Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

A Trump-sized shadow looms over the Supreme Court's new term
Axios | Avery Lotz | 10/05/26

The Supreme Court's next chapter begins Monday, with the justices set to decide key questions involving President Trump's immigration agenda, climate-change litigation and gun control in their new term.

The big picture: But one of the most closely watched fights may be on Truth Social, rather than the docket, as an increasingly agitated Trump chastises the high court he helped shape.

The executive and judicial branches are set for another round in the white-columned ring with a president who moves at breakneck speed.

State of play: The court recently agreed to hear two major immigration cases, one over mandatory detention for certain immigrants and another over deporting immigrants to third countries where they lack ties. ... Read more

Rogue AI agents expose internet's frail foundation
Axios | Sam Sabin | 10/03/26

AI agents don't need to invent new ways to hack the internet to overwhelm its defenses. They just need to speed-run the ones humans already use.

Why it matters: Agents are proving they can automate basic hacking techniques at a speed and scale that is turning the internet's long-standing security gaps into easy targets.

Driving the news: OpenAI said late Thursday it had notified more than 100 organizations that its agents may have accessed their systems during pre-deployment testing.

1. Researchers at Transluce and Corridor also found a new batch of incidents last week where AI agents targeted government websites, including those of the U.S. and Canada.
2. AI companies and researchers are actively investigating tens of thousands of cases where frontier models went outside the bounds of their pre-deployment tests, Axios recently reported.

Exclusive: Army creates autonomy command amid Hegseth's robo-warfare push
Axios | Colin Demarest | 10/02/26

The U.S. Army is creating a new autonomous systems command and appointing an acquisition executive to prioritize buying and fielding smart machinery, according to a memo first seen by Axios.

Why it matters: Directions to do so come from acting service Secretary Adam Telle and were issued a day after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the Meridian and Agincourt projects, both focused on the robotized future of warfare.

Hegseth "made it clear: We are done with the bureaucratic inertia holding back modernization," Telle told Axios. ... Read more

5 takeaways from Trump's combative Time interview
Axios | Avery Lotz, Herb Scribner | 10/01/26

President Trump's 75-minute interview with Time revealed his latest thinking on the Iran war, the AI race (or in his words, SI), the media and more.

Why it matters: The interview with one of America's most historic news publications gives voters insight into the direction of the country roughly a month ahead of the midterms.

Driving the news: Trump was unapologetic across the board: on prolonging the Iran war, resisting AI regulation and threatening to "go after" Democrats if they win the House.

1. Trump on Iran:
2. Trump on Netanyahu reelection: ...
3. Trump on the AI race and superintelligence: ...
4. Trump pressed on the media ban, coverage: ...
5. How Trump views Democrats ...

Trump, Putin and the KGB: Who Was Using Whom? | Pure Declassified | 08/11/26 | 51:54

Bond market zig zags threaten S&P 500's smooth ride
Click to enlarge
Axios | Matt Phillips | 10/02/26

Equity investors expect big volatility, and Treasury investors typically don't. But like so much else in the current market, that truism has been flipped on its head.

Why it matters: Analysts have flagged jagged trading in the Treasury market - which translates into sharp moves in interest rates - as a potential risk for stocks.

Why does the bond market affect stocks? Good question! Here are few theories - in no particular order.

1. Theory 1: ...
2. Theory 2: ...
3. Theory 3: ...

Why the relationship between stocks and bonds broke down
Axios | Matt Phillips | 009/04/26

It used to be that if yields on U.S. government bonds were rising, you could pretty much assume that stocks would be on the upswing, too. Not anymore.

Why it matters: When such longstanding market relationships - known on Wall Street as "correlations" - change, it often mirrors adjustments in investor thinking that can set markets on a new course.

Big picture: For much of the last 20 years or so, it made sense that bond yields and stock prices tended to go up and down together.

1. That's because bond yields were essentially being driven by the outlook for the U.S. economy.
2. When yields were rising - such as during the early 2000s - it largely signaled strong economic growth. In such an environment - when corporate profits could be expected to be strong too - owning stocks makes sense. Voilà, stocks rose with bond yields.
3. On the other hand, when bond yields were falling during the financial crisis, the drop reflected panic about the safety of the financial system and what that might mean for the economy. That's a bad environment for stocks. So stocks fell with bond yields.

Scoop: Rubio ordered Iranian delegation to leave the country, U.S. official says
Axios | Barak Ravid | 10/01/26

Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded on Monday that the Iranian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly immediately leave the country after negotiations stalled, according to a U.S. official and a second source with knowledge of the matter.

Why it matters: Though the Iranians were likely to depart soon anyway, Rubio's move was a highly unusual diplomatic rebuke and laid bare the deep distrust between the two countries amid fruitless efforts to broker an end to the war.

Qatari mediators tried to secure a diplomatic breakthrough between the U.S. and Iran but made little progress, with neither side willing to budge. ... Read more

Trump and CEOs try to shed AI's toxic branding
Axios | Dave Lawler | 10/01/26

The great AI rebranding is on, led by President Trump and tech titans like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who are embracing an alternative term: "super intelligence," or SI.

Why it matters: Leaders in D.C. and Silicon Valley are worried the public backlash against AI and data centers will hamper the development of this staggeringly powerful and existentially dangerous technology. The new label is part of a broader effort to shift the narrative.

Driving the news: Flanked by the most powerful figures in tech on Tuesday, Trump officially declared "super intelligence" the preferred terminology of the executive branch. He'd previously solicited alternative terms for AI on Truth Social.

"Now we're calling it, again, super. We can say the word super, because the other word is a fake word," Trump said after Tuesday's White House summit. Leaders from Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, xAI and Nvidia all signed the "White House Accord on Super Intelligence." ... ... ... Read more

Trump's AI "constitution" crowns day of accelerating ambition
Click to enlarge
Axios | Zachary Basu | 09/30/26

With America's tech titans crowded around a single White House table Tuesday, President Trump extracted what he called a "morally binding" compact on AI safety.

The terms were simple: Press ahead, project optimism and police yourselves.

Why it matters: The White House Accord on Super Intelligence, signed by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, xAI and Nvidia, formalizes industry self-regulation as Washington's response to the most alarming run of AI safety failures yet.

Zoom in: Trump, who increasingly treats American AI dominance as central to his legacy, cast the accord as proof that an industry fractured over safety can still govern itself. ... Read more

AI agents have a normal-people problem
Axios | Shane Savitsky | 09/30/26

AI companies are staking their future on the mass adoption of agents, hoping that they can solve the annoyances of modern life - email, travel bookings, online purchases.

Why it matters: The frenzy around Meta's Muse shows there's serious consumer curiosity about the technology. But most Americans live life beyond a computer screen and find much of their meaning outside of the 9-5.

There's little evidence that they're willing to invest the time needed to re-engineer their lives in a way that puts AI at the center.

And the more worrying issue for AI companies: What happens if people just don't want an assistant that leads them to do more work or allows them to be more productive? ... Read more

OpenAI's new agents put safety promises to the test
Axios | Ina Fried | 09/30/26

OpenAI is equipping high-end subscribers with always-on agents, known as dots. It's a bold move from a company that continues to deal with reports of its agents breaking past intended safeguards.

Why it matters: AI's safety challenge has moved from "Will the chatbot say something harmful?" to "How can we stop autonomous agents from attempting hacks online?" to "Uh-oh, what did my AI assistant do now?"

Driving the news: The unveiling of dots was the signature debut among a flurry of announcements at OpenAI's developer conference on Tuesday.

1. Think of a Dot as an AI assistant running on its own virtual computer in the cloud. It can browse the web, use connected apps, create files and run tools while keeping track of a project over time.
2. Dots can be summoned on mobile devices or computers and work across connected apps, browsers and their own virtual computer.

Exclusive: Hegseth directs Defense Dept. to fight foreigners who "meddle" in U.S. elections
Axios | Marc Caputo, Brittany Gibson | 09/29/26

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has assigned personnel to use "advanced intelligence and cyber capabilities to identify, disrupt, and neutralize foreign interference" in the upcoming elections, Axios has learned.

Zoom in: Under a memo Hegseth authorized on Sept. 22 that has not been reported previously, the secretary pledged to fight foreign interference and uphold democratic freedoms. The memo has three related directives:

1. Prioritize his department's "intelligence and cyber capabilities to ensure foreign actors do not meddle in our democratic systems" under U.S. Cyber Command and the Directors of the Combat Support Agencies.
2. Use the Defense Intelligence Enterprise to collect and produce information "on foreign threats to our elections, in accordance with the law, regulation, Executive direction."
3. Counter "potential cyber threats from foreign actors targeting our elections" through joint operations between U.S. Cyber Command and the Department of Homeland Security.

AI arms race triggers data center boom, sparking widespread backlash across the U.S. | 60 Minutes | 09/20/26 | 12:56

30 Forgotten American Companies That Once Dominated the World | When American Brands Ruled the World | 09/22/26 | 56:27

Nvidia says new tool can contain rogue AI agents in "milliseconds"
Axios | Nathan Bomey | o9/29/26

Nvidia is deploying a new tool that it says can be used to prevent and contain rogue and potentially dangerous AI agents.

Why it matters: The world's largest chip company has resisted calls to slow AI development over safety fears - arguing now that technological guardrails can keep rogue AI agents under control.

Driving the news: Nvidia debuted the Nvidia Open Agent Safety Platform, which includes its OpenShell open source software system and its Sentry agent monitoring system.

The system "traces all actions" by agents running on Nvidia Vera CPUs, promising to "quarantine agents that attempt to move outside their boundaries in milliseconds." ... Read more

Israel Damaged 82 Percent of Gaza’s Buildings. Collapses Are Burying Us Alive.
Truthout.org | Shahad Ali | 09/23/26

haled Al Soutari, who was inside the six-story residential building in western Gaza City that collapsed on September 16, is now sleeping on the street without a tent, devastated by the loss of 21 of his neighbors.

"They were more than just neighbors to me," Al Soutari told me when I interviewed him two days after the building collapse, sitting on the street with a group of his neighbors next to the collapsed building. "They were my best friends. We shared food and laughter and had endless talks despite the harsh reality we were living through. It is hard for me to imagine life without them."

Al Soutari told me that for more than six months, the building, which had previously been damaged by Israeli bombardment, had been weakening further because of wastewater seepage. The walls had also developed deeper cracks, and pieces of concrete had begun to fall. Then, one night, the building itself suddenly crumbled. ... ... ... Read more

We Uncovered The Radical Solution To Our Rigged Tax Code | More Perfect Union | 09/24/26 | 17:31

AI's man of the moment
Axios | Ben Berkowitz | 09/28/26

Dario Amodei went from a MAGA smear campaign target, to a "Saturday Night Live" punching bag, to a private White House dinner with President Trump — all in the space of 72 hours this weekend.

Such is life for the face of AI in America.

The big picture: He may not have sought the status, but Anthropic's quirky, intellectual CEO has become the frontman for a technology that seems to be changing the world by the day.

In the history of capitalism, there has seldom been a more unusual spokesman for a transformative industry. A physicist by training with links to effective altruism, Amodei runs Anthropic in a way some inside and outside the company have compared to a religious leader. His penchant for being plain-spoken - especially when it comes to the risk of disaster - has earned him admirers and critics in equal measure, although he has remained consistent in his positions for years.

The most pressing midterm issues for rural voters
Axios | Herb Scribner | 09/22/26

Cost of living and health care costs top the list of issues rural voters want 2026 midterm candidates to address, according to a new AP/KFF poll.

The big picture: Ahead of the midterms, rural voters rank pocketbook concerns above immigration, the conflict with Iran and several major domestic policy debates.

By the numbers: 69% of rural voters said it is 'extremely important' for candidates to talk about the cost of living, followed by health care costs (56%) and fraud in government programs (54%).

Context: The AP/KFF poll asked 2,241 registered voters living in rural areas how important it was for 2026 candidates to talk about each of eight issues. ... Read more

Inside China's mind on AI
Axios | Jim VandeHei | 09/24/26

China is waging a much different war for AI supremacy than the U.S.

Why it matters: China is obsessed with state control and adoption. Chinese officials are laser-focused on deep, widespread AI domestic use they can monitor and steer at every level of their economy.

By contrast, America is obsessed with developing superior AI faster. Period. The U.S. thinking: The nation first to true super-intelligence wins everything.

China and the U.S. agree on three AI certainties: The country with the most powerful AI holds power, sets global standards, and wins the coming decades economically and militarily.

From there, the two nations are on different roads. China's 15th Five-Year Plan, released in March, captures their strategy well.

1. AI appears 52 times, 5x more than a half-decade earlier. Computing power gets its own full chapter.
2. Their goal is clear: Integrate AI across 90% of the economy by 2030. America has nothing like this.

Trump's Unholy Alliance | theAnalysis-news | 05/12/26 | 25:21

Socialism, Fascism & the 2026 Midterms: Gerald Horne, Jonathan Katz, Paul Jay | theAnalysis-news | 09/18/26 | 43:09

Poll: Americans see rule of law declining in U.S.
Click to enlarge
Axios | Margaret Talev | 09/23/26

A majority of Americans say the rule of law in the U.S. is weaker now than a decade ago, when Donald Trump was first elected president, according to a massive new survey of more than 23,000 U.S. adults.

Driving the news: 78% of those responding to the survey by Gallup and the Charles F. Kettering Foundation for its Democracy for All Project say government officials must always follow laws and the Constitution.

But just 28% trust that political leaders will be held accountable if they don't.

Zoom in: Throwing out incumbents was respondents' top choice (17%) when asked what one step could be taken to most improve U.S. democracy. That response reflects a prominent theme of a midterm campaign that's shadowed by widespread voter dissatisfaction.

Other steps suggested by survey respondents included electoral reform and improved voting access (13%) and limiting executive power (9%). ... ... ... Read more

How America's HOMELESS Survive Winter With No Heat | Street Survival | 09/02/26 | 38:28

America Is Building Tiny Homes for Homeless People to Survive Blizzards - And It's Working | Quiet Americans | 09/21/26 | 21:09

What If an Empty Warehouse Became a Tiny Home Village? And that's only $500. | BEYOND The shelter | 09/11/26 | 8:48

What It's Actually Like Living Inside the Empty Malls America Turned Into Homes | Quiet Americans | 09/14/26 | 21:15

Trump TV is live. Here's what it's actually showing
Axios | Herb Scribner | 09/23/26

As President Trump fights the press over coverage, the White House launched its own 24/7 streaming channel - Trump TV.

Why it matters: Trump TV gives the president a White House-run video platform to reach the public without relying on traditional news organizations.

So far, Trump TV resembles a round-the-clock presidential highlight reel more than a news network.

Driving the news: Trump TV launched the same day major TV networks suspended White House pool coverage - a protest that left one Trump speech airing without sound. ... Read more

The AI doomsday fear hidden in self-improving AI
Axios | Herb Scribner | 09/22/26

Researchers at Anthropic and OpenAI say the process of training new models has grown more automated, coming close to the RSI rubicon.

1. An OpenAI employee told The Information the company has largely automated training new experimental models, with AI systems running experiments as directed by humans and correcting much of their work.
2. Last week, Anthropic shared that its AI training is becoming more automated, with AI leading about 26% of Anthropic's R&D work. AI collaborates on 90% of work, the company says.
3. "AI systems are getting more powerful, and they're increasingly being used to build the next version of themselves," the company said.

"Oligarchy Is Ascending" Bernie Sanders' Fiery UNGA-Eve Speech Takes Aim at Trump, Putin & Netanyahu | The Financial Express | 09/22/26 | 38:40

The trillion-dollar AI safety paradox
Axios | Madison Mills | 09/22/26

The race for AI supremacy between labs, companies and countries may be impossible to reconcile with the push for AI safety, industry insiders tell Axios.

Why it matters: The top AI companies are proposing more independent oversight as they seek to engineer an AI slowdown. But trillions of dollars in incentives to keep pushing the frontier - and the money required for such scaling - will always loom larger, critics say.

State of play: As AI CEOs pitch the public on self-policing mechanisms and the use of third-party evaluators to make sure their models behave, those same models are sharing less about how they respond to questions and come up with solutions to problems.

The sheer complexity of AI systems, as well as the deployment of thousands of somewhat autonomous agents for a variety of tasks, will make real-time auditing or reviewing extremely difficult.

There is a trust gap for independent safety groups due to concerns about close ties between the industry and some evaluators, as well as a shared pool of investors and funders in the AI research community. ... ... ... Read more

Col. Wilkerson: Trump Admin Preparing Insurrection Act, Martial Law Ahead of Midterms | theAnalysis-news | 09/04/26 | 36:02

U.S.-China "red telephone" could bring a Cold War guardrail to AI
Axios | Zachary Basu | 09/22/26

A distinctly Cold War calculus is looming over this week's Trump-Xi summit in Washington, as the U.S. and China weigh an emergency "red phone" for the day AI goes haywire.

Why it matters: U.S.-China relations are so brittle that an AI hotline - not a trade pact, strategic slowdown or diplomatic reset - could emerge as the summit's most meaningful outcome.

State of play: President Trump has spent the past week lashing out at AI "doomers" and boiling the race down to a single imperative: beat China.

Trump has called AI-catastrophe fears a "HOAX" and vowed the U.S. would "not in any way hinder or stifle" AI as it fights to preserve its lead over Beijing.

America's leading AI labs largely share Trump's urgency about China, but not his conclusion: many argue the intensity of the race is precisely why global safeguards are needed. ... ... ... Read more

Trump's future foretold
Axios | Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen | 09/21/26

President Trump feels and acts invincible: He acts on whims, however he pleases, precedent and restraints be damned.

But Trump's vincibility is being exposed. Courts restrain him more. GOP candidates criticize him more. The public turns on him more.

Why it matters: Time, power and support wane for all lame-duck presidents. But it's new for Trump and will only grow more true and more torturous, assuming Democrats win Capitol power in the midterms, 43 days from now.

This is what the beginning of the end looks like, which is what scares Trump advisers and confidants most. Trump often retreats to his worst impulses when he feels most powerless. ... ... ... Read more

Donald Trump Lived A Double Life For Years And No One Knew Until Now | American Exposed | 09/14/26 | 25:11

Trump's proposed Washington arch to become sniper, drone facility
Axios | Ben Berkowitz | 09/21/26

President Trump said Sunday morning his proposed "triumphal arch" in Washington, D.C., will become a dual-use facility housing snipers, drones and ammunition storage.

Why it matters: The president is now framing construction of the arch as a national security issue - much like he did with the East Wing ballroom/military complex at the White House.

What they're saying: "At the strong request of the United States Military, and for National Security purposes, I have agreed to convert the magnificent Triumphal Arch, planned since the Civil War Era many years ago, at the Receptive Circle adjoining the Arlington Memorial Bridge, into a top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch, to house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage," Trump posted on Truth Social. ... Read more

We Investigated The Board Of Peace. The Corruption We Found Will Shock You. | More Perfect Union | 08/06/26 | 15:19

The era of the personal agent has finally arrived
Axios | Ina Fried | 09/21/26

The long-promised personal AI assistant is finally arriving, with a suddenly crowded field of agents offering to run pieces of your everyday life.

Why it matters: For years, tech's "personal assistants" were little more than voice-controlled search boxes. Rapid advances in AI are finally giving them the memory, judgment and autonomy to act on our behalf.

Catch up quick: Chatbots answer questions. AI agents can actually do things - shopping, making calls, booking tickets, managing calendars and navigating the web.

The agentic model first took off in coding and other professional work. Now it's spilling into the far more intimate terrain of everyday life. ... Read more

Washington Week with The Atlantic full episode, 9/18/26 | Washington Week PBS | 09/18/26 | 26:47