Issues You May Know, 24 October 2025.
A list of things you might want to know about - or write your reps about.
The fight for the future really is about monarchy vs democracy.
Notes From The Circus - The Coming Clash of Civilizations From the Wilderness of a Recovering Technocrat Mike Brock Oct 19, 2025 The system really is managed by people who dismiss your experience as insufficient understanding of their sophisticated analysis. Neo-reactionaries exploit this brilliantly. They say: democracy doesn’t work because most people aren’t capable of self-governance. We need hierarchy instead—rule by the intelligent few who understand complex systems. And they point to technocratic elite as proof: look at these experts running everything, dismissing ordinary concerns, insisting their metrics show success while your life falls apart. We’re just being honest about what already exists. This is why the technocratic center is completely clueless about the civilizational clash unfolding. Their framework literally cannot process regime change. They can optimize within systems but can’t recognize when systems themselves are under attack. When someone says “constitutional democracy is the problem,” the technocratic frame translates to “wants different regulatory approach.” When someone publishes blueprints for monarchy, they read “provocative intellectual exercise.” When someone invokes “extra-constitutional,” they hear “Trumpist rhetoric that will moderate.” They cannot process that one side has explicitly rejected the entire framework of democratic governance. So they keep trying to find sensible compromises between actually incompatible positions. Keep insisting both sides went too far and we need balanced centrism.
The suggestion for the question to put to would be representatives and leaders is exactly what speaks to people about No Kings. Mike Brock suggests: “Building coalitions across traditional left-right lines around a simple question: do you think ordinary people can govern themselves? Making the actual choice visible: we’re fighting about whether to have citizens or subjects.”
I’m asking all of my elected representatives this: Do you think ordinary people can govern themselves? Do you believe in a government for the people and by the people?
Title: The Abolition of Work Author: Bob Black Date: 1991 The official line is that we all have rights and live in a democracy. Other unfortunates who aren’t free like we are have to live in police states. These victims obey orders or-else, no matter how arbitrary. The authorities keep them under regular surveillance. State bureaucrats control even the smaller details of everyday life. The officials who push them around are answerable only to higher-ups, public or private. Either way, dissent and disobedience are punished. Informers report regularly to the authorities. All this is supposed to be a very bad thing. And so it is, although it is nothing but a description of the modern workplace.
I think many of us have been living only halfway from feudalism. The tech tycoons, the Project 2025 proponents, the Trump cronies, and the right-wing are suggesting we go all the way back to a type of monarchy, except this time incorporating the worst of capitalism with even worse company towns.
https://chloehumbert.substack.com/p/no-kings
Unfortunately they’re not the only ones who see themselves as separate and above the people. Pennsylvania Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro has been pushing for taking away local self-governance through RESET. And local elected officials of both parties have been signing “economic development” nondisclosure agreements to keep data center projects secret from the people who will be harmed by them using the taxpayers’ own money.
These people really are way out there. They want weird medical stuff for rich people to try to live forever while getting rid of healthcare and regulation of healthcare that the rest of us rely on.
The Peter Thiel Co-Conspirator You Haven’t Heard About, Part 2 - Oct 19 2025 More Perfect Union
The financialization and bankification of all of society.
I’d like to see some policy and regulation to stop this shit because it stinks of scams and leads to harm.
Economic Policy Oct 3, 2025 Bankification Nation From tech giants to airlines to health care providers, every company is becoming a bank — and that’s bad news for the rest of us. Luke Goldstein Starbucks holds nearly $2 billion of customers’ money in its rewards program. That’s more than the total deposits managed by 85 percent of chartered banks, making the coffee chain one of the biggest financial institutions in the country. Conversely, Capital One, one of the world’s top banks, now operates its own cafes on city street corners. Airlines are now little more than flying banks, given that they make more money from selling frequent flyer points to credit card companies than they do flying passengers. More Americans than ever are in debt to their nearby grocery store due to predatory “buy now, pay later” loans offered during checkout. As you’re wheeled into an emergency medical procedure, the nurse may ask if you’d prefer to pay on a deferred-payment loan plan, an increasingly common way to finance health care expenses. And if you can’t pay your rent on time, it could soon become common for your apartment building owner to lend you the money, putting you in debt to your landlord. These are snapshots of the new wave of financialization sweeping across the country, where the lines between finance and commerce are being blurred.
It’s all hopped up on nothing. Maybe turning it into a bank is one of the many reasons Starbucks sucks these days.
AAA Rated Junk: What Tricolor and First Brands Reveal About Credit Markets! - Patrick Boyle Oct 4, 2025 Tricolor – Like many dealerships, earned more from the loans it made to its customers than from the cars themselves. According to Bloomberg – they regularly charged interest rates above 20%. Those loans were bundled into asset-backed securities and sold-on to investors. First Brands was built up through acquisitions – which were financed by borrowing. Its owner, Patrick James, expanded the company by stitching together smaller manufacturers - he then layered on further leverage by borrowing against invoices and inventory—tapping private credit funds and specialist lenders. Their business models weren’t inherently flawed. Tricolor served a niche market with limited access to traditional credit. First Brands built scale through acquisitions and supply chain finance. But each was exposed to pressures that have intensified in recent years: immigration enforcement, rising tariffs, inflation, and a consumer base stretched by higher interest rates and elevated vehicle costs.
Fixing the car sales market would be part of a worthwhile political platform.
Direct car sales - cut the layers of nonsense. Defeat the right-wing step 3 according to It Could Happen Here podcast… Chloe Humbert Sep 20, 2024 We do not need so many layers of nonsense profiteering and protectionism in the inefficient car industry. And apparently the money is put into Republican campaign funding.
Silicon Valley is pulling out all the PR & lobbying to make sure chatbots can convince children to harm themselves.
This isn’t an exaggeration.
Recommend this podcast episode with Ed Zitron and Brian Merchant:
The World of AI Regulation with Brian Merchant October 9, 2025 • BETTER OFFLINE Brian Merchant: There’s there’s one bill that Silicon Valley is genuinely upset about and afraid of. And it’s a bill that like sets the very lowest bar and it says, essentially, if you are going to make a chatbot and market it to children, then you have to be able to demonstrate that this chatbot isn’t going to make them harm themselves. Ed Zitron: Ah. So they hate that. Brian Merchant: They are and they’re in you know, they have there’s this Silicon Valley lobbying group that’s kind of famous in California especially, called the Chamber of Progress. It’s like, yeah, it’s. Ed Zitron: Fuck off. Sorry, just like immediate reflexive, Brian Merchant: I know, gag reflex immediately. So they they’ve got this guy who’s out there writing op eds in like the San Diego Tribune and doing press going Oh it’s over broad, And let me tell like their actual line on this is, if this bill passes, then you’re gonna be taking away AI that could educate children. You’re gonna be taking away AI from children, and they’re not gonna have the same advantages that children with AI have. And they’re running this like this big Facebook campaign. They’ve hired lobbyists specifically to… They often do this. Ed Zitron: It’s fucking evil people. Brian Merchant: They are evil people. I mean this, I mean, for me, this was like, you know, this was like it’s past the threshold once the Adam Raine stuff broke and and OpenAI is uh, you know, trying to hem in haw about you know, oh, well you know we’re going to do this or that it’s we passed it, we passed the rubicon, right There’s they’ve got chatbots that are that are telling children to you know, hide the noose so that their parents don’t see it. And like it’s again. They make it seem like, oh, AI is this frontier we’re gonna work something. It’s a it’s a product, it’s a software product. But yeah, go ahead. Ed Zitron: I have a theory, Yeah theory. Okay, So I don’t think they can control these models. I don’t mean because they’re intelligent. I don’t mean because they’re autonomous. I mean I don’t think you can actually prompt a large language model to categorically stop it doing something. Brian Merchant: Yeah. Ed Zitron: I don’t think it’s possible. Brian Merchant: Then you should not be selling that piece of software to children. Ed Zitron: Oh I fully agree. 100% agree. I’m just saying that I don’t think they’re capable. Brian Merchant: I think you’re right. Speaker 2 (14:30): But my theory is based on costs because of Claude code that they can’t that they can’t do cost control. If they can’t do cost control, it means the model won’t listen. And I reckon that they can’t be like never talk about killing yourself. Yeah, Like they just can’t do that. Brian Merchant: Yeah, or it would require like going back through you know, like there’s been I’ve seen a lot of sort of speculation that the reason that it’s talking like this is that it’s like a lot of the language is coming from like pro suicide forums in the bowels of the internet. So like they don’t want to go through and take the time to sort that out. Ed Zitron: Probably articles as well that say, how to deal with someone who’s – just horrible stuff. These fucking people. And is this a California bill? Brian Merchant: Yeah, it’s a California bill. Yeah, and it’s and it is Yeah. So you know, if you’re on Facebook there so that there’s a there’s the front group spun up by some of the VC firms like a16z and you know, Andreessen and these guys and YCombinator. Then there’s a front group called the American Innovators Network, and they’re running all these ads arguing that this bill, again whose sole purpose is to ban chatbots from being marketed to children, that that also try to convince them to harm themselves.
On this podcast they also talk about how it was the country music industry that thwarted the federal legislation to ban state level AI regulation.
Did Peter Thiel innuendo that Donald Trump is a wanna be antichrist?
Peter Thiel says Antichrist ‘Wants a Nobel Peace Prize.‘ Leaked Highlights from Tech Billionaire’s Secret Antichrist Lectures Gil Duran 10 Oct 2025 In his San Francisco talk, Thiel got even more specific. He says the Antichrist will be someone who longs for a Nobel Peace Prize: “Certainly, of course, there are a lot of people who are wannabe Antichrists. Want peace and safety, definitely wants a Nobel Peace Prize, would give his soul for that, no question about it.” As with all of Thiel’s DIY theology, this has zero basis in scripture. But this is a stunning declaration at a moment when President Donald Trump has been openly begging and pining for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Nobody likes corruption other than people doing corrupt things.
It’s odd that more Dem politicians don’t run on anti-corruption. It’s the primary motivating factor for most of my voting, not least in downballot races. I know I’m not alone.
Lever Time Oct 16, 2025 JD Vance’s Supreme Court Plot Two new Supreme Court cases are designed to end campaign finance laws, legalize bribery, and create Citizens United 2.0. David Sirota Natalie Bettendorf “In their view the real problem in American politics is not egregious corruption, but instead overly strict anti-corruption laws. Sittenfeld’s case aims to weaken whatever’s still left of the federal bribery statute and it offers a novel new theory: His lawyers suggest that pay to play culture is now so pervasive that it should not even be considered a prosecutable crime.”
The idea that if a crime becomes widespread it should be made legal is pretty wild. I never heard conservatives use that argument to decriminalize drug use. It’s just a bizarre and insultingly stupid argument.
My letter to reps:
Politicians and the Supreme Court are trying to gaslight us with the stupid idea that corruption should be legal. But you’re never going to convince me that bribes and buying power is ok. Everyone I know, regardless of politics, hates all the corruption and wants it stopped!
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
Postcard with a picture of jellyfish addressed to Rep. Rob Bresnahan. October 22, 2025. Dear Rob Bresnahan, JD Vance and other Republican politicians & Republican Suprene Court justices & lawyers may try to gaslight us that corruption shouldn’t be illegal. But you’re never going to convince me that buying power & bribes are ok! Everyone I know regardless of party wants corruption stopped! Chloe Humbert Scranton, PA
High levels of lead in protein supplements.
Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Protein supplements are wildly popular, but CR’s tests of 23 products found that more than two-thirds of them contain more lead in a single serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day Paris Martineau Published October 14, 2025·Updated 5:05 p.m. Consumer Reports For more than two-thirds of the products we analyzed, a single serving contained more lead than CR’s food safety experts say is safe to consume in a day—some by more than 10 times. “It’s concerning that these results are even worse than the last time we tested,” said Tunde Akinleye, the CR food safety researcher who led the testing project. This time, in addition to the average level of lead being higher than what we found 15 years ago, there were also fewer products with undetectable amounts of it. The outliers also packed a heavier punch.
Donald Trump luxuriates in AI slop to crap on fellow Americans.
(Something I posted on tumblr.)
Jared Yates Sexton at jysexton.bsky.social October 19, 2025 at 10:59 AM That disturbing AI video Trump shared is batshit insane, but the wealth class needs Trump to keep populist anger contained and controlled, so everything is done to normalize it and obscure the obvious insanity. Meanwhile, someone calling for free public transit is covered like the antichrist.
My letter to my Republican reps:
It’s very bizarre and unseemly that Republicans want to pour feces on their fellow Americans. I imagine that Donald Trump probably has senior dementia, I’ve seen this type of behaviour before in the elderly, and clearly he has no business being in office at this point. But what explains the Republican politicians being ok with this? Do you want to pour bowel movements on our cousins and aunts and your neighbors? Seriously? Where are the denouncements of this AI slop? I’m really sick of Republican politicians calling fellow Americans names and making up stuff; anyone who doesn’t agree with weirdo Mike Johnson or doesn’t want to bow down to some deranged old guy who fancies himself wearing a crown and torturing people. Republican leadership is trying to call millions of Americans deplorables now I guess. That AI slop display is far worse than anything Hillary Clinton ever said about anyone. And it’s embarrassing frankly. So cringe that an official would post such a stupid thing. Those people who are against federal overreach on Saturday, they aren’t the ones saying they want to bomb their fellow Americans, their family members, and their neighbors and cover them in diarrhea. It’s becoming obvious that the Republicans are on board with totalitarianism and the opposition at these anti-monarchist demonstrations are the ones who are against Big Government overreach. That this AI slop crap is coming from the top is so uncouth and pathetic. Where are the statements against this literal shit?
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
Of course Andrew Cuomo likes anti-mask racist right-wing AI slop.
Andrew Cuomo’s gross racist AI slop video clumsily and offensively attempting to smear Zohran Mamdani voters claiming they’re all criminals, features a non-white person wearing a kn95 mask while shoplifting.
They always have to get masks in there because all this right-wing propaganda always has to make sure they depict disabled and high risk people, including disabled children or children with childhood cancer, as criminals and or dangerously violent. NYC Mayor Eric Adams has engaged in this discrimination all too often. I’ve been writing, and generally complaining, for years about this propaganda and vicious targeting of disabled people, and especially immunocompromised and other pandemic high risk people, including seniors. And it is really shameful.
Beware the stigma around sick and disabled children, and others. Apr 7th, 2025
The Economy demands full participation, herd debt paid on an altar of lies “Public health” is operating, but with the wrong information and the wrong solutions to solve the wrong problems, because those calling the shots have the wrong goals. Chloe Humbert Dec 23, 2022
Poison pill in a pro-mask bill. Anti mask ban legislation shouldn’t undermine the entire reason for the protection, and it definitely shouldn’t introduce random “Stop and Unmask” checkpoints by law enforcement. Chloe Humbert Mar 30, 2025
Whenever someone talking about financials and economics says “innovation” it’s a red flag for hype bullshit boondoggles, scams, or sketch.
And I knew the PA Nuclear Summit was a load of industry nonsense when Stefani Pashman, president and CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, actually said: “our robust innovation ecosystem, our robust commercial pipeline to lead to the development of safe, scalable and clean nuclear energy” And I can’t even believe someone could say all those propaganda buzzwords in one sentence with a straight face. It’s embarrassing. I’m embarrassed for this person. Robust innovation? Ecosystem? Nuclear energy creates waste and is certainly not without pollution. And whenever someone says “innovation” I think of Stockton Rush.
Nuclear summit highlights Pittsburgh’s potential in powering AI and data center boom By Paul J. Gough – Reporter, Pittsburgh Business Times Oct 3, 2025 “Today is very different, I’ve never seen this before,” said Jacques Besnainou, EVP and chief commercial officer of Cranberry Township-based Westinghouse Electric. “I’ve never seen in the United States such an electricity demand as we see today.” Besnainou described the demand from hyperscaler data center operators as growing from megawatts in previous years to now gigawatts and more.
Maybe that you’ve never seen this before should be a big red flag that it’s a bubble, and not real, and not good. But Pennsylvania always embarrasses itself by getting in late on crap bubble scams, going in hard even though all signs say no, and then crashing harder, and taking longer to recover. We’ve watched this over and over again.
No thanks to raw milk cheese.
CIDRAP - Researchers: Live H5N1 avian flu can survive in raw-milk cheese for up to 6 months News brief October 9, 2025 The current regulation requiring 60-day aging of raw-milk cheese before marketing proves insufficient to achieve HPAI H5N1 virus inactivation and guarantee cheese safety.
Why does industry fund so much stuff that’s easily seen as bogus or suspect? Oct 19th, 2025
On the lake.
Lackawanna State Park in Pennsylvania. October 2022. Photo by Chloe Kaczenski Humbert