James Gemmill
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jamesgemmill.bsky.social
James Gemmill
@jamesgemmill.bsky.social
General kvetching | Movie/shows | Photography | Cycling | Travel

Once a lot, now not so much: Vanpoli/BCpoli/Cdnpoli

Views are my own.
Reposted by James Gemmill
Cuban intelligence has a reputation for being one of the most formidable in the Western Hem. Yet they were seemingly caught off guard by an elaborate and long-planned Maduro op, in spite of controlling Venezuela’s security. I have questions: open.substack.com/pub/macspaun...
The Dog That Didn't Bark in the Maduro Op
Cuban intelligence runs Venezuela's security apparatus. Where was it when the U.S. snatched the Venezuelan strongman?
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:17 AM
Reposted by James Gemmill
The smallest man in the largest office
WH sources say Venezuela's opposition leader committed the "ultimate sin": She accepted the Nobel Peace prize.

“If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one said.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
January 5, 2026 at 3:17 AM
Reposted by James Gemmill
Katie Miller, political advisor/spouse of White House deputy chief of staff for policy and advisor in homeland security Stephen Miller, quotes someone saying "Canada just lost all leverage with the USA" and adds "Free trade is over" #venezuela #cdnpolitics
January 3, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by James Gemmill
Would like to see some JAG officers on the news talking about whether these military strikes are technically legal and, if not, what sort of liability commanders have incurred by carrying them out.
January 3, 2026 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by James Gemmill
What does it mean when your doctors keep insisting you redo the cognitive exam
January 2, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by James Gemmill
Thread.

With most products, we recognize that human beings decide to make them available, and are responsible for the consequences. The same goes for AI.
Yes, Twitter and Musk themselves aren’t even attempting to apologize for “Grok creating CSAM” - but this too is an example of allowing a machine to take blame!

Who CREATED the machine that’s apologizing for its actions in a fashion that shifts blame to itself and not to its actual human creators?
Ooh look, we’re seeing the “let’s attempt to deflect blame to the artificial construct that is The Demon Machine instead of the actual, breathing, fallible humans who made the Demon Machine” maneuver play out in real time!
January 2, 2026 at 7:46 PM
I can understand why the algorithm might be interested in Krugman but I’ve never paid attention to Will, so?? Both spouted the same “pro-Canadian” content.
I’ve been fed Paul Krugman and George Will AI accounts to my yt feed.
January 2, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by James Gemmill
call me crazy but it really feels like “World’s Richest Man Creates AI Chatbot That Generates Child Porn” would’ve been a huge international outrage requiring a governmental crackdown not even 24 months ago
January 2, 2026 at 7:06 AM
Reposted by James Gemmill
Criminals fleeing New York as Mamdani takes charge
Some news — George Santos has fled NYC due to Zohran Mamdani.
January 2, 2026 at 5:27 AM
Reposted by James Gemmill
Mamdani: For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty
January 1, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by James Gemmill
They gentrified the tinfoil hat
January 1, 2026 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by James Gemmill
DC does not have a triumphal arch, despite all its other Roman architecture, because they are an imperial and not a republican symbol. They became reserved for the Caesars, and the Arc de Triomphe is a monument to Napoleon. If this dumb thing gets built, the only acceptable course is to demolish it.
Congress should stop this.

Also, if Trump wants to enjoy an imitation of the Arc de Triomphe done in a style and at a place congenial to him, he can visit the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang, completed in 1982.

www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
Trump says construction of the ‘Triumphal Arch’ to begin in ‘2 months’
The monument would be a centerpiece of the White House’s plans for America’s 250th birthday.
www.politico.com
December 31, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Hello from the future. It’s 2026 here in kiwi land.
December 31, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by James Gemmill
1> Politicians who hype the myth of high crime
2> Bad media like CP24 that repeats the same crimes ever few minutes ( Toronto is a war zone if you watch)
3> Bad faith social media accounts (IntegrityTO) who hype it and stupid social media influencer accounts who play on this
4> Police union hype
Inbox: "A new Liaison Strategies survey ... has identified a profound disconnect ... While official police data from Toronto, Peel, and York Regions highlights historic declines in high-profile crimes like homicide and auto theft, the vast majority of residents believe these crimes are surging"
December 31, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by James Gemmill
"Norman Rockwell was antifa," his granddaughter says. (Fact check: literally true.)
www.thebulwark.com/p/norman-roc...
The MAGAfication of Norman Rockwell
Trump uses the artist’s work—like other cultural icons—to promote Gestapo tactics and nativist ideas.
www.thebulwark.com
December 29, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Reposted by James Gemmill
December 29, 2025 at 4:47 AM
Reposted by James Gemmill
Historians: Quibbling Over Exact Definition Of Concentration Camp Sign Of Healthy Society https://theonion.com/historians-quibbling-over-exact-definition-of-concentration-camp-sign-of-healthy-society/
December 28, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by James Gemmill
This whole fucking thread, man...
In 2019, the rate of fatal police shootings in the US was 3.1 per million residents. By contrast, the rate in France was 0.14 per million, and in Germany, it was lower.

In Germany, police officers discharged a total of 85 bullets at people in the entire year of 2011.
I’ve said it and I believe it is true

There is a willful forgetting and suppression of the memory of the hundreds of protests that shook this nation for the past decade and a half. So while Canadians and European laypeople whine “Americans don’t do anything,” the Americans are actively suppressed
December 28, 2025 at 5:50 AM
Reposted by James Gemmill
"I love living in a city, but I hate dealing with other people. I shouldn’t be subject to the whims of my neighbors, something I constantly scream at them during city council meetings." #McSweeneysTop25of2025
The Problem with My City Is That It’s a City
Our 23rd most-read article of 2025. - - -I’ve lived in this city for decades, but I’m noticing more and more problems. There’s crowding, congestio...
buff.ly
December 28, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by James Gemmill
I'm convinced there's a very effective coven operating in Brazil and I want them to come here and do me a favor
December 28, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Reposted by James Gemmill
David Frum's latest anti-Native rights piece in the Atlantic is so misinformed, so carelessly put together that he confused the band number with the population. Kwikwetlem is band code 560 - an administrative number from ISC. The population is 153. 1
December 27, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by James Gemmill
Circling back
December 23, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by James Gemmill
December 23, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by James Gemmill
No left wing person describes themselves as a “centrist” it’s used only by right wingers
Bari Weiss still having the temerity to call herself a "centrist" after openly acting as Trumpworld's highly-placed apparatchik & propagandist is exactly why they gave her the roles of highly-placed apparatchik & propagandist.
December 23, 2025 at 2:08 AM