a member and support UNFTR.
Max Notes
I appreciate the latitude to enjoy an extended weekend and get my proverbial poop in a group on the upcoming series. I’m really excited about this one. The series is loosely titled “American Cartels” and the first story is one that I’ve had on the board since day one of the podcast. I’m finally getting around to it due to some movement in the healthcare industry and have made some solid connections with a couple people who are responsible for the movement. I’m fairly confident we’ll have the first installment ready for next weekend and I promise it’ll be worth the wait.
Apart from that, I’m light on inspiration and am looking forward to this time to organize and get ready for what I anticipate will be a busy summer heading into the election. I’m also getting caught up on editing a couple of videos so please check out the UNFTR YouTube to give us a boost with some “likes” and comments when you get a chance.
Look at the years that Trump was in office. Forget the COVID bumps and freak outs along the way; focus on the positive/negative trend lines. When Trump was in office, most of the country thought the economy was “fairly good” to “very good.” The Biden years are essentially the inverse with 62% of the country falling into the “fairly bad” to “very bad” range. If these numbers don’t correct significantly over the course of the summer, this guy is toast.
Headlines
Establishment Dems and AIPAC Partner To Run the Table in Oregon
Star progressive Pramila Jayapal’s sister was on the ballot in Oregon’s 3rd District to secure the Democratic nomination but was met with a brick wall of campaign financing from AIPAC and sources to be revealed later. This gives the DNC and AIPAC some confidence after losing again to Summer Lee in Pennsylvania that cash can drown out popular progressive movements.
From the article:
“In the open and safely Democratic 3rd District, the biggest candidates were all progressive, but state Rep. Maxine Dexter bested Susheela Jayapal, a former Multnomah County Commissioner — despite her roster of impressive liberal endorsements. There was little daylight between the two candidates on major policy areas, but Jayapal was backed by a star roster of progressives including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and her sister, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Dexter received millions in dollars of support from 314 Action PAC, which supports STEM-educated Democrats, while Jayapal was hit with millions of dollars in attack ads from Voters for Responsive Government, a pop-up super PAC whose funders won’t be disclosed until next month.”
Several media organizations have filed suit against OpenAI for “learning” from content on the Internet. In other words, plagiarism. Rather than try to get ahead of the multiple large language models, of which OpenAI is the clear leader, News Corp threw in with the tech giant to license its content. The deal is purportedly worth around $250 million over several years and likely complicates the legal and eventually legislative viewpoint on the matter. My take is pretty simple. OpenAI and its competitors are going to steal, synthesize and regurgitate published information whether it’s behind a paywall or not so News Corp is doing the obvious, albeit cynical thing of at least getting paid for it before the whole media ecosystem comes crashing down.
From the article:
“Many publishers have worried about the threat to their business posed by generative A.I., which uses copyrighted content to train its models and service its chatbots. The use of A.I. to answer online search queries in particular has raised concerns that publishers are not being compensated for the use of their content to train chatbots that compete with them as a source of information.”
Is RFK’s brand of misinformation more dangerous than Trump’s?
Mother Jones dug into one of Kennedy’s most outrageous claims regarding the outbreak of COVID-19 to illustrate how the candidate’s conspiracy brain is hardwired. The article goes deep on one particular conspiracy about a corporate event held in New York City in 2019 is proof that the CIA, Big Pharma and private industry conspired to bring about the pandemic.
From the article:
“As for Kennedy’s comments about Event 201, the campaign insisted that his remarks have been ‘misconstrued.’ It replied, ‘He does not believe that the pandemic was planned in advance. He believes that the administrative machinery for the pandemic response, which amounted indeed to a totalitarian clampdown, was already being developed before the pandemic.’ That’s subtle and inaccurate revisionism that downplays what Kennedy has repeatedly and wildly alleged. As the campaign describes it, Kennedy merely thinks that the preparatory planning for a pandemic reaction yielded measures that ‘amounted’ to a repressive response. That’s not the story he has been pitching. He has clearly claimed more than once that Event 201 was part of a long-standing devilish plot to use the pandemic to impose a dictatorship.”
Manny is abroad, 99 has a long weekend with friends and I’m taking a few days to dive deep into our next series and relax a bit around the house. What’s the point of this? There’s no show this weekend so we’re giving the podcast feed a bit of a rest. On behalf of the UNFTR team, I hope everyone in the states has a wonderful holiday weekend. For our Unf*ckers around the globe, forgive the brief respite. We’ll be back in a jiffy.
Resources
Pod Love
“They touch on the economic policies of Javier Milei in Argentina and the debate around austerity measures. The conversation explores the need for better work-life balance laws in the United States, particularly regarding paid time off (PTO). Also, the difference between psychopaths, sociopaths, and narcissists, and the need for independent debates in politics.”
“Lula is among the greatest political figures in Brazilian history. The only president in the country with a working-class background, combined with a party that was profoundly original in its roots, he exercised charismatic power and influence in a more lasting way than any other public figure in the republican period.
“Since 2011, Fernando Morais, one of Brazil's leading writers, has gained direct, frank and frequent access to Lula. To these dozens of hours of testimonies, he has added a reporter's flair and captivating prose to compose a biography that paints a picture in all its grandeur and complexity.
“In a narrative that makes use of flashforwards and flashbacks to maintain an electrifying pace, Morais goes from Lula's childhood to the annulment of his convictions, in 2021 - passing through the new unionism, the ABC strikes, the foundation of the PT and the first election campaign.”
“Thanks for reading and compressing Project 2025 for us. Something that I noticed was the ambition to remove federal flood protection from the federal government, and ask states to do that. That is among many proposals that will harm the middle class, and an angry middle class that feels unsafe ... (and has ambitions to be part of the 5%) ... often believes lies and votes Republican.
“State responsibilities/Federal responsibilities? I would love to see UNFTR keep an eye on what Texas does post-wildfire, in terms of asking for federal help, with that thought in mind. Do you see what I am thinking? Right wing politicians, including governors, dis the federal government, but when they have a disaster, they ask for help. They don't want the feds to have tax money to help them, but they want help anyway.
“That fire is a big disaster. (It may increase the price of beef, maybe just in time for the election, but that is another matter). Will Texas ask for help? Would Florida, in a similar situation?”
The New York City Public Advocate is one of the most prominent progressives in New York. Long a fighter for marginalized voices, Williams isn’t afraid to use his position to demand better of a system that often fails to stand up for the people who make the city run.
“People’s World is a voice for progressive change and socialism in the United States. It provides news and analysis of, by, and for the labor and democratic movements to our readers across the country and around the world. With a small but dedicated staff, freelance contributors, and a nationwide network of volunteer writers, People’s World presents insights into local, national, and international struggles from the perspectives of those who are experiencing them. It’s an angle you won’t find in the corporate press.”
