Latest / Stuff Keeps Happening / Defunding Public Television

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Defunding Public Television · Stuff Keeps Happening

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Hello. I cooked a baked good using a light bulb.
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But stuff still happens. So what's a thought
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experiment? Consider the following. You are stuck
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in the Australian outback. You've got nothing.
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It's been like 10 days, no food. The only water
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you've got is anything you can muster together
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from puddles. And there's Australians. Well,
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not people, but animals. Do you survive? But
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I'll tell you who did survive. Carolina Wilga.
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Sick name. Wilga is a 26 -year -old from Germany
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who was traveling in the Australian outback when
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her car broke down. She was nowhere near anything
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and was walking around for 11 days in the Australian
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outback alone with basically no food or water.
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Very thankfully, she was spotted by a passing
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driver who said that she looked distressed. I
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would think so. But she has been taken to the
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hospital. She's alright. I mean, considering.
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She's alive according to her. She's taking it
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one day at a time Which is probably for the best
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because she's apparently covered in bug bites
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like an obscene number of bug bites Which would
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probably be of everything that you would have
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to deal with the thing that gets me. I'm out.
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I'm done So just real quick my advice to you
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is don't get stranded in the Australian outback
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Unless you got that will go in you stateside
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boy howdy the US federal government is doing
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absolutely nothing to defeat the overtly evil
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allegations a bit of history and context for
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those who are outside of the states or are new
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to the political landscape of the US Ronald Reagan
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That's kind of all the context actually Ronald
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Reagan once famously said the nine scariest words
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in the English language are I'm from the government
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and I'm here to help and that phrase Has destroyed
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the minds of an entire generation In the U .S.,
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government -provided services are seen as a moral
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failing because of that. It's wild. Republicans
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often campaign on cutting government spending
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and removing programs and removing social safety
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nets and health care and everything. Basically
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everything. They want to not have homeless shelters.
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They want to not have anything. Their ideology
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is just, you should have been better. So, but
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anyway, just with that background information.
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The Republican -controlled U .S. federal government
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has recently voted to strip $9 .4 billion from
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the following. Contributions to international
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organizations, contributions for international
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peacekeeping activities, global health programs,
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mitigation and refugee assistance, the Complex
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Crises Fund, the Democracy Fund, the Economic
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Support Fund, contributions to the Clean Technology
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Fund, international organization and programs,
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development assistance, assistance for Europe,
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Eurasia and Central Asia, international disaster
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assistance and transition initiatives. The bill
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also rescinds that are provided for U .S. aid
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operations, the Inter -American Foundation, the
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U .S. African Development Foundation, the U .S.
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Institute of Peace, and the Corporation for Public
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Broadcasting. So the public broadcasting one.
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That's why you've been seeing a whole bunch of
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stuff about how the government is killing PBS
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and NPR. That's not - precisely what is happening,
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but the government is undermining funds that
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are used to go to public broadcasting initiatives.
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Now, that list of things is not perfect. There
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are some things on there that aren't quite exactly
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what the name says, but there's also things on
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there like international disaster relief and
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like the medicine programs and whatnot that USAID
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does. So again, this was less than $10 billion
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in total. Republicans just voted to add trillions
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to the deficit. But then they turn around and
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they point to this kind of stuff and they're
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like, look, we cut billions of dollars from the
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budget by getting rid of all these wasteful services.
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Without talking about the specifics of the services
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and also hoping that you overlook the B, where
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there's usually a T. Now look, aid programs and
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social safety nets are not the problems with
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the government. As much as they want to make
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it seem like it's just a bunch of lazy people
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extracting money from the system and taking your
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dollars. That's what billionaires are. Again,
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10 billion. All of that stuff. 10 billion. When
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we otherwise dole out hundreds of billions of
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dollars of contracts to bomb manufacturers. The
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US federal government is the bad guy. Like, we
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know this. Governance as a concept and government
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services provided to the public are not the bad
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guys. Be careful not to let unilateral hatred
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of the US government seep into your views of
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things that can be good for people. Food assistance
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programs, health assistance programs, housing
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assistance programs, all of these things strengthen
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communities and improve societies. They ultimately
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turn around and put more money in your pocket.
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Economies are stronger when there is stability
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among the populace. But instead of doing that,
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our foreign policy is what gets funded. Which
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is to say bombs. Let's talk labor rights. There
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is a new appointee for the National Labor Relations
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Board, the NLRB. This is the group that works
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to ensure that workers in America have any semblance
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of rights. This group is essentially why unions
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can exist, and it exists because capitalism definitionally
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destroys itself without regulation. So while
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this board is supposed to protect workers' rights
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and help us keep our weekends, Trump has just
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appointed the head employment lawyer from Boeing.
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This guy, Scott Mayer, he is a lawyer who has
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been working at Boeing to essentially help them
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not have to deal with the fallout of all the
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things they do to their employees, like killing
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them. Who said that? Who said that? For legal
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purposes, I do not have evidence that Boeing
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has killed an employee. I just have a lot of
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articles about it. Here's a quote from the Economic
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Policy Institute. So, like, this is not surprising.
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This shouldn't be surprising. Donald Trump has
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a very long and well -documented history of screwing
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over workers, not paying out contracts. and getting
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rid of anyone who's inconvenient to him. In my
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lifetime, I don't think there has been a stronger
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anti -labor candidate than Donald Trump, and
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it blows my mind that people just don't see that.
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So where we're at right now is the NLRB has been
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in stasis. They haven't really been able to do
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anything because Trump fired some people from
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the board and they haven't been able to make
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any decisions. So he's appointing these people
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to try to get them on the board and undo things
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that Biden did to enshrine some workers rights
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during his administration. Because won't someone
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think of the corporations? Won't anyone think
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of the companies? Mustocks! Last thing for stateside.
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Let's talk about the Epstein. Here's an Epstein
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update. An Ep -State, if you will. The Epstein
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files continue to be a thorn in the side of Trump
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and he's made It gets so much worse for himself.
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The man has decided that the way he's going to
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handle this is by attacking his own base. So
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after zigzagging on whether or not these files
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even exist, he went as far as to say that these
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files were made up by the Democrats and anyone
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who believes that the Epstein files are a thing
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are his quote former supporters and our weaklings,
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which that pissed off his base a lot, which is
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hilarious. because he called them weaklings and
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that made them mad. Like, out of everything that
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he has done, these people have the emotional
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capabilities of a middle schooler. It's outrageous.
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So he called them weaklings and losers and they
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got all big mad and now they're turning on him.
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But to be clear, MAGA turning on Trump doesn't
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mean that MAGA is no longer a far -right group.
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Like, he's not far -right enough for that. They
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want to establish a white Christian ethnostate
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and Trump is starting to become impotent in that
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regard. The inability to release the Epstein
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files is proof that He's not our guy. He's not
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gonna deliver us to the world that he's been
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promising us. So a lot of them feel betrayed,
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and not like, oh, I see the light now, but what
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happens to my guy? That said, if a non -zero
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number of people have a realization that they've
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been duped, and they realize they've been duped
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this whole time, great. You got there eventually.
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Elsewhere. Hey, Germany, you weren't supposed
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to copy our homework. Germany hosted a summit
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with a handful of European allies to discuss
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a clamping down of immigration policy for the
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EU. They're unhappy with migrants and asylum
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seekers, and they want to get rid of them. Does
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this sound familiar? In getting rid of them,
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they want to deport them to third party countries
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and hold them in deportation camps. Does this
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sound familiar? They want to get rid of them
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now without actually giving them due process
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and just yeet them out of the country so they
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don't have to look at them anymore and put them
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in a third party and then take care of it later.
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Does it sound familiar? Yeah, don't don't do
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that. Don't do that. But they are doing that.
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And after they made that decision, they turned
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around and as a show of force, deported 81 people
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to Afghanistan. Notably, Afghanistan's not a
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great place to be deported to right now. So much
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so that international human rights groups were
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like, what the fuck? Stop, stop, stop doing that.
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And like the UN Human Rights Council said, stop
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it. Stop deporting people to Afghanistan. Just
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kind of period. So to be clear, this has not
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been signed into law, but it is a direction of
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policy and it's already having an effect. But
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hey, don't mass deport people. Like we have the
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roof. Meanwhile, over in Cambodia. They're saving
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my cell phone. Authorities in Cambodia have been
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cracking down hard on scam call centers, arresting
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thousands of people over the past couple of weeks.
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Over 2 ,100 people have been arrested across
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a bunch of nationalities at dozens of locations
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across Cambodia that all are operating various
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call scams. This is a multi -billion dollar scam
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industry and a lot of the people who are working
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these call centers are not there on their own
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volition. Human trafficking is a big source of
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their employment. And wouldn't you know it, USAID
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was investing in reducing human trafficking.
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in that area before it was destroyed. These scams
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range from your typical go to 7 -Eleven and get
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a Google Play gift card and give me the code,
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to people imitating someone that you know in
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distress using an AI voice generator. Like they're
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getting sophisticated, but again, lots of crackdowns.
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So thanks to Cambodia, I no longer have to deal
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with my old friend's scam likely. Well, I still
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do, but less. Israel! is bombing Syria now. So
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things aren't great in Syria. That's not your
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statement. And Israel is bombing them now. The
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reason that they are doing this, they state,
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is they are defending their Druze brothers in
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the region. Druze is an ethnic group that is...
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Prominent in Israel, but found all over that
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general region. It's not a great excuse to bomb
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Damascus This means that Israel is now bombing
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Lebanon Iran Syria and Gaza in addition to their
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assaults in the West Bank and everything else
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They're doing in the region international reactions
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are largely condemnation like what the fuck are
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you doing? Why are you escalating this and Israel
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says that they've got a right to defend themselves?
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Yeah, they're saying the strike is to help prevent
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militants from Syria who are taking over the
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country from threatening Israel. Just once, can
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I open up any news site and not have it be that
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Israel is bombing someone and killing more people
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in Gaza? Let's move on to science and economy
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and technology. I kind of lumped a bunch of stuff
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into one. Oil. Chevron has acquired Hess. Which
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honestly sounds like an RPG character, like got
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some really cool ancient item, but no, it's just
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oil companies. So Chevron, an energy company,
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bought Hess for $55 million, pissing off Exxon,
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who wanted Hess. Exxon filed a motion saying,
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hey, yo, we had dibs on that. I think that's
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exactly what the legal paper said, and the judge
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found that they did not. Actually have dibs said
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another way Exxon was like this feels like a
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breach of contract We should have had a chance
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to buy shares of Hess and that didn't happen
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and the judge said nah And so Exxon's like okay.
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Well, we're gonna patch that in our contracts
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going forward. This is a massive acquisition
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It's one of the biggest energy deals in decades
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and it sent Exxon stock tumbling after it was
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announced threesomes but with science. There
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was a procedure that's exceedingly rare and had
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a big leap forward recently out of the UK. It
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is a three -way IVF treatment. Women who have
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mitochondrial diseases have a high probability
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of passing that along to any child they may birth,
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giving them debilitating lifelong issues. If
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you can give birth and you have this issue, basically
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your options have been don't have kids or find
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a donor. and so your child is not going to be
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genetically related to you. Basically, the way
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it works is this. There's the two parents and
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a donor, and the donor's egg has the DNA that
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overwrites what the mother's DNA would have otherwise
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put in there to cause the mitochondrial disease.
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If it sounds like gene editing or eugenics, it's
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kind of similar, but there's a lot of safety
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guards. Obviously, anything that has to do with
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editing and messing with the genetic structure
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of an embryo... is a slippery slip. But in this
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case, the way that it works is modifying a tiny,
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tiny fraction of the DNA that only affects the
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ability for the cells to produce energy. Everything
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else, all of the genetics, all of the traits,
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all of the ancestry, that's all from the parents
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still, and that's all the same as it would have
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otherwise been. So whether or not this makes
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you squeamish, you know, am I here to tell you
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how to feel about it? But there has been a lot
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of research into this and there has been a lot
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of discussion among bioethicists about the potential
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risks of this slipping into something like a
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designer baby thing and a legal framework around
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it. But then on the flip side you have eight
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children who were born recently from this procedure
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who are healthy with no signs of mitochondrial
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disease. who are related to their parents who
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now have a child that they wanted. Obviously,
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adoption is an option as well, but a lot of people
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want to have a genetically related child. This
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is not a widespread thing. This is still exceedingly
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rare. It's been done like three times ever, basically,
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since 2016. So we're not about to have a massive
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uprising of genetically edited children, but
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it's a thing. Speaking of cells, we saved pandas.
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We didn't save pandas, but I actually learned
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that pandas are no longer endangered. They're
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still vulnerable, but they're not technically
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endangered. All right, so what did we do? We
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saved the groomers. We took their skin. Wait.
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I misread. Scientists took skin cells from a
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giant panda and successfully converted them into
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stem cells. Stem cells are those classic, you
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know, the omni cells. They can kind of turn into
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anything. They're really, really great for developing
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treatments, and this is a massive step forward
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in potential conservation efforts. So while the
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pandas are still, I mean, frankly, a very dumb
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species, maybe we'll have more of them. Maybe
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we're gonna each have our own panda in a few
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years. Who knows? Thanks... cells? Last thing
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for tech, it's a lot of computer. There's a lot
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of computer out there and they're making more
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of it. Mark Zuckerberg is in the headlines, which
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is never good, because no one needs him. in our
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life, but he's specifically in the headlines
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right now because he is talking about how Metta
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is going to build massive data centers about
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the size of Manhattan. You heard both of those
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parts right. I said data centers, plural. the
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size of Manhattan. They're doing this because
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they want to have more computing power for AI.
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Right now, AI is just deeply inefficient, and
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it's like that by design. It's not inefficient
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because these people are bad at making software,
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it's inefficient because it's inefficient software.
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And so, to fix that, we just need an endless
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supply of energy and computational power so that
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these AI systems can handle the load that is
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currently being subsidized by investors. That
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was a lot of words to say the tech industry is
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just doing tech industry things, but... I would
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like a world with clean water and breathable
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air. Because as he's talking about building these
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giant data centers, we've been hearing about
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the data center that's powering Grok, Elon Musk's
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AI, from Memphis that's poisoning the air. These
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tech oligarchs are increasingly detached from
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reality and it's getting out of control. I don't
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know when we decided that being slightly okay
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at having a tech company means that you get to
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just ignore... all rules, and you deserve to
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shape the future of reality? Like, I don't think
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that's the right group to lead us. But here we
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are, in our Manhattan -sized computers. Hey,
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thank you so much for being here. Did you know
15:43
that I've got a Patreon, and a newsletter, and
15:46
I'm on Blue Sky, and Tumblr, and Macedon, and
15:49
I stream on Twitch, and I'm building a tabletop
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role -playing game? I do a lot of shit. Discord
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server. Links in description. That's all I'm
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gonna say about that. Gaming. Roblox is rolling
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out an IP licensing system. Hot damn. Roblox
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is an online like metaverse -ish platform. It's
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somewhere between a social space and a game engine.
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It's indescribably popular and it has all the
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metaverse stuff like hosting digital concerts
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and all that good stuff. Now they're rolling
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out a platform for companies with intellectual
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property to put that up for use. in roblox this
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is so that developers who build on the roblox
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platform can use actual like ip stuff in their
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in their games like imagine spider -man running
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around but it's above board instead of not business
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meanwhile over at virtuos there's been some layoffs
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virtuos is a co -development company they are
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a contractor company that works with studios
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to help build out big projects recently they
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worked on the remaster of elder scrolls 4 oblivion
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And despite its success, they're being laid off.
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They're laying off about 270 people, around 7
16:55
% of their workforce, primarily in Asia and Europe.
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The reason for this, they cite, is headwinds
17:00
in the industry. Essentially, the gaming industry
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can't find its ass with both hands, and they've
17:05
been spooked. to Greenlight AAA stuff recently.
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Because of that, there are less big projects
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with less big budgets going around, so less need
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for co -developers. This'll wax and wane as the
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market churns around, but largely it's just kind
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of a bummer that, like, really good talent is
17:21
just being thrown aside because executives. Which
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has been the case. It's not like this is a new
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thing, but I'm still mad about it, you know.
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Last thing for gaming, Nintendo has announced
17:30
the casting for Link and Zelda in their upcoming
17:34
live -action Zelda movie. Now, I am wary about
17:37
this, because I'm a fan of the hi -yah boy and
17:40
everything. Don't fuck it up. Please. Lightning
17:43
round. If you live in the UK, some porn sites
17:46
are going to start requiring age verification
17:48
by way of credit card verification. Shortly someone
17:51
hacked Elmo's Twitter account and started stealing
17:53
a bunch of anti -semitic shit get off Twitter
17:55
someone managed to break in to vehicles owned
17:58
by backup dancers for Beyonce on her tour and
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Stole unreleased Beyonce music security officers
18:04
at an airport in Germany confiscated 1 ,500 baby
18:08
tarantulas that were being hidden in a box of
18:11
confectionaries. They said that it smelled bad.
18:13
The late show with Stephen Colbert has been canceled
18:15
after Trump beefed with Paramount. Paramount
18:17
is the parent company of CBS who runs that show,
18:20
and Trump does not like him. They maintain that
18:22
it was a purely financial decision, that the
18:25
timing is a bit wacky. A Netflix executive has
18:27
stated that they have officially used AI generative
18:30
technology to produce effects for a show on their
18:33
platform. And they're gonna do more of it. And
18:35
finally for today, popular music group Massive
18:37
Attack has announced a coalition of musicians
18:40
who have spoken out about Gaza. It is an effort
18:42
to try to come together and push back on some
18:44
of the coordinated hate campaigns against them,
18:46
and the legal campaigns against them as well.
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Thank you so much for listening to today's episode
18:50
of Stuff Keeps Happening. Head to skh .news for
18:53
sources, bonus content, and the secret location
18:57
of those tarantulas. My name is Endeavorance,
18:59
we'll talk again soon, take care, and be well.