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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 Wed Oct 01, 2025 00:40 | 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 Climatism in Europe is Dying Tue Sep 30, 2025 19:00 | Eugyppius
Climatism in Europe is dying as its grassroots support evaporates and Left-wing activists move onto other concerns. Eurocrats are well-insulated from public opinion but they can't ignore it forever, says Eugyppius.
The post Climatism in Europe is Dying appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Blow to Miliband as Reeves Signals Support for North Sea Drilling and Union Boss Calls for Him to Be... Tue Sep 30, 2025 17:36 | Will Jones
Rachel Reeves has signalled support for drilling in the North Sea in a blow to Ed Miliband ? as the boss of the Unite union calls on Keir Starmer to sack the "disastrous" Net Zero Secretary.
The post Blow to Miliband as Reeves Signals Support for North Sea Drilling and Union Boss Calls for Him to Be Sacked appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Wes Streeting Says Nigel Farage is ?Racist? Tue Sep 30, 2025 15:30 | Will Jones
Health Secretary Wes Streeting?has said Nigel Farage is "racist", joining Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson in using the insult of the Reform party and its leader.
The post Wes Streeting Says Nigel Farage is “Racist” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Is the ?Friend-Enemy Distinction? Right-Wing Critical Race Theory? Tue Sep 30, 2025 13:00 | Noah Carl
Perfectly neutral institutions will never be attainable, argues Noah Carl, but that doesn?t mean that reasonably neutral institutions aren?t worth striving for.
The post Is the ‘Friend-Enemy Distinction’ Right-Wing Critical Race Theory? 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 >>

Tax the rich for renewable projects

category national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis author Wednesday August 27, 2014 21:36author by ordinary citizen Report this post to the editors

make Ireland the Norway of wind

when we finally get a left leaning government and we start really taxing the rich why not use the money wisely and invest it into a renewable energy model that involves Irish people buying shares in the projects and the money raised by the taxes can be used to subsidise the projects. then when we have reached 100% energy production and are exporting our energy we can use the money raised to reverse the austerity measures implemented and improve Irish society as a whole.

I saw on Eco Eye an idea that I had myself whereby Austrian people invested in renewable energy projects that supply electricity to their cities. A solar panel project reportedly sold out within 26 hours of going on sale. I had the same idea for Ireland before I saw the show. Why don't we set up Renewable Energy Shares where by people get to buy into renewable energy projects? Anybody living close to a proposed wind farm will have the first opportunity to buy the shares and then the rest will be covered by money collected nationally. What if we don't collect enough money nationally I hear you say. Well that's where electing a left leaning government comes into play.

Since the Credit Crunch in 2008 it has been the poorest in society who have suffered the most while many of the richest people have avoided paying their fair share of taxes. Many of them have moved their tax residencies to other places and the shortfall that this has left in our budgets was felt by the sick and poor in the form of cuts to services. There is a growing feeling amongst ordinary people that something should be done about this.

What I propose is that the amount of money that was saved by these people should be calculated. This figure should be doubled and the people involved should be made pay this back to the state. Even after this money has been taken from these people they will still be in the top 1% of this country but If any of these individuals, or in the case of U2 groups of individuals, claims that they cannot pay the taxes then they will have to open their books to public scrutiny. If they can prove and its evident that this tax would cripple them financially an appropriate rate will be applied by a committee made up of random members of the public so as to avoid any conflicts of interest.

The top 10% wealthiest people in Ireland were buffered from any real pain during the crash firstly by Fianna Fail then by Fine Gael. When we elect a left wing government, maybe in 2021, they will surely go after these people and rightly so. Firstly we should increase income tax on those earning over €80k a year by 3%, which a UL lecturer estimated would add at least a half a billion a year to the coffers. Thomas Piketty has highlighted a wealth tax is essential to counterbalance capitals gains over work.

These taxes could well take in billions and the way this money is used is open to debate. Its my proposition that this money be used to make this country energy independent, that the money is spent on renewable energy projects in Ireland. It has been said that we could be the Saudi Arabia of Europe for wind production. Irish Renewable Energy Shares should be created that allow Irish people to invest in this industry, a similar project is happening in Austria and has been a great success.

The first people to be offered the shares should be the people living close to the wind farms. There has been a lot of resistance to wind turbines by local people and we would like to believe that much of this would be removed if they had some investment in them. The money raised by taxing the rich combined with the money raised by selling shares should be added to whatever money is collected locally to make the projects viable. In the long term, once we are producing more than 100% of our energy from renewables and are exporting our excess and thus making money, we should use this money to subsidise offshore wind projects as well as biogas and biomass energy systems.

The Norwegians took control of their oil industry early and now the state is worth close to $1 Trillion, we could do the same with our wind. The industry should only be owned by the Irish state and the Irish investors and we should put it into our constitution that the business can never be privatised.

The Spirit of Ireland group have found several sites around Ireland where we can build large dams to pump water into when we have excess wind energy. This would then be turned in hydro energy when there is no wind and thus guarantee supply. Ideally we will invest in Tidal and Wave Power when the technology is ready because they will supply constant energy but until then wind is the best and cheapest option available to us.

The taxes raised by TAT, the other taxes and private investment by Irish individuals may not get us to the 100% energy production mark but the money saved by producing more of our own energy should be reinvested into more renewable energy projects until we reach it. Then the money being saved and earned through exporting energy should be pumped back into the services that have been hit the hardest since Austerity started. Warren Buffett, one of the worlds richest and most respected financial investors is investing $30 billion of his own money into renewable energy. If it make sense to him to do this then it should surely make sense to the Irish people.

By investing the tax money into this project we will not only be making this country one of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world but we will also be setting up a system that will multiply the money raised by this tax. Another issue that will appeal to business people is that energy independence will be attractive to foreign companies. 100% of Apple's total data centre power consumption is now coming from renewable energy, Many companies want to improve their environmental credential as well as worrying about global fuel security. Ireland will be seen globally as a safe, green place to visit and invest in.

Now all we need is the political will to implement this idea.

I have set up a fb page Tax Avoidance Tax if anyone is interested in getting involved in this idea.

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