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Has A Bone To Pick With The Bones
Dec. 9th, 2025 02:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
notalwaysright_feedRead Has A Bone To Pick With The Bones
A guy comes over to the customer service desk and immediately starts screaming.
Customer: "My wife choked on the bones of a fish I got at your fishmongers! Get me the manager now!"
The store manager was absolutely not someone you would bother for a random customer issue without a good reason, so I tried to get more info.
193 Cybercrims Arrested, Accused of Plotting 'Violence-As-a-Service'
Dec. 9th, 2025 02:00 amslashdot_feedEuropol's GRIMM taskforce has arrested nearly 200 people accused of running or participating in "violence-as-a-service" schemes where cybercrime groups recruit youth online for real-world attacks. "These individuals are groomed or coerced into committing a range of violent crimes, from acts of intimidation and torture to murder," the European police said on Monday. The Register reports: GRIMM began in April, and includes investigators from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, plus Europol experts and online service providers. During its first six months, police involved in this operation arrested 63 people directly involved in carrying out or planning violent crimes, 40 "enablers" accused of facilitating violence-for-hire services, 84 recruiters, and six "instigators," five of whom the cops labeled "high-value targets." [...]
Many of the criminals involved in recruiting and carrying out these violence-for-hire services are also members of The Com. This is a loosely knit gang, primarily English speakers, involved in several interconnected networks of hackers, SIM swappers, and extortionists. Their reach has spread across the Atlantic, and over the summer, the FBI warned that a subset of this cybercrime group, called In Real Life (IRL) Com, poses a growing threat to youth. The FBI's security bulletin specifically called out IRL Com subgroups that offer swat-for-hire services, in which hoaxers falsely report shootings at someone's residence or call in bomb threats to trigger massive armed police responses at the victims' homes.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Nvidia Can Sell H200 Chips To China For 25% US Cut
Dec. 9th, 2025 01:30 amslashdot_feedThe Trump administration will allow Nvidia to resume selling H200 chips to China, but only if the U.S. government takes a 25% cut. Axios reports: Trump said on Truth Social that he'll allow Nvidia to sell H200 chips -- the generation of chips before its current, more-advanced Blackwell lineup -- to China, with the U.S. government pocketing a quarter of the revenue. He said he would apply "the same approach to AMD, Intel, and other GREAT American Companies."
American defense hawks fear that China could use Nvidia chips to advance its military ambitions. Trump said Monday that the sales will be subject to "conditions that allow for continued strong National Security." The blockade remains in place for Nvidia's current generation of Blackwell chips, which will be replaced in the second half of 2026 by even more advanced Rubin chips. Huang said recently he was unsure if China would want the older chips. "We applaud President Trump's decision to allow America's chip industry to compete to support high paying jobs and manufacturing in America," Nvidia said in a statement. "Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Mamdani won. So why aren't the wealthy fleeing New York City?
Dec. 9th, 2025 01:01 amdailykos_feedOne of the silliest preelection narratives around the New York City mayoral race was the supposed fear that a victory by democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani would spark an exodus of the city’s wealthy elite.
Billionaire investor and all-around Trumpian asshole Bill Ackman was typical of the lot, crying on X this past summer that both businesses and wealthy people had “already started making arrangements for the exits.” Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, another obnoxious MAGA bro, claimed he might move his company out of New York “because I hate the guy.” His grand plan? Move to New Jersey. Equally high-tax, equally liberal. So … yeah.
Grocery mogul John Catsimatidis, who runs the Gristedes and D’Agostino Supermarkets chains, also threatened a move to New Jersey.
“We may consider closing our supermarkets and selling the business,” the 76-year-old entrepreneur told The Free Press. “We have other businesses. Thank God, we have other businesses.”
And it wasn’t just right-wingers. New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul fretted about a potential Mamdani win because “I don’t want to lose any more people to Palm Beach. We’ve lost enough.”
Experts have been rolling their eyes at these threats all along.
“There is tax-induced mobility. It’s not non-existent but it’s very small,” Quentin Parinello, a tax expert, told ABC News.
In major cities like New York, people value the arts, business opportunities, and the ability to hire talent. ABC’s reporting includes several researchers making the same point: While the wealthy love to complain and posture, they rarely follow through.
“Movement of rich people on the basis of tax differentials is relatively small,” said Northwestern University professor Jeffrey Winters. “It’s very common for them to threaten to move. The risk is grossly overstated.”
Think of everyone who said they’d move to Canada if Donald Trump won the presidential race. Talking is always easier than acting.
Still, the New York Post—being the right-wing tabloid it is—keeps trying to manifest this fantasy.
“‘Mamdani effect’: Miami realtors report 166% spike in inquiries from wealthy NYC residents,” blared a recent headline. But even the story immediately contradicts itself: “Manhattan luxury contracts actually jumped 25% in November… a surge some brokers said shows ‘there is no Mamdani effect.’” The only sources in the Post story claiming otherwise are Miami real estate agents who make money convincing New Yorkers to relocate.
And since the Post didn’t bother providing raw numbers, that “166% spike” could literally mean inquiries went from three to eight. A phone call isn’t a move. Honestly, the number is almost certainly made up.
Related | Can progressives ride Mamdani’s momentum into the midterms?
As for real numbers?
“Sales of luxury homes in Manhattan jumped in November, countering fears that the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor would drive out wealthy residents,” Bloomberg reported. Buyers signed contracts on 176 homes priced at $4 million or more, up 25% from the month prior. These included condos purchased for around $24 million each. Not exactly a market in retreat.
There’s an even more telling statistic: Luxury housing inventory is down.
“[I]nventory actually fell 16% in the luxury market from October 2024 to October 2025, indicating that there is no flood of New Yorkers selling their homes and leaving town,” reported USA Today. If the wealthy were running for the exits, inventory would be skyrocketing. Instead, it’s tightening.
Of course no one likes paying higher taxes. Even those of us who believe in a functional government don’t enjoy writing the check every year—we just see it as the cost of a society that works. So it’s natural for wealthy New Yorkers to gripe about an extra 2% tax on incomes over $1 million (which likely won’t happen anyway; Albany leaders seem uninterested in backing Mamdani’s campaign proposal).
But the reality is that New York City’s wealthy residents get a lot for what they pay. Another Bloomberg story features David Bahnsen, a Republican wealth manager who sits on the board of the conservative National Review. He despises the city’s liberal politics, calling them “contemptible.” And while he frets about potential tax increases, he isn’t going anywhere.
Bahnsen openly acknowledges that New York gives him advantages he can’t get anywhere else—the clients, the talent, the nonstop drive of the place. What really hooks him, he says, is “the energy of the city, the ambition.” That spark doesn’t exist in the low-tax red-state enclaves conservatives claim are paradise. Certainly not in Florida.
And he’s not just staying—he’s thriving: morning jogs in Central Park, Broadway shows, dining out every night, walking 40,000 steps on a typical weekend, even working out of offices that are steps from the Museum of Modern Art. Sounds pretty good, actually.
And that’s really the dynamic at play: The wealthy stay because New York gives them a lifestyle they can’t replicate anywhere else. The city’s appeal isn’t just the museums, the theater, the restaurants, or the talent pool—though all of that matters. It’s the density of opportunity. It’s being in a place where the most ambitious people in the world cross paths every single day. Deals get made over coffee because everyone who is anyone is already there. Entire industries cluster on the same few blocks. For people with the freedom and means to take advantage of all that, the cost of living is simply baked into the price of admission.
For them, the taxes aren’t a deterrent because New York City delivers something tangible in return: world-class public amenities, a creative and economic ecosystem unmatched anywhere in the country, and an energy that makes even the most stubborn conservative wealth manager admit the city is worth it. As Bahnsen said—perhaps after skimming another anti-tax screed in the magazine he bankrolls—Central Park alone is “worth the cost of living in the city.”
And he’s right. Where else can you step out of a skyscraper, walk a few blocks, and be surrounded by 843 acres of urban wilderness, all maintained and accessible because New Yorkers collectively pay for it? And nothing Mamdani has proposed threatens any of that.
But NYC’s price of admission isn’t the same for everyone. The amenities, energy, and opportunity that make New York irresistible to the wealthy don’t trickle down—they get walled off by the city’s staggering cost of housing, child care, transit, and daily life. If you can’t buy your way into the version of the Big Apple that’s thriving, you get squeezed into the version that isn’t. And eventually, you get pushed out entirely.
Related | ‘Make halal eight bucks again’: Zohran Mamdani has the blueprint
Northwestern University professor Winters highlights that point.
“We are worried about the outflow of the very wealthiest people… when in fact the biggest outflow of people is among those who can’t afford even the basics of staying there,” he warned.
The rich aren’t fleeing Mamdani’s New York. But the working class and the struggling middle class? They’ve been leaving for years because the price of admission keeps rising while their access to the city’s prosperity keeps shrinking.
That is the energy Mamdani tapped into. That’s what led to his resounding victory.
And that is New York City’s real challenge in the years ahead.
Cartoon: Drug dealers in Trump's America
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:59 amdailykos_feedA cartoon by Drew Sheneman.
Related | While scientists race to study spread of measles in US, Kennedy unravels hard-won gains
Netflix, this game was always rigged
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:00 amdailykos_feedSurely, Netflix knew how this would all play out.
Yes, while Friday saw Netflix announce it would pay $72 billion for Warner Bros. Discovery’s film and streaming businesses, that news was obliterated on Monday when Paramount announced its hostile bid, going directly to shareholders with a deal that would give them $17.6 billion more in cash than the Netflix deal.
Since Paramount has already paid the customary Trump tax—an eight-figure bribe to his future presidential library—they appear better equipped to win regulatory approval for the deal.
And these days, it’s the regulatory approval, not the money, that may matter most.
Normally, political writers do not have to keep abreast of the blow-by-blow details of media mergers, but now that those mergers happen only if Trump wants them to, we get to think about this all the time.
The Netflix deal wasn’t just some tentative offer that had been floated by Warner Bros. Rather, the Netflix and Warner Bros. boards had both voted to accept the deal.
However, Paramount has enough money to go right to the Warner Bros. shareholders and offer to shower them with more cash. It also has enough influence with Trump to try to tank the deal in a regulatory way.
Netflix almost certainly knew that, which is why co-CEO Ted Sarandos made a pilgrimage to the White House in November to discuss the deal with Trump. Sarandos left the meeting thinking that “Netflix wouldn’t face immediate opposition from the White House” over the deal, according to Bloomberg.
To be fair, the opposition wasn’t immediate, so Sarandos was partly right. But why on earth would anyone believe, nearly a year into Trump’s second term, that Trump is someone who would keep his word? Sarandos did show the proper deference by approaching the throne and begging, but Netflix was far behind Paramount in the sucking-up-to-Trump department.
It isn’t just that Paramount had previously shown its eagerness to do Trump’s bidding and turn CBS News into what is basically TrumpTV. Paramount is also far better-equipped to compete in this stupid, corrupt process because CEO David Ellison’s daddy, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is a big Trump ally, getting huge multibillion-dollar deals like an amorphous AI infrastructure partnership and a stake in the deal that could see TikTok’s algorithm pivot to the right.
Paramount also made sure to tuck a treat for the extended Trump family into its Warner Bros. bid: Son-in-law Jared Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, is helping to finance Paramount’s bid.
Altogether, David Ellison was likely not just blowing smoke when he was telling people in October that Paramount would be the only buyer the Trump administration would approve of.
Trump himself paved the way for Paramount’s bid, remarking on Sunday that if Netflix bought Warner Bros., the resulting huge market share “could be a problem.” Trump also said that he would be involved in the approval process, which suggests he will put his thumb on the scale. And Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, doubled down on the threat Monday, saying that the Department of Justice would be examining the proposed Netflix-Warner Bros. deal “for quite a while.”
To recap: If Netflix buys Warner Bros., that raises antitrust concerns, but if Paramount—which owns everything from Paramount Pictures and CBS News to Nickelodeon, MTV, and more—does so, it’ll probably be just fine.
This isn’t to make light of sincere antitrust concerns. Increased media consolidation is a genuine issue as billionaires gobble up more and more information and entertainment sources, increasing prices while decreasing choices.
But the Trump administration doesn’t care about market share so much as it cares about using the necessary, once-normal tools of oversight to force companies to their knees. Paramount long ago showed just how willing it is to do so voluntarily, so why shouldn’t it expect to be rewarded here?
Republican gushes at Trump over bailout needed due to his tariffs
Dec. 8th, 2025 11:55 pmdailykos_feedDuring a White House roundtable on Monday, Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia professed his love for President Donald Trump after the administration announced a $12 billion bailout aid package for farmers hurt by Trump’s chaotic trade wars.
Scott: Thank you very much, president. We love you. ... A country that can't feed itself doesn't know what freedom is. And so thank you for making sure that our farmers have the tools that they need so that we as a country can feed ourselves.
dailykos_feedA daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know.
Democratic governors' 2026 message hits Trump's sore spot
For a Democratic “con job,” this issue sure won’t leave Trump alone.
Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ is tarnishing fast
He can cover the White House in gold all he wants, but Americans still know the truth.
What Trump’s pardons expose about his politics
“No more Mr. Nice Guy!’ … Unless you’ve got big bucks.
The Trump family feast.
Trump reminds us that laws are for the little people
Trump may suck as a president, but he’s killing it with this whole criminal enterprise thing.
Bezos thinks big donation makes it okay to poison a lagoon
“They are brilliant enough to send rocket after rocket up into the sky, but they can’t figure out a better solution?”
Trump official flails when pressed on being a ‘soybean farmer’
The Trump team is a bunch of hardworking Americans, just like the rest of us!
icanhascheezburger_feedThis little sweetheart first appeared at the feral feeding station in late October, running off the moment the door opened. By the next day, she was waiting with the colony but too scared to eat from their bowl, so she got her own little pile. It was immediately clear she wasn't a true feral. She wanted pets, wanted to be picked up, and was heartbreakingly thin. After posting online, calling shelters, and checking for a microchip with no results, it seemed no one was looking for her.
She stayed in the basement for a few days while introductions were prepared. At her first vet visit, she weighed only 6.1 pounds, but she tested negative for everything. Three weeks later, she'd already gained a pound and a half. She let her new hooman clip her nails, brush her fur, and even clean her teeth without fuss, proving she'd definitely been a pet before.
Now she's settling beautifully into the home she chose. She's getting along with the older resident cats, cuddling on the couch, playing under doors, and acting like she's lived there forever. A warm future awaits her.
Allergic To Working
Dec. 9th, 2025 01:00 amnotalwaysright_feedRead Allergic To Working
Coworker: "I was working with [Other Coworker] yesterday and she was sick, so I got whatever she's got."
Me: "[Other Coworker] wasn't sick yesterday, she just has seasonal allergies."
Read Allergic To Working
More Than 200 Environmental Groups Demand Halt To New US Datacenters
Dec. 9th, 2025 01:10 amslashdot_feedAn anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: A coalition of more than 230 environmental groups has demanded a national moratorium on new datacenters in the U.S., the latest salvo in a growing backlash to a booming artificial intelligence industry that has been blamed for escalating electricity bills and worsening the climate crisis. The green groups, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch and dozens of local organizations, have urged members of Congress to halt the proliferation of energy-hungry datacenters, accusing them of causing planet-heating emissions, sucking up vast amounts of water and exacerbating electricity bill increases that have hit Americans this year.
"The rapid, largely unregulated rise of datacenters to fuel the AI and crypto frenzy is disrupting communities across the country and threatening Americans' economic, environmental, climate and water security," the letter states, adding that approval of new data centers should be paused until new regulations are put in place. The push comes amid a growing revolt against moves by companies such as Meta, Google and Open AI to plow hundreds of billions of dollars into new datacenters, primarily to meet the huge computing demands of AI. At least 16 datacenter projects, worth a combined $64 billion, have been blocked or delayed due to local opposition to rising electricity costs. The facilities' need for huge amounts of water to cool down equipment has also proved controversial, particularly in drier areas where supplies are scarce. [...]
At the current rate of growth, datacenters could add up to 44m tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2030, equivalent to putting an extra 10m cars on to the road and exacerbating a climate crisis that is already spurring extreme weather disasters and ripping apart the fabric of the American insurance market. But it is the impact upon power bills, rather than the climate crisis, that is causing anguish for most voters, acknowledged Emily Wurth, managing director of organizing at Food & Water Watch, the group behind the letter to lawmakers. "I've been amazed by the groundswell of grassroots, bipartisan opposition to this, in all types of communities across the US," said Wurth. "Everyone is affected by this, the opposition has been across the political spectrum. A lot of people don't see the benefits coming from AI and feel they will be paying for it with their energy bills and water."
"It's an important talking point. We've seen outrageous utility price rises across the country and we are going to lean into this. Prices are going up across the board and this is something Americans really do care about."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Unpleasant AI-generated McDonald's ad depicts Christmas misery
Dec. 8th, 2025 11:44 pmboingboing_feed
It's hard to believe it's real, and I'm not talking about the uncanny AI world of McDonalds' new Christmas ad, but the fact of its existence. The ad's theme is how terrible Christmas is, and it depicts various mishaps and accidents ruining the holiday. — Read the rest
The post Unpleasant AI-generated McDonald's ad depicts Christmas misery appeared first on Boing Boing.
Olive And Let Die
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:00 amnotalwaysright_feedRead Olive And Let Die
I look up and see that he has a mouthful of olives.
Me: *Politely but sternly.* "Bud… this stuff isn't for you."
In response, he flicks the olive juice off his fingers at my face.
Read Olive And Let Die
Taiwan Cries Censorship As Government Bans Rednote
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:30 amslashdot_feedLongtime Slashdot reader hackingbear writes: Taiwan's government has ordered a one-year block of a popular, mainland Chinese-owned social media app Xiaohongshu, also known as The Little RedNote, citing its failure to cooperate with authorities over fraud-related concerns. Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited Xiaohongshu's, which does not have business presence on the island, refusal to cooperate with authorities as the basis for the ban, claiming that the platform has been linked to more than 1,700 fraud-related cases that resulted in financial losses of 247.7 million Taiwanese dollars ($7.9 million). "Due to the inability to obtain necessary data in accordance with the law, law enforcement authorities have encountered significant obstacles in investigations, creating a de facto legal vacuum," the ministry said in a statement.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Taiwan's opposition party, Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun decried the government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu for one year as censorship. "Many people online are already asking 'How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,'" Cheng posted on social media. Meta was facing fines earlier this year for failing to disclose information on individuals who funded advertisements on its social media platforms, marking the second such penalty in Taiwan for violating the anti-fraud act. "Meta failed to fully disclose information regarding who paid for the advertisement and who benefited from it," Depute Minister Lin of Ministry of Digital Affairs said at a news conference on June 18.
If MODA decides to impose the fine, it would mark the second such penalty against Meta in Taiwan, following a NT$1 million ($33,381) fine issued in May for violating the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act by failing to disclose information on individuals who commissioned and funded two Facebook advertisements. Meta's Threads were also included in the regulatory framework following nearly 1,900 fraud-related reports associated with the platform, with 718 confirmed as scams. Xiaohongshu has surged in popularity among young Taiwanese in recent years, amassing 3 million users in the island of 23 million.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Trump To Bail Out Farmers With Our Tax Money Again
Dec. 8th, 2025 09:42 pmcrooks_and_liars_feed
The Trump administration is set to unveil a long-awaited farm aid package on Monday, according to a White House official, offering $12 billion in assistance to a key base of support that largely voted for the president and were hit hard by low crop prices and the impact of the president’s tariff tantrums. Some farmers have experienced buyer's remorse as the administration's policies created financial pressures. So now, Trump is going to throw some Socialist dollars at the farmers who are struggling financially due to the president's policies.
Trump creates a problem. Puts a temporary fix on the problem he created, then takes credit. I feel like we've seen this happen before. And we are paying for this. All of us. This wouldn't be necessary if Americans weren't caught in the crossfire of Trump's tariffs in the first place.
Bloomberg reports:
The aid will include up to $11 billion in one-time payments to crop farmers under the Department of Agriculture’s newly designed Farmer Bridge Assistance program, while the remaining is reserved for crops not covered under the FBA, according to the official, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public.
Congress will cut Hegseth's travel budget until he releases boat strike videos
Dec. 8th, 2025 10:22 pmboingboing_feed
Congress is telling Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth: Show us what happened on September 2, or your trips get cut.
That's the day a U.S. strike hit an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, followed by a second strike that killed two survivors. — Read the rest
The post Congress will cut Hegseth's travel budget until he releases boat strike videos appeared first on Boing Boing.
IBM To Buy Confluent For $11 Billion To Expand AI Services
Dec. 8th, 2025 11:50 pmslashdot_feedIBM is buying Confluent for $11 billion in a major push to own real-time data streaming infrastructure essential for enterprise AI workloads. It marks Big Blue's biggest acquisition since Red Hat in 2019. Bloomberg reports: The AI boom has touched off billions of dollars in deals for businesses that build, train or leverage the technology, propelling the value of an entire ecosystem of data center developers, software makers, generative AI tool developers and data management firms. Mountain View, California-based Confluent sits in the data corner of that world, providing a platform for companies to gather -- or "stream" -- and analyze data in real time as opposed to shipping data in clunkier batches.
Manufacturers such as Michelin, for example, have used Confluent's platform to optimize their inventories of raw and semi-finished materials live. Instacart adopted Confluent to develop real-time fraud detection systems and gain more visibility into the availability of products sold on its grocery delivery platform. Businesses are increasingly tapping AI systems that manage tasks like this in real-time and require live flows of data to do so. IBM, which pioneered mainframe computers, has been trying to reposition its business around AI over the past few years. Under Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna, it's been buying software companies and selling generative AI-related services to enterprise clients. Software now makes up almost half its total revenue and continues to grow at a steady rate.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Firefox 146 Now Available With Native Fractional Scaling On Wayland
Dec. 8th, 2025 11:10 pmslashdot_feedFirefox 146 has been released with native fractional scaling support on Wayland -- finally giving Linux users crisp UI rendering. Other new additions include GPU process improvements on macOS, developer-focused CSS features, and broader access to Firefox Labs. Phoronix reports: Firefox 146 also now makes Firefox Labs available to all users, Firefox on macOS now has a dedicated GPU process by default, dropping Direct2D support on Windows, support for compressed elliptic curve points in WebCrypto, and updated the bundled Skia graphics library. Firefox 146 also has some fun developer enhancements like support for the CSS text-decoration-inset property, the @scope rule now being supported, CSS contrast-color() function being available, and several new experimental web features. The release notes and developer changes can be found at their respective links. Release binaries are available at Mozilla.org.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.