A 39 part thread by Wokal Distance, replete with photos, charts and documentation explaining the theory and practice of what’s going on (and has been going on for many years now) in LA and other cities across the country. Read the whole thing: it’s worth the time invested.
1/ The riots happening in LA are not organic or spontaneous.
They’re designed to look chaotic to cover up the fact that they’re well funded, exceptionally organized, and carried out by well trained activists using intelligent, highly developed tactics.
What’s worse is that the flow of money to these groups is so easy to shut down, but it never is. They take donations online using payment systems like PayPal, and accept major credit cards, the terms of service of which they are violating by participating in illegal activities. There are bank accounts, 1099s, Form 990s and other filings, some public, with leaders’ names and contact information on them.
These are not like Al Qaeda, that have to be infiltrated and funded by briefcases full of cash. These groups are operating openly using the normal financial systems. Some large faction of government simply does not want to touch them, nor put pressure on their banks to de-bank them.
Might there be a RICO prosecution in their future? Time, I suppose, will tell. But by all means, let the DoJ beaver away at daming up the flows.
Further to sdferr, 11:25 comments:
When the border was wide open, NGO (or equivalent) groups were helping the illegals enter the USA. These sorts of groups also are behind the recent riots in LA and were certainly involved in the pro-Hamas demonstrations that have occurred over the last few months.
Ever wonder how all those identical tents and Arab scarves just miraculously fell out of the sky and landed on those college campuses?
I never understood, and I still don’t, why RICO indictments were / are never forthcoming.
These NGOs are criminal organizations whose sole purpose is to encourage, assist, organize and FINANCE these illegal activities.
If the mob, organized crime, the Mafia, the Cosa Nostra was involved in any of this, they would have been indicted long ago.
It’s one thing to see the slow wheels of justice; it’s another to see them not moving.
@JohnTyler:If the mob, organized crime, the Mafia, the Cosa Nostra was involved in any of this, they would have been indicted long ago.
If they were Klansmen, using pre-printed signs and having links to PayPal on their websites filing Form 990 with contact information of leadership, Morris Dees would have ended up with the titles to all their single-wide trailers long ago.
Last time around, George Floyd, riots nightly in Portland at the Federal courthouse and ICE facility, Attorney General William (worthless) Barr couldn’t be bothered (was it OMB that Barr had(?)).
It’s pretty trivial to know who to subpoena or who to arrest when the organizations that print their names on the signs have an org chart and pay payroll taxes and annually file a form that says who their leaders are and where they bank and all use the same two or three payment processors.
Easy to see if the people who supplied pallets of bricks have a 1099 with that org’s name on it.
@huxley:The 2020s are the 60s except the music is worse.
Could you ask one of your AI tools to make good riot music for the 2020s and share a link? I’ve seen more than one AI-generated parody album, sometimes they’re pretty hilarious.
In the meantime I guess we can borrow Sublime’s “April 29, 1992”, at least they followed the 60s tradition of losing their vocalist to an overdose.
AI is the LSD of the 2020s.
Wow, LA has really got the leftist minions I follow in a real lather. They, of course, follow the party line of “peaceful protests”. I put up some pictures from the riots just to see how they would respond. I was called a moron. 🙂
They are convinced that Trump called out the National Guard in order to start his military dictatorship; LA is first, but he will soon do the same everywhere else. These people are truly nuts. How can one live with such simmering hatred and paranoia everyday occupying their thoughts?
Dave Friedman explores an interesting question about the AI boom:
“What if We’re Building too Much AI Infrastructure? We’re spending tens of billions of capex dollars on vast datacenters but what if the AI future is more efficient and runs cooler?”
crasey…”What if We’re Building too Much AI Infrastructure?”
I do think that power & cooling demand for LLMs will be substantially reduced, at least for the Inference component, several companies are pursuing this and the economic motivation is strong. OTOH, a lot of the traditional search traffic is shifting to LLMs…personally, I find Grok to be generally more effective and less irritating than Google, etc. So it will be a tug-of-war between two opposing trends. Stranded capital for data centers does seem likely at some point, though.
As far as power generation and distribution goes, there are factors other than AI in play. Trump is trying to drive aluminum manufacturing back to America, this is a very power-intensive process…as is electric arc steelmaking and many other kinds of manufacturing.
It is interesting that prices of about $2400/kw are now being quoted for CCGT power generation equipment…just a few years ago, it was more like $1000/kw. There is clearly a demand crunch. According to one source, the companies that make CCGT equipment (GE Vernova, ABB, etc) are working to reduce manufacturing bottlenecks in their existing facilities but are *not* building major new factories, which would imply that they don’t thing the power demand growth will go on forever OR that it will be fulfilled by other technologies.
Nuclear plants need turbines too (steam turbines), though…and wind/solar may reduce fuel demand for gas plants but don’t help with the peak load that must be provisioned for.
Re: AI is the LSD of the 2020s.
@BobS: Aaaand Huxley wins the thread.
Thanks. I’ve been saying that for a while. I asked ChatGPT if anyone else was on record with that quote earlier.
Naturally, Chat hallucinated some guy on Twitter had said it first and gave me an invalid link. 🙂
@crasey: What if We’re Building too Much AI Infrastructure?
I’ve no doubt we will make AI more energy-efficient. However, ĂŤ don’t believe there is too much AI infrastructure. We will use all it and more to use more AI.
According to Jevons’ Paradox, English economist William Stanley Jevons in 1865 observed that as technological improvements increase the efficiency with which a resource is used, the overall consumption of that resource tends to increase, not decrease.
A 39 part thread by Wokal Distance, replete with photos, charts and documentation explaining the theory and practice of what’s going on (and has been going on for many years now) in LA and other cities across the country. Read the whole thing: it’s worth the time invested.
https://x.com/wokal_distance/status/1931953269775188449
What’s worse is that the flow of money to these groups is so easy to shut down, but it never is. They take donations online using payment systems like PayPal, and accept major credit cards, the terms of service of which they are violating by participating in illegal activities. There are bank accounts, 1099s, Form 990s and other filings, some public, with leaders’ names and contact information on them.
These are not like Al Qaeda, that have to be infiltrated and funded by briefcases full of cash. These groups are operating openly using the normal financial systems. Some large faction of government simply does not want to touch them, nor put pressure on their banks to de-bank them.
Might there be a RICO prosecution in their future? Time, I suppose, will tell. But by all means, let the DoJ beaver away at daming up the flows.
Further to sdferr, 11:25 comments:
When the border was wide open, NGO (or equivalent) groups were helping the illegals enter the USA. These sorts of groups also are behind the recent riots in LA and were certainly involved in the pro-Hamas demonstrations that have occurred over the last few months.
Ever wonder how all those identical tents and Arab scarves just miraculously fell out of the sky and landed on those college campuses?
I never understood, and I still don’t, why RICO indictments were / are never forthcoming.
These NGOs are criminal organizations whose sole purpose is to encourage, assist, organize and FINANCE these illegal activities.
If the mob, organized crime, the Mafia, the Cosa Nostra was involved in any of this, they would have been indicted long ago.
It’s one thing to see the slow wheels of justice; it’s another to see them not moving.
Dogs are smart people on the other hand
https://x.com/iowahawkblog/status/1932068421585256610
Really now
https://m.piqsuite.com/reuters/abrego-garcias-return-should-not-end-trump-contempt-probe-lawyers-say-2025-06-09-14-53-25
Those words you are using
https://x.com/rachelbovard/status/1932090447528067334
@JohnTyler:If the mob, organized crime, the Mafia, the Cosa Nostra was involved in any of this, they would have been indicted long ago.
If they were Klansmen, using pre-printed signs and having links to PayPal on their websites filing Form 990 with contact information of leadership, Morris Dees would have ended up with the titles to all their single-wide trailers long ago.
Last time around, George Floyd, riots nightly in Portland at the Federal courthouse and ICE facility, Attorney General William (worthless) Barr couldn’t be bothered (was it OMB that Barr had(?)).
It’s pretty trivial to know who to subpoena or who to arrest when the organizations that print their names on the signs have an org chart and pay payroll taxes and annually file a form that says who their leaders are and where they bank and all use the same two or three payment processors.
Easy to see if the people who supplied pallets of bricks have a 1099 with that org’s name on it.
Those bagpipes wont play themselves
Crossing the streams
https://x.com/SarahisCensored/status/1931945061232615612
Our good friends cair are involved in this part
The 2020s are the 60s except the music is worse.
@huxley:The 2020s are the 60s except the music is worse.
Could you ask one of your AI tools to make good riot music for the 2020s and share a link? I’ve seen more than one AI-generated parody album, sometimes they’re pretty hilarious.
In the meantime I guess we can borrow Sublime’s “April 29, 1992”, at least they followed the 60s tradition of losing their vocalist to an overdose.
AI is the LSD of the 2020s.
Wow, LA has really got the leftist minions I follow in a real lather. They, of course, follow the party line of “peaceful protests”. I put up some pictures from the riots just to see how they would respond. I was called a moron. 🙂
They are convinced that Trump called out the National Guard in order to start his military dictatorship; LA is first, but he will soon do the same everywhere else. These people are truly nuts. How can one live with such simmering hatred and paranoia everyday occupying their thoughts?
Aaaand Huxley wins the thread.
Complete…with—strategic?—hallucinations….
Related…
“Musk fact-checks his own AI for claiming he bragged about stealing Stephen Miller’s wife”—
https://nypost.com/2025/06/09/us-news/musk-fact-checks-his-own-ai-for-claiming-he-bragged-about-stealing-stephen-millers-wife/
Dave Friedman explores an interesting question about the AI boom:
“What if We’re Building too Much AI Infrastructure? We’re spending tens of billions of capex dollars on vast datacenters but what if the AI future is more efficient and runs cooler?”
I think he’s on to something.
https://davefriedman.substack.com/p/what-if-were-building-too-much-ai?publication_id=80418&post_id=165281910&isFreemail=true&r=9bg2k&triedRedirect=true
h/t Instapundit
https://x.com/wokal_distance/status/1931953269775188449
In case you were hoping
https://x.com/MZHemingway/status/1932377458675785814
crasey…”What if We’re Building too Much AI Infrastructure?”
I do think that power & cooling demand for LLMs will be substantially reduced, at least for the Inference component, several companies are pursuing this and the economic motivation is strong. OTOH, a lot of the traditional search traffic is shifting to LLMs…personally, I find Grok to be generally more effective and less irritating than Google, etc. So it will be a tug-of-war between two opposing trends. Stranded capital for data centers does seem likely at some point, though.
As far as power generation and distribution goes, there are factors other than AI in play. Trump is trying to drive aluminum manufacturing back to America, this is a very power-intensive process…as is electric arc steelmaking and many other kinds of manufacturing.
It is interesting that prices of about $2400/kw are now being quoted for CCGT power generation equipment…just a few years ago, it was more like $1000/kw. There is clearly a demand crunch. According to one source, the companies that make CCGT equipment (GE Vernova, ABB, etc) are working to reduce manufacturing bottlenecks in their existing facilities but are *not* building major new factories, which would imply that they don’t thing the power demand growth will go on forever OR that it will be fulfilled by other technologies.
Nuclear plants need turbines too (steam turbines), though…and wind/solar may reduce fuel demand for gas plants but don’t help with the peak load that must be provisioned for.
Re: AI is the LSD of the 2020s.
@BobS: Aaaand Huxley wins the thread.
Thanks. I’ve been saying that for a while. I asked ChatGPT if anyone else was on record with that quote earlier.
Naturally, Chat hallucinated some guy on Twitter had said it first and gave me an invalid link. 🙂
@crasey: What if We’re Building too Much AI Infrastructure?
I’ve no doubt we will make AI more energy-efficient. However, ĂŤ don’t believe there is too much AI infrastructure. We will use all it and more to use more AI.
According to Jevons’ Paradox, English economist William Stanley Jevons in 1865 observed that as technological improvements increase the efficiency with which a resource is used, the overall consumption of that resource tends to increase, not decrease.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox