The fact that 'The Matrix' actually got made is a literally miracle.
Will Smith turned it down for Wild Wild West. Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio all passed on playing Neo.
Warner Bros offered to rewrite Neo as a woman just to get Sandra Bullock on board.
Execs had absolutely no clue what 'living in a machine' meant.
In the end, The Matrix chose Keanu Reeves.
I can't believe China:
- stole Nuclear triggers from the United States
- sent mail bombs to President Truman
- had spies acting as "art students" at the Twin Towers
- attacked the USS Liberty
- bombed Egypt and blamed Muslims in a false flag operation
- pushed back against JFK over Nuclear site inspections
- donated over $230 million to Donald Trump in the 2024 election
- donates to over 94% of U.S. congress
- pays Conservative influencers to push their Hasbara
- spent $32 million to primary Thomas Massie
- put out hit pieces against Charlie Kirk for platforming "anti-China" voices
- had ties to Jeffrey Epstein
Hey @grok. Can you please fact check this? Did China do these things?
The reason so many McDonalds etc prices make no sense is half the menu is made for braindead users of Uber Eats who dont care.
In person customers who care about reasonable prices are ignored in favour of Uber Eats whales
Earlier today a @Guardian journalist sent me this query:
Dear Toby Young,
I'm Aisha Down, a journalist at the Guardian. I'm getting in touch because we're planning to report that the US state department is considering a grant of $5m to Free Speech Union, your organisation, as part of a new grant-making scheme, and wanted to give you the chance to comment. We would appreciate receiving your comment by 14:30.
We are considering reporting the following:
- The grant to the FSU is part of a package to Maga aligned groups that former US officials have condemned as a misuse of public money to seek influence over foreign politics and interfere with democracy.
- It is rare for the US government to fund partisan political organisations in western countries.
- These grants are likely to pose a challenge to Andy Burnham, who has said he will be "very upfront" with Trump about any disagreements.
- These grants - including to your organisation - are "sole source" grants, meaning they are to be awarded without any competitive process. This is unusual for a highly regulated process which usually requires grantees to show they have a track record for handling funds and clear plans for the money.
- This lack of process has been criticised as "outrageous and absurd" by former US officials, and as "gross incompetence" and "horrible stewardship" of US taxpayer money.
- Your organisation does not appear to have a track record of handling grants of this amount.
- We describe your organisation as "a rallying point for “anti-woke” grievance" which "frequently allies itself with rightwing causes" and say that you, Toby Young, appeared on Rees-Mogg's GB news show earlier this month to warn about 'Soviet-style' censorship in the UK.
- The state department says that its grant to FSU will “support campaigns promoting free speech and countering digital overregulation across the UK, Europe and Australia”. The sole-source award is justified “due to FSU’s global network of free speech activists”.
We would like to fully and fairly reflect your point of view and look forward to your statement. Thank you,
--
Aisha Kehoe Down
Senior Tarbell Fellow,
Guardian News and Media
I replied as follows:
It sounds like a pretty garbled story.
Free Speech Union International, which is the umbrella group that FSU UK, FSU Australia, FSU New Zealand, FSU Canada, FSU South Africa and FSU Brazil sit within, has expressed interest in applying for grant funding from the US State Department. This would be to promote the right to freedom of expression in those countries, which, far from being a partisan cause, is a universal human right. But it hasn't submitted a formal application and, consequently, has been awarded no grant from the State Department or any other branch of the US Government.
You've mischaracterised the FSUs, all of which are non-partisan organisations that defend people who get into trouble for exercising their right to feee speech regardless of their political views. The FSU UK, for instance, is currently paying for the legal defence of a protestor who's being prosecuted for holding up a sign saying "I support Palestine Action", as well as a protestor for wearing a t-shirt at a Unite the Kingdom rally for saying "Fuck Islam Christ is King". Yes, we helped Lucy Connolly appeal her sentence -- we thought a prison sentence of over two-and-a-half years for a single tweet was excessive -- but we also tweeted yesterday, condemning the arrest of Heather Herbert and offering our support. Yes, we came to the defence of Nigel Farage when he was debanked, but we've also offered to help the Canary in its recent debanking case. So to describe the FSU UK as a "rallying point for anti-woke grievance" is misleading. We are a rallying point for those who want to defend the right to freedom of expression.
Best,
Toby
The @Guardian then ran this story:
https://t.co/1l4K0PABvM
You be the judge of whether you think this is good journalism.
@PolitlcsUK Super Nazis, Über Nazis, Retro Nazis, Proto Nazis, ProggyBazis, mEtals Nazis, based Nazis, gay nazis, lesbian nazis, shalom nazis, turk nazis, Slava nazis, all found in Restore within days of elections
@toadmeister@PhilHs10@guardian Interesting that this journalist describes herself as a Senior Tarbell Fellow?
Requires a mandatory week long Tarbell summit in San Francisco, all expenses paid plus a stipend. The organisation appears to be based in the US.
Earlier today a @Guardian journalist sent me this query:
Dear Toby Young,
I'm Aisha Down, a journalist at the Guardian. I'm getting in touch because we're planning to report that the US state department is considering a grant of $5m to Free Speech Union, your organisation, as part of a new grant-making scheme, and wanted to give you the chance to comment. We would appreciate receiving your comment by 14:30.
We are considering reporting the following:
- The grant to the FSU is part of a package to Maga aligned groups that former US officials have condemned as a misuse of public money to seek influence over foreign politics and interfere with democracy.
- It is rare for the US government to fund partisan political organisations in western countries.
- These grants are likely to pose a challenge to Andy Burnham, who has said he will be "very upfront" with Trump about any disagreements.
- These grants - including to your organisation - are "sole source" grants, meaning they are to be awarded without any competitive process. This is unusual for a highly regulated process which usually requires grantees to show they have a track record for handling funds and clear plans for the money.
- This lack of process has been criticised as "outrageous and absurd" by former US officials, and as "gross incompetence" and "horrible stewardship" of US taxpayer money.
- Your organisation does not appear to have a track record of handling grants of this amount.
- We describe your organisation as "a rallying point for “anti-woke” grievance" which "frequently allies itself with rightwing causes" and say that you, Toby Young, appeared on Rees-Mogg's GB news show earlier this month to warn about 'Soviet-style' censorship in the UK.
- The state department says that its grant to FSU will “support campaigns promoting free speech and countering digital overregulation across the UK, Europe and Australia”. The sole-source award is justified “due to FSU’s global network of free speech activists”.
We would like to fully and fairly reflect your point of view and look forward to your statement. Thank you,
--
Aisha Kehoe Down
Senior Tarbell Fellow,
Guardian News and Media
I replied as follows:
It sounds like a pretty garbled story.
Free Speech Union International, which is the umbrella group that FSU UK, FSU Australia, FSU New Zealand, FSU Canada, FSU South Africa and FSU Brazil sit within, has expressed interest in applying for grant funding from the US State Department. This would be to promote the right to freedom of expression in those countries, which, far from being a partisan cause, is a universal human right. But it hasn't submitted a formal application and, consequently, has been awarded no grant from the State Department or any other branch of the US Government.
You've mischaracterised the FSUs, all of which are non-partisan organisations that defend people who get into trouble for exercising their right to feee speech regardless of their political views. The FSU UK, for instance, is currently paying for the legal defence of a protestor who's being prosecuted for holding up a sign saying "I support Palestine Action", as well as a protestor for wearing a t-shirt at a Unite the Kingdom rally for saying "Fuck Islam Christ is King". Yes, we helped Lucy Connolly appeal her sentence -- we thought a prison sentence of over two-and-a-half years for a single tweet was excessive -- but we also tweeted yesterday, condemning the arrest of Heather Herbert and offering our support. Yes, we came to the defence of Nigel Farage when he was debanked, but we've also offered to help the Canary in its recent debanking case. So to describe the FSU UK as a "rallying point for anti-woke grievance" is misleading. We are a rallying point for those who want to defend the right to freedom of expression.
Best,
Toby
The @Guardian then ran this story:
https://t.co/1l4K0PABvM
You be the judge of whether you think this is good journalism.
RFK Jr. reveals what HHS found when they went looking for the 375,000 migrant kids Biden lost.
"It's a huge, huge tragedy."
"One guy pretended to be the parent of 42 children. We have no idea what happened to those kids."
"We're now finding them. We found about 137,000 of them, but a lot of them you just can't find. There was about 60 kids who were sent to one address. When we looked at that address, it was a container, a steel container in the middle of a parking lot."
"A lot of them were sent to work at slaughterhouses and picking fruits in the fields. They were slaves."
"So we stopped that. Now everybody who comes in has to validate the relationship. We DNA test them to make sure they're related to that kid. Nobody gets a kid unless we know that is the kid's parent or relative."
"It's a huge, huge tragedy. My agency [under Biden] was the single biggest child trafficker in the world."
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills does no one else hear this?
These are the SAME FOUR CHORDS used in EVERY pop song for over 20 years. They aren't even trying anymore.
I-V-vi-IV is the sequence.
These songs are no longer "music" they are incantations/magic spells. It's a ritual.
Nem plana e nem uma bola perfeita da NASA: A Terra é esse geoide todo deformado. Os terraplanistas vão entrar em colapso total com essa realidade ou vão dizer que a gravidade também é uma conspiração inventada? 🌍🤯
They had to destroy the Odyssey because they didn’t want European men identifying with a man who gets lost then overcomes adversity and slaughters the raping tricksters and parasites who took over his home.
The ADHD dream career is being a highly paid consultant who swoops in, solves a complex crisis with a chaotic stroke of genius, and immediately exits before having to fill out the timesheets.