So, AI is here. The first definitively identified use of Artificial Intelligence in the presidential race appeared this week when DeSantis forces used the voice of Donald Trump in a commercial that attacked DeSantis. It was not identified as the use of AI, it was just thrown out there, and it’s guaranteed that many will not know that the voice of Trump accompanied by his photo was not Trump.
So that’s the warning. Now it’s up to us to listen to it and do something about it because this is the most dangerous use of technology ever. American’s must be able to trust, within reason, what they see on TV and the Internet. But both are already so full of lies that it is almost impossible for the average person to tell what’s true and what’s not. But when we start creating false imagery and getting it accepted as the real thing, we have entered a world of untruth in which it is no longer possible to make decisions based on anything except what we want to believe. That’s just not acceptable. That’s when you get armies of little Trumpets existing in a miasma of lies and fantasy. That’s when we no longer have the ability to discern what is true and what is not because our sources of information are no longer credible. That’s when truth dies, and the Trumps of the world are no longer refutable.
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In early 2023 it looked like the US was about to face an unmanageable border crisis. In March of that year there were around 8,000 migrant encounters at our southern border every day. In addition, the temporary order allowing our border patrol to arrest and send back people who did not meet the proper criterion was expiring because of the end of the COVID crisis. The media was in a panic. But suddenly by June, the number of daily immigrant encounters had dropped from that 8,000 figure to about 4,800. Why did that happen?
It was because Joe Biden issued a Presidential order that contained penalties for illegal immigration, and included plans by which legal immigration could be managed. It was, in the words of Fareed Zacharia, “… a welcome case of well-designed policy making a difference.”
It was, in fact, the first piece of well-designed immigration policy to come out of Washington in decades, and it did help to temporarily solve the disastrous policies that came from the bigot Trump.
Immigrants are still coming across the border and the idiot Governor of Texas is still busing them around the country to get them out of his hair, but finally somebody did something to, at least partially, alleviate the problem.
Now what we need is some seriously functional immigration policy to come out of congress. To get that, Biden has to convince both parties to give a little, just like he did in passing his earlier Infrastructure bill, and Chips & Science Act, along with other legislation that has helped pull the nation out of the doldrums of the various Trump disasters.
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For those who have consistently denied climate change, whether for their own profit or because of their own stupidity, please take a look at Hawaii and Southern California. Hawaii has had six fire warnings in the last fifty years. Then they had six fire warnings in the last three months. Then they had cataclysm.
Southern California, a desert area, has never, before the last five years, had tropical storm warnings. If all goes as anticipated, they will have had a year’s worth of rain in one day.
So, if your whole portfolio is in fossil fuels and they have done so well you have refused to sell, fuck you. These dead and the thousands more around the world who have burned, drowned, starved, been crushed under collapsing hillsides, and washed out to sea, are on you, and your greedy compatriots around the world who understand profit but not misery… or responsibility.
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A recent poll asked Trump voters why they blindly follow the liar-in-chief.
It turns out that of those Trump voters:
71% Believe everything Donald Trump says.
63% Believe what Friends and Family say.
56% Believe Conservative Media Figures.
42% Believe Religious Leaders.
I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty pathetic.
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Yevgeny Prigozhin and a number of his commanders in the Wagner group were killed last week in a flaming plane crash. Big surprise. The smart money had given Prigozhin about 90 days. This happened in only about 60. But the way it happened was somewhat surprising for an administration that has, for the most part, depended on poison to settle its political differences. The speculation for the difference in execution is that Putin wanted to make a statement. This was a warning to the Russian people, particularly dissidents, that this will be the reward for those who get out of line.
Is there any doubt that the exploding plane was the result of Putin’s wrath? Only if you believe. Trump when he says the election was fixed.
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All the GOP candidates signed a pledge in order to appear on the stage at the debates. That pledge stated that they would support the GOP candidate that won the primary. It’s a stupid pledge inculcated by a weak party that fears they will fracture if they don’t have something to hold them together. This pledge is not that something, but it does provide some interesting problems for men like Pence who claims to be America’s most moral leader. He is forever babbling about his religion and morality, but he will still support the least moral scum that ever ran for President if Trump wins the primary? How does one square that? One expands on one’s role as a world class hypocrite. That’s how.
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Despite all the information we have accumulated over the last century or so about this country’s political scene, there are still those who decide to run against the two-party system as third-party presidential candidates. Currently Cornell West is running on the Green Party ticket. It isn’t like Cornell is the dumbest guy in the Western Hemisphere. He’s not! In fact, he’s a pretty smart guy. So why this candidacy? It just doesn’t make sense. For one thing, the last thing Cornell wants is for Donald Trump to be elected. But his candidacy opens the door for just that kind of tragedy.
Right now, we have two major party candidates that few want to vote for. That doesn’t mean that there is an open road for a third-party candidate, it just means that if he continues to run, Cornell might steal just enough votes from Biden, to allow Trump to win. Trumpers aren’t going to leave Trump to vote for Cornell, but there might be just enough left leaning idiots who are too ignorant to see the benefits of a Biden presidency, that might vote for Cornell and throw the election to Trump.
Why don’t I think West has a chance? Well, aside from the fact that Third Party candidates have traditionally been big losers, West has a few problems of his own. Aside from being a sight gag, he has a number of policy leanings that will never sell to the normal general public and now, it turns out that he is in debt over half a million bucks for taxes and alimony. This is the kind of crap that only a crook and con man like Trump can survive, and he thrives on it. Somehow, I don’t think West is up to it.
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