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Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

The Saker

Indymedia ireland

Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Fraud and mismanagement at University College Cork Thu Aug 28, 2025 18:30 | Calli Morganite
UCC has paid huge sums to a criminal professor
This story is not for republication. I bear responsibility for the things I write. I have read the guidelines and understand that I must not write anything untrue, and I won't.
This is a public interest story about a complete failure of governance and management at UCC.

offsite link Deliberate Design Flaw In ChatGPT-5 Sun Aug 17, 2025 08:04 | Mind Agent
Socratic Dialog Between ChatGPT-5 and Mind Agent Reveals Fatal and Deliberate 'Design by Construction' Flaw
This design flaw in ChatGPT-5's default epistemic mode subverts what the much touted ChatGPT-5 can do... so long as the flaw is not tickled, any usage should be fine---The epistemological question is: how would anyone in the public, includes you reading this (since no one is all knowing), in an unfamiliar domain know whether or not the flaw has been tickled when seeking information or understanding of a domain without prior knowledge of that domain???!

This analysis is a pretty unique and significant contribution to the space of empirical evaluation of LLMs that exist in AI public world... at least thus far, as far as I am aware! For what it's worth--as if anyone in the ChatGPT universe cares as they pile up on using the "PhD level scholar in your pocket".

According to GPT-5, and according to my tests, this flaw exists in all LLMs... What is revealing is the deduction GPT-5 made: Why ?design choice? starts looking like ?deliberate flaw?.

People are paying $200 a month to not just ChatGPT, but all major LLMs have similar Pro pricing! I bet they, like the normal user of free ChatGPT, stay in LLM's default mode where the flaw manifests itself. As it did in this evaluation.

offsite link AI Reach: Gemini Reasoning Question of God Sat Aug 02, 2025 20:00 | Mind Agent
Evaluating Semantic Reasoning Capability of AI Chatbot on Ontologically Deep Abstract (bias neutral) Thought
I have been evaluating AI Chatbot agents for their epistemic limits over the past two months, and have tested all major AI Agents, ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, Perplexity, and DeepSeek, for their epistemic limits and their negative impact as information gate-keepers.... Today I decided to test for how AI could be the boon for humanity in other positive areas, such as in completely abstract realms, such as metaphysical thought. Meaning, I wanted to test the LLMs for Positives beyond what most researchers benchmark these for, or have expressed in the approx. 2500 Turing tests in Humanity?s Last Exam.. And I chose as my first candidate, Google DeepMind's Gemini as I had not evaluated it before on anything.

offsite link Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem finally Admits It is Genocide releasing Our Genocide report Fri Aug 01, 2025 23:54 | 1 of indy
We have all known it for over 2 years that it is a genocide in Gaza
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has finally admitted what everyone else outside Israel has known for two years is that the Israeli state is carrying out a genocide in Gaza

Western governments like the USA are complicit in it as they have been supplying the huge bombs and missiles used by Israel and dropped on innocent civilians in Gaza. One phone call from the USA regime could have ended it at any point. However many other countries are complicity with their tacit approval and neighboring Arab countries have been pretty spinless too in their support

With the release of this report titled: Our Genocide -there is a good chance this will make it okay for more people within Israel itself to speak out and do something about it despite the fact that many there are actually in support of the Gaza

offsite link China?s CITY WIDE CASH SEIZURES Begin ? ATMs Frozen, Digital Yuan FORCED Overnight Wed Jul 30, 2025 21:40 | 1 of indy
This story is unverified but it is very instructive of what will happen when cash is removed
THIS STORY IS UNVERIFIED BUT PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO OR READ THE TRANSCRIPT AS IT GIVES AN VERY GOOD IDEA OF WHAT A CASHLESS SOCIETY WILL LOOK LIKE. And it ain't pretty

A single video report has come out of China claiming China's biggest cities are now cashless, not by choice, but by force. The report goes on to claim ATMs have gone dark, vaults are being emptied. And overnight (July 20 into 21), the digital yuan is the only currency allowed.

The Saker >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Fri Oct 10, 2025 00:47 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Teenagers Must Be Warned About the Dystopia Being Built Around Them Thu Oct 09, 2025 19:00 | Mike Fairclough
Mike Fairclough was a nationally feted headteacher before he was cancelled during Covid for speaking out against the tyranny. Now he has written a novel to warn teens about the dystopian world being built around them.
The post Teenagers Must Be Warned About the Dystopia Being Built Around Them appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Italy to Ban Burka Thu Oct 09, 2025 17:00 | Will Jones
Italy is to ban the burka as part of new legislation against "Islamic separatism" that includes strengthening penalties for forced marriages and stricter financial regulation of Muslim organisations.
The post Italy to Ban Burka appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Great Reverse Ferret is Underway Thu Oct 09, 2025 15:05 | Joanna Gray
It's the season for the reverse ferret, the narrative whiplash ? call it what you will, but everyone seems to be at it, says Joanna Gray. As the recantations roll in, how do we avoid making the same mistakes again?
The post The Great Reverse Ferret is Underway appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Children to Be Able to Choose Their Own ?Gender? at Any Age Under New EU Rules Thu Oct 09, 2025 13:18 | Will Jones
Children will be able to choose their own?'gender'?at any age under new EU rules set to be imposed across the continent with penalties for countries that refuse to comply.
The post Children to Be Able to Choose Their Own ‘Gender’ at Any Age Under New EU Rules appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Budget 2016 won't tackle rising inequalities

category national | economics and finance | press release author Friday November 13, 2015 23:43author by anon - TASC Report this post to the editors

TASC today released an equality analysis of Budget 2016, which analysed both the tax and spending changes. It shows that the tax cuts announced will give the greatest benefit to a single person earning €70,000, which is the same “sweet spot” as last year’s budget.

The report notes that changes announced in the Budget have to be considered in light of the fact that three-quarters of the pre-tax income gains in the last five years have gone those earning €70,000 and above

“Our research shows that as the economy recovers, more than half of the gains in incomes before tax are going to the Top 10% of earners. While income tax and USC mitigate this, the regressive nature of the tax changes announced in Budget 2016 give the greatest benefit to higher earners, and undermine the ability of the tax system to deal with rising market inequality,” says TASC Policy Analyst Cormac Staunton.

Key findings of the analysis include:


  • A single earner on €70,000 will gain €902 per year which is 2% of their take home pay.
  • A single person on a middle income of €25,000 will gain €227 for the year, about 1% of their take-home pay.
  • A person on €35,000 will gain €377 – just over €30 per month or 1.3% of their take home pay.

In the run up to the Budget, TASC recommended focusing on increased public spending rather than on tax cuts as a way to make the recovery more inclusive and to create a more equitable and sustainable economy.

“While there are some welcome announcements, particularly in the area of childcare, the increase in spending is insufficient to address the various social crises and austerity-related underinvestment” added the report’s co-author and TASC Policy Analyst, Dr Rory Hearne.

“The spending allocations for future years show that there are no plans for significant increases and that spending will in fact fall as a proportion of GDP. According to the Government’s own figures, by 2019 we are likely to end up with the lowest government expenditure in the EU at just over 30% of GDP, against a Euro area average that will be closer to 50%.”

The report analyses changes in Budget 2016 in relation to income, wealth, public services, taxation, family, personal capacities and the cost of living.

“Given the scale of the adjustments that have taken place over the crisis period, and the increases in income by those already earning the most, cuts to income tax which benefited higher earners at the expense of public investment will increase economic inequality” concluded Dr Hearne.

The report notes that “this approach will leave Ireland extremely vulnerable and unprepared for the inevitable slow-down in economic growth, which could come sooner than currently projected given the fragility of the international economic context and rising global inequality.”

TASC recommends that in future Budgets should:

  • Focus on public investment rather than tax cuts to increase spending as a proportion of GDP. This will benefit both the economy and society.
  • Re-balance Ireland’s welfare model so that public services play a much greater role, rather than the current over reliance on direct welfare payments to access necessary goods through the private market.
  • Involve greater openness in the Budget making process, including an Equality Impact Analysis prior to the Budget being published.

Full report here
http://www.tasc.ie/download/pdf/budget_2016_equality_an...s.pdf

Related Link: http://www.tasc.ie/news/2015/11/09/budget-2016-wont-tackle-rising-inequalities/
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