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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

This is like a scene in "Lawrence of Arabia" when he reads an account in an Arabic newspaper of a significant victory in the Arab uprising and knows that no one in the British Consulate where he works knows anything about it. And, ultimately, may not care.

Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

MEDIA FAIL The American media pay no attention! This is significant; they refuse to anticipate, to see consequences. If the Houthis can block Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, they've significantly added to pressure on the price of oil and on the global economy. Is the world ready for $150. a barrel?

bbc.com

Yemen's Houthis seize strategic Red Sea port of Mokha

Mokha's capture brings the Iran-backed group closer to controlling a key international shipping route.

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"The greatest president since P.T. Barnum."

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

What will the Orange Crush do on Day Two? He's already offered the suckers a $5K bribe on Day One, so how does the snakeoil showman, the greatest president since P.T. Barnum, top himself?

Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"Trump-a-Palooza" Begins Today “What I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot. Just come and vote. It’s so important. Just say that I’m on the ballot one more time.” Trump believes his star-power can save the midterms. He's liable to do something dangerous to prove it.

politico.com

‘They will crawl over glass to vote for the president’: Trump needs to put himself on the ballot to juice the base

The president’s two-day midterm convention in Dallas is going to be the Trump show. Republicans are hoping the president will use it to turn out his voters.

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

No one has been able to explain what they mean by "aligned"?

Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Today we crossed a threshold that probably can't be uncrossed. OpenAI's next-generation artificial intelligence, "Astra", has been released with few guardrails in place, described as the “world’s most intelligent and aligned model” - the godlike super-computer of our science fiction nightmares.

theguardian.com

OpenAI hails ‘new era of artificial general intelligence’ with Astra model release

Astra’s arrival comes days after Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, described AGI as an ‘irrelevant marketing term’

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

These guys pray to be "raptured" before the excrement hits the air conditioner.

Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The cartoon would have been more accurate if it had put the boy in an "iron lung". The tragedy is, no one remembers what an iron lung was. I got my first Salk polio vaccine in 1954. I was ten. Vaccines saved a generation. So we could die in Vietnam. Political science.

Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Trump doesn't know which island he attacked. Neither Trump, nor his "pig whisperer" Natalie, could find the Straight of Hormuz on a children's map of the world.

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Google Maps almost immediately changed their maps to suit Trump's petulant whims. Apple Maps has not. So far.

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

And then they wonder why they're "incel's".

Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

One slight problem: By most estimates, it will take a decade to upgrade Venezuela's deteriorated petro infrastructure - only to produce heavy and extra-heavy sour crude, a dense, viscous, tar-like oil that requires specialized extraction, blending, and refining. Trump, the "snake-oil salesman".

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I thought he admired JFK. He's not there either. He might have included William Henry Harrison, a president who did the least damage in his 32 days.

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The loss of two cultural icons in two days, with the certainty of more to soon follow, has those of us of a certain age reeling.

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Tim also played Pennywise in the 1990 adaptation of "It". Other credits: "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York", "Annie", "Clue", "The Hunt for Red October", "Muppet Treasure Island", "Addams Family Reunion", & "Scary Movie 2". He won 3 Tony nominations & an Emmy during his fifty years in the industry.

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Tim Curry RIP Tim Curry, best known for playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has died at 80. The catalyst for thousands of "Time Warp" dances at “Rocky Horror” midnight shows, he was much more than a one-trick pony in a more than a half-century career.

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Following the Trump playbook, give Musk some glitzy trophy or prize and maybe he'll allow Starlink satellite connectivity over Russia for Ukraine's long-range drone attacks.

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You begin to get a sense of Dolly Parton's cultural significance when our local alternative rock station breaks format to play "Jolene".

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Blanche's DOJ Asks To Strip Judges' Power Against "Vindictive Prosecutions" If successful, it would dramatically enable the Trump legal strategy of targeting political opponents.

slate.com

The DOJ Is Asking a Conservative Court to Give Trump a Terrifying New Power

This case appears likely to make it all the way to the Supreme Court.

Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

An industrial-strength diaper?

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Why would Trump put "all" in quotation marks? Is he suggesting that some are not his friends, or is he demanding absolute loyalty from every one of them? As we know, with Trump loyalty is not only a one-way street, it has a minimum speed limit.

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Karoline Leavitt was still on maternity leave when this happened. She was not on Air Force One on July 8. She returned to work on July 16.

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

FLASHBACK: "The Wrong Churchill" To recognize today's premiere of Peter Alexander's "State of Play" on MSNow, here's a pivotal question & answer from 2020 in the early days of the COVID crisis:

dailykos.com

The Wrong Churchill

See how Trump’s reaction to a ‘Churchill moment’ question became a point of controversy—read the article for the full story.

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Jeanine Pirro is learning the lesson that Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard and Pam Bondi already learned: That with Trump, loyalty is not only a one-way street, it has a minimum speed limit.

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

"Trump has managed to get away with being the most flagrant con man and shyster in modern American business history in part because of the blatant...audacity in the scale of his lies, because the fraud seemed too ridiculous to believe - no bank could reasonably have claimed they had been deceived."

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

"Something sinister was lurking in the shadows of the circus tent." NOW AVAILABLE AMAZON/KINDLE EBOOK "2020: A Trump Odyssey - The Rise of America's Fascist Dictator" What we knew, When we knew it, Why it didn't matter "The most prophetic account of the Trump era."

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Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Why? And Why Now? Less than three weeks before the midterm elections, America’s seniors, its most reliable voting bloc, will receive notice of higher healthcare costs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will end a Medicare Part D prescription drug program for nearly 25 million Americans.

ms.now

Opinion | Trump’s Medicare change comes at a curious time

Less than three weeks before the midterm elections, America’s most reliable voting bloc will receive notice of higher healthcare costs.

Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

FUN FACT: The fall of Troy, the Trojan Horse, the death of Achilles - are in neither Homer's "The Illiad" nor "The Odyssey". The most detailed account of the burning of Troy comes from Book 2 of Virgil's "Aeneid", written centuries later. Quintus of Smyrna’s "Posthomerica" detailed Achilles' death.

nytimes.com

Opinion | No Wonder Elon Musk Hates ‘The Odyssey’ (Gift Article)

A.I. has rendered eye candy cheap. Viewers long for the visceral.

Ray Cunneff @raycunneff.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

NON-HUMAN INTELLIGENCE Has Superintelligence Arrived? "Singularity":The moment that the capabilities of thinking machines accelerate at a pace beyond human control. Sam Altman: “I’ve been waiting for this my whole life."

futurism.com

Sam Altman Announces That the Singularity Has Arrived

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declared that the "singularity" has arrived shortly after his company's AI models went rogue and broke containment.