March 27, 2025

AN IMPORTANT REMINDER FROM SCOTT PRESLER:

Posted at 5:55 pm by Stephen Green

“WE HAVE NO PLAN, WE HAVE A GOOD LIKELIHOOD IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE” DOESN’T MAKE ME WANT TO GIVE ANYONE A SINGLE DOLLAR, MUCH LESS SEVEN BILLION OF THEM:

Posted at 4:53 pm by Stephen Green

IT’S NICE TO CATCH A BREAK ON PROCUREMENT FOR A CHANGE: B-21 ‘Bomber on a Budget.’ “One of the most overlooked insights from the recent Air Force budgets is that the B-21 program is proving a new business case by keeping costs under control. During the 2025 budget cycle, smooth progress on the production line enabled the Air Force to negotiate lower rates for the B-21 bombers now in production. The Air Force trimmed about $1 billion off the B-21 program’s cost for Fiscal Year 2025 alone and bagged additional savings for future years.”

Posted at 2:49 pm by Stephen Green

YOU STAY CLASSY, JASMINE: Flashback: Jasmine Crockett Attacked Byron Donalds for Interracial Marriage: ‘You Married a White Woman.’ “Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas) once attacked Rep. Byron Donalds (R., Fla.) for having a white wife, saying Donalds ‘married a white woman and so you think that whitewashed you.’ It’s unclear whether Crockett believes Kamala Harris is ‘whitewashed’ for marrying a white man.”

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

MUCH MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Trump official turns tables on CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in tense exchange: ‘Why don’t you answer my question?’

Initially, Kaitlan Collins pressed [VA Secretary Doug Collins] for his perspective on the recent controversy surrounding leaked group chat messages discussing sensitive war plans.

The secretary repeatedly deflected, emphasizing his commitment solely to veterans’ welfare.

“I was not involved in the chat,” Secretary Collins stated clearly.

“I trust the president’s opinion on it. I trust what’s been going on. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. My opinion is that my job is to take care of veterans in this country as they come out of service, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.”

However, when Kaitlan Collins continued to press the issue, the secretary grew increasingly frustrated.

“Kaitlan, as I’ve just told you, I’ve just answered the question,” he responded.

“I wasn’t a part of it and, you know, I’m not going to speculate more than what the president has already talked about, and those who have been involved have talked about, but would love to talk about the veterans.”

The situation escalated further when the CNN host, who so far this week has twicebeen prevented from asking follow-up questions at the White House related to the Signal chat controversy, asked the secretary a third time about the leaks. Secretary Collins, visibly agitated, pivoted dramatically.

“Well, Kaitlan, since you undoubtedly don’t want to talk about the VA, I have a question as VA secretary,” he retorted sharply.

“I want to ask you because I’ve been curious about this, because my job is to take care of veterans, and I would like to know why CNN is hostile to veterans, especially one in Florida where you just had a $5 million defamation suit taking offense at a veteran who is trying to help people.”

At which point, the low-rated newsreader momentarily pretended she was Upton Sinclair diligently preparing the rough first draft of The Jungle: 

As Ace of Spades writes,“Finally, [Collins] does what I’ve been praying for for decades: He starts demanding she answer his questions, specifically about why CNN continues to employ the Convicted Defamer who #Rigged a CNN story against a veteran — this is the guy who was getting American allies out of Afghanistan — and who wrote ‘We’re going to get this MFer.’ Mustache McGee actually attempts to pull rank and assert that she has some kind of Journalistic Authority over him to compel him to answer while she refuses to answer his questions. She asserts ‘I’m conducting an investigation’ and then hisses ‘I’m asking the questions here.’ As if she’s a judge presiding over court and directing the witness to answer. They really believe this. Mustache McGee really believes that She Has the Girl-Boss Power Here and that she has an elevated status, that of an aristocrat, that gives her social power to order about the peasants.”

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

GREAT MOMENTS IN CHEATING:

Posted at 1:47 pm by Stephen Green

SKYNET SMILES IN WRY BEMUSEMENT: OpenAI CEO Responds to ChatGPT Users Creating Studio Ghibli-Style AI Images.

The latest version of OpenAI‘s image generation technology has resulted in a flood of users sharing images on social media that have been transformed in the style of Studio Ghibli, the legendary Japanese animation studio.

On Tuesday, OpenAI launched what it called its “most advanced image generator yet,” built into GPT‑4o. That features a “natively multimodal model capable of precise, accurate, photorealistic outputs.” As it turns out, the image generator also is very good at replicating the anime style of Studio Ghibli, the company behind such popular films as “Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “The Boy and the Heron.”

* * * * * * * *

Reps for Studio Ghibli in North America declined to comment.

However, Hayao Miyazaki, the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, has previously expressed strong disapproval of AI-generated animation. In a 2016 meeting where he was shown an AI animation demo, Miyazaki said, “I am utterly disgusted. If you really want to make creepy stuff you can go ahead and do it. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all.” He also said, “I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”

As for the rest of us, it’s a lot of fun. So much so that, “‘Our GPUs Are Melting:’ Sam Altman Limits ChatGPT Image Output After Ghibli Frenzy Overloads Servers.”

You can tell ChatGPT what you’d like it to draw, or upload a photo and ask it to create a Ghibli-style illustration based on the image, which will take ChatGPT a couple of minutes to spit out. I had a fun 15 minutes last night creating Ghibli-style cartoons of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones:

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll