Somehow it Makes Perfect Sense That What Jensen Huang Inspires in Trump is... Empathy

11 min readOut on the Weekend(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To The Last Post Of The Week From The Blog’s Favourite Living Canadian)I have struggled all week to get a handle on this Nividia business. As best I can tell, old Jensen Huang was quite the hound, which got him in trouble because one of his dalliances was with a Chinese spy. From Tech Crunch:U.S. officials believe that one of Huang’s likely romantic interests, Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, is a Chinese spy who has been feeding information back to Beijing. (Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen, is of no relation to Jensen Huang.) Megaspeed is a Singapore-based AI infrastructure company that reportedly purchased $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over the last two years. The U.S. and Singapore have both previously investigated Megaspeed over suspicions that the firm was illegally sharing chips with China. The Justice Department has since taken over the federal investigation into the company, The New York Times has reported.The story took a sudden turn on Wednesday. Citing five people who worked at Nvidia, the Times reported that Huang also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company’s vice president of healthcare, who reports directly to him. Nvidia, Huang and Powell have not confirmed the report. Reached by a Times reporter, Huang reportedly said, “I don’t think you should be talking to me directly,” before hanging up. By early Thursday morning, Huang was no longer CEO of the company he co-founded 33 years ago. Then, Thursday afternoon, Reuters dropped another bombshell, publishing a report alleging that Huang had yet another extramarital affair with another unnamed Nvidia employee.Good Lord, man.Anyway, this is a national security scandal so, naturally, the administration is involved.In a scathing letter sent to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Representative Richard Neal (D-MA) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) said they will investigate how the Trump administration handled Nvidia’s chip sales to China, especially after Trump was briefed about Huang’s relationship with a purported Chinese spy. “Although [Lutnick] and President Trump were reportedly briefed on this intelligence, the Administration did not appear to acknowledge this evident national security threat. On the contrary: despite reportedly learning of Mr. Huang’s compromising relationship last fall, President Trump granted Nvidia permission to sell its advanced H200 AI chips to China in December 2025 in exchange for a cut of the export sales,” the letter states. That same evening, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) requested that Huang and Lutnick both testify before the Senate Banking Committee. “The American people deserve answers,” Scott wrote on X.I swear, with these bunglers as custodians of the national interest, we’re all going to wake up one morning and find that Pearl Harbor has been sold to Dubai. This seems to be still unfolding. We have just begun to find out how close of a pal Huang was with the president. From USA Today:When questioned about whether Huang should have stepped down from his position, Trump said the "big thing" is if the woman is a spy. "I don't know if that's been determined yet, but if the woman was a spy, yes," Trump said. "If the woman was not a spy, perhaps it would be different."Saying that he always thought of Huang as a "fine man," Trump said he is confident the tech executive will "end up on his feet…I know him pretty well," Trump said. "He's a tremendous talent. He did something that nobody else (did)." Accusing China of copying and pirating products, Trump said Huang's invention is "a chip that's so complex, so brilliant that you can't copy it…It's beyond copying because of their level of genius," the president said. "What he's done is incredible. Nvidia is unbelievable."Wow. Empathy. Who knew?Here’s this week’s entry into the Ooh, Ick Contest. From Nola.com:Seven people in Louisiana have died of a Vibrio vulnificus infection this year — the highest annual tally from the dangerous flesh-eating bacteria in at least a decade. Deaths from Vibrio vulnificus—found in warm, brackish coastal waters—typically hovered between one and three per year since 2016, according to data provided by the Louisiana Department of Health. But cases have increased across the Gulf Coast in recent years, as higher summer temperatures and runoff from increasingly intense storms create more favorable conditions for Vibrio to flourish, experts say.Higher summer temperatures, you say? Increasingly intense storms? Ah, those clever Chinese climate hoaxsters. You never know where they might turn up.The bacteria can cause illness when an open wound is exposed to coastal waters. That can include very minor wounds, Figueroa said. One case that Figueroa treated started with a minor toe injury; doctors believe a case in Mississippi was contracted after the patient was bit by a horsefly. At least a dozen species of Vibrio bacteria can cause illness. Vibrio vulnificus is the most severe, triggering skin and bloodstream infections, or gastrointestinal illness. “A Vibrio infection is very serious, especially for people with underlying conditions,” said Tiong Aw, a microbiologist at Tulane University.Sooner or later, Being Alive On This Planet is going to be an “underlying condition.”The New York Times contributed our WTF Is This About? story of the week.Federal prosecutors filed a felony charge earlier this year against a man who briefly served as a bodyguard for Representative Ilhan Omar in what his lawyer described as an unusual gambit to obtain incriminating information about the lawmaker. The case against the bodyguard, Abdullahi Mohamed, who was accused of lying to a government official under oath, provides new insight into the Justice Department’s efforts to build a criminal case against Ms. Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who last week won a fifth term in Congress.Say it with us.“WTF Is This About!”Thank you, We continue.The administration, and the slavering, unread hordes out there in the country who are its only remaining supporters, are perennially bughouse about Rep. Omar. The DOJ has been sic’ced on her ever since the clown show reopened in 2025. Her background inflamed every bigoted corpuscle in Stephen Miller’s body. Weird boogedy-boogedy stories about how she got here from Somalia abound on the Internet. Most of them sound like fin de siecle potboilers about Darkest Africa. But this saga is so batshit insane that it edges on stalker obsession.Mr. Mohamed’s lawyer, Bruce Rivers, said that prosecutors spent months trying to turn the bodyguard into an informant to bolster their case against Ms. Omar. In a move he described as shocking, Mr. Rivers said that prosecutors repeatedly told him and Mr. Mohamed that the investigation into Ms. Omar was “100 percent being run by 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” the address of the White House.“I’ve never seen anything like this in my almost 28 years practicing law in federal court,” said Mr. Rivers, a veteran criminal defense lawyer in Minneapolis.Justice Department officials—who dropped the charge against Mr. Mohamed in September—declined to answer questions about the case. In an emailed statement, the department said it was “completely unrelated to any current investigations.” Reached by phone in Nairobi, Kenya, Mr. Mohamed declined to comment last week, saying he intended to discuss his experience when the “time is right.” Apparently, the administration gumshoes dug through green card applications and found Mr. Mohamed’s paperwork. During his interview, things went haywire.During the interview, Mr. Mohamed was asked a handful of questions that are not standard, Mr. Rivers said. Among them: whether he had worked on behalf of the Somali government while in the United States and whether he had “any interactions with any government officials or politicians in the United States.” Mr. Mohamed, who Mr. Rivers said has a limited command of English, answered no to both, despite having briefly served as part of a security detail for Ms. Omar during an overseas trip and having visited her Capitol Hill office. He did not understand the questions, Mr. Rivers said.He’s not alone.His green card petition was denied. In February, Mr. Mohamed received a letter from the Justice Department notifying him that he was under criminal investigation for lying to a government official under oath, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. In March, federal prosecutors in Minneapolis invited Mr. Mohamed to a meeting known as a proffer, and it became clear why investigators had zeroed in on him and why top prosecutors had been assigned to a seemingly simple case, Mr. Rivers said. During such sessions, law enforcement officials ask people under criminal investigation questions after promising immunity for any incriminating statements they might make. Proffers often pave the way for plea deals and agreements to serve as a cooperating witness in a case against a higher-profile defendant. This poor bastard didn’t know if he were coming or going at this point. But, as his lawyer said, he “tried to be helpful,” but he couldn’t find anything remotely incriminating involving Rep. Omar. But things were generally headed into the banana farm.After failing to turn Mr. Mohamed into a cooperating witness, Mr. Rivers said, prosecutors secured a grand jury indictment against him in early April. A trial was scheduled for Oct. 26.On Sept. 3, prosecutors had Mr. Mohamed testify before a grand jury in Washington that has been reviewing evidence in the investigation into Ms. Omar, Mr. Rivers said. Prosecutors offered Mr. Mohamed immunity for anything he might say that could be incriminating, the lawyer said. Mr. Rivers said that his client reiterated to the grand jury what he had told prosecutors about the $10,000 payment [involving Omar and a brother of his] and his lack of substantive knowledge about the lawmaker’s immigration and marriage history. The following day, prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against Mr. Mohamed. Their stated reason: In August, the government had placed Mr. Mohamed in deportation proceedings. “There is no longer a federal interest in continuing prosecution in light of his anticipated removal from the United States,” the government said in the filing.Welcome to America. We’re all crazy here.Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: “McGriff’s Blues” (Jimmy McGriff): Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans.Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Here, from 1918, Paris is crazy-go-nuts over the end of World War I. This is not only to celebrate Armistice Day, but also the recent happy crowd scenes at all corners of the nation. History is especially cool when you see it happen.Because we’re a welcoming country that always has room for another right-winger from Latin America, the head of deposed Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s intelligence network has found his way to Florida – which, you may recall, is where Bolsonaro The Younger landed when the voters kicked him to the curb. According to our friends at the ICIJ, the skids were greased by a shadowy Brazilian mining oligarch.A Brazilian gold miner wanted for allegedly helping former President Jair Bolsonaro’s spy chief flee to Florida has built a network of companies and properties in the Sunshine State, ICIJ media partner Agência Pública reports. Rodrigo Martins de Mello and his family are under investigation by Brazil’s Federal Police for helping Alexandre Ramagem, the former director of the country’s intelligence agency, escape Brazil and sheltering him in Miami, ICIJ and Agência Pública reported on Oct. 22.De Mello, known as Rodrigo Cataratas, is a strong Bolsonaro supporter. Convicted of leading illegal gold mining on Yanomami Indigenous land, De Mello champions Brazil’s informal miners to his more than 43,000 Instagram followers, attacks the leftist government and calls for amnesty for Bolsonaro, Agência Pública reported. That campaign suffered a blow Oct. 25, when President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came from behind to defeat Bolsonaro’s son Flávioin the presidential runoff. Three days after the election, Flávio, under investigation in Brazil for alleged money laundering, also fled to Florida.Discovery Corner: Hey, look at what we found! From, of all places, Fox Weather:During a research campaign led by the Superintendency of Archaeology in Italy, members of the Carabinieri Underwater Unit in Rome stumbled upon a sharp bronze sword dating to the 13th century BC. The Superintendency of Archaeology dates the sword to the late Bronze Age. It was found in an area that has rarely been investigated for such historical finds. The sword is in excellent condition, still having a sharp edge and is the third of its kind found in the lake since the 1970s.I’m not an expert, but my hunch, based on finding three ancient swords in the same lake, there was a fairly vigorous difference of opinion once along the shoreline.Other items found include axes, arrowheads, daggers, spearheads, pins, a razor, numerous intact vases, and other bronze artifacts. According to officials, the sword fits fully within the traditions of weapons production of Central Italy during the late Bronze Age.I rest my case. Maybe they were fighting over the razor. The Bronze Age was also a Bearded Age, you know.Hey, SciNews. Is it a good day for dinosaur news? It’s always a good day for dinosaur news!Nyana rooiwalensis was a type of sauropodomorph, a group that includes giant, long-necked sauropods, such as Brontosaurus. The new species roamed the Earth during the Late Triassic epoch, roughly 220 million years ago. A well-preserved, near-complete skull and several postcranial bones of a juvenile Nyana rooiwalensis were collected in 2018 on the outskirts of Qhemegha village in Eastern Cape province, South Africa. The fossil came from the lower Elliot Formation, which records a 30-million-year interval spanning the Late Triassic to the Early Jurassic.“Triassic sauropodomorph cranial material is known primarily from Argentina, Brazil and Europe and is sparsely distributed across the phylogenetic tree,” University of the Witwatersrand paleontologist Atashni Moopen and her colleagues wrote in their paper.It’s one of the best things about dino news that something 220 million years old can still be described as a “new” dinosaur. Lived then, happy now.I'll be back on Monday for whatever fresh hell awaits. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line and wear the damn masks, and take the damn shots, especially the boosters and any New One. In your spare time, spare a thought for all the victims of our current epidemics, including the killer countertops, and for the victims of the horrific glacial collapse and flood in Nepal, and for Rep. Max Miller's wife and child, and for the Iranian people, and the Lebanese people and all the other people downrange in our newest war, and all the people in ICE detention, and the victims of ICE violence, and the Epstein victims, and Eric Swalwell's victims, and the victims of the storms in Hawaii, and the victims of the Canadian wildfires, and also the ones in Spain, and the victims of the floods all over the American in Missouri, and the victims of the heat domes, and those affected around the world by wildfires, and the victims of the Venezuelan earthquake, and for the victims of the earthquake in Japan, and the victims and their families in the Tumbler Ridge school shooting in Canada, and for the shooting victims in Austin, and for the victims of the shooting in D.C, and for the families of the victims of the mosque shooting in San Diego, and in Michigan, and in Virginia, and in Louisiana, and for the victims and their families of the shootings in Wilmington, Delaware and Kansas City, and for the families and victims of the mass shooting in Midland, Texas, and for the brilliant journalists of the Washington Post, and for the citizens of the occupied city of Minneapolis and South Burlington, Vermont, and the victims of the floods in the southern and southwest of the United States, and the victims of the floods in Colorado and in Gaza, and for all the people recovering from Hurricane Isaiah, and the people in the flooded areas of southern Africa, and in the flooded areas in Ireland, and in the flooded areas of Brazil, and the flooded areas of Nepal, and for the storm-clobbered, flooded areas of the upper Midwest, including my alma mater, and in Georgia, and for the people affected by the tornados in Mississippi, and for people suffering from the hantavirus outbreak on the Hondius, the plague outbreak in Siberia, the Ebola outbreak in the DRC, the outbreaks of measles, the Hegseth Flu down in Texas, the explosive diarrhea bug, and the Legionnaire's disease outbreak in Harlem, and the victims of the heat wave in Europe, and for our LGBTQ+ citizens, who deserve so much more from this country than they're getting.