Electricity is basically magic. It only seems mundane because we take it for granted. If sorcery, the force, investiture, or any other fictional magic system you could think of were real, we’d harness it, get used to it, and stop thinking of them as magic too.

Dont let familiarity diminish the sense of wonder. Understanding doesn’t make electricity less magical, it just makes you a wizard.

I am not saying that we will necessarily go down the road to fully automated luxury, or that if we do that the journey there would go smoothly. The current “AI” bubble is an unsustainable mess which is causing a lot more problems than it solves. In the long term, we are looking at the development of incredibly powerful and dangerous technologies that can potentially reshape society.

I mainly just wanted to highlight the weird, shortsighted reasoning behind this post. The argument that we need to keep cashiers so that we have a human connection feels a lot like arguments for going back to an agrarian lifestyle. It’s a losing argument that requires glossing over a lot of downsides and ignoring much better alternatives.

People should have to work shitty service sector jobs so that I have someone to talk to. Because obviously I will never encounter other humans if they aren’t being forced to trade half their waking hours for money. What am I supposed to do, talk to people who aren’t being forced to put up with me if they don’t want to lose their income?

The “AI” being pushed on us now is trash, but if we do eventually get to the point of being able to automate away the vast majority of jobs, we ought to use that to free people from the need to work. Give us UBI, make robots do the shit that you wouldn’t do for free, and let us all have free time to do the things we actually want to do.

Sort of like how RFK Jr could just dismiss sexual assault allegations from when he was in his mid 40s as being part of being a “very rambunctious youth.”

The press only had a presence in the pentagon because it was advantageous to have them there. The media isn’t disappearing just because they are no longer given easy access. They will just have less of a relationship with the department of defense. Yes, it’s bad for the journalists, but it’s worse for the administration. Those reporters had been there so that they could spread the official talking points. Letting reporters become dependent on their easy access and maintaining a reasonable working relationship makes it a lot easier to seed stories, to ask for small favors and to give off the record comments that shape narratives. Ol’ Whiskeyleaks is failing at coercion and in the process is sacrificing influence. That he doesn’t understand this is amazing considering he was (theoretically) a journalist until less than a year ago.

As with so many things, they are destroying what their predecessors spent the last century building by being both malicious and incompetent.

People can rationalize anything.

The ones actually doing this shit can tell themselves that this is just how the game is played, that they are doing it for the right reasons, that it’s not wrong to seek a political advantage, that they earned the right to do this when they won an election, and so on. It’s bullshit, but they aren’t starting this particular conversation as idealistic believers in democracy and the rule of law. You only get to this point by either not giving a shit about democratic principles to begin with, or by accepting smaller lies along the way until you are living in a fantasy world of your own making.

For their supporters, it’s a lot easier. They’re all soaking in propaganda and have an entire media ecosystem that’s designed to make them feel justified in anything they support and outraged by anything they oppose. Escaping that trap means questioning things they have already accepted, seriously reconsidering ideas that they know to be abhorrent, actively seeking out sources they have long since dismissed as untrustworthy, and potentially facing the stark realization that the worldview they have cultivated is dishonest and destructive. It’s possible for people to see the disconnect between what they claim to stand for and what they actually support, but for that to work they have to actually be principled enough to put those ideals ahead of loyalty to their side and what they perceive to be their own interests. And they need to have the perspective to see the contradiction in the first place, which is tricky when all your info is coming from sources that only tell you how right you are.

It takes a lot of work to get out of that intellectual rut and ask yourself “are we the baddies?” Much easier to stay where you are and be angry at all those assholes that constantly lie and cheat because they hate everything you believe in.

Off the streets and into the Whitehouse.

Unless I’m mistaken, they would need to win every senate race, even the safest seats in the deepest of red states. Anything less than a clean sweep would mean that some number of Republicans in the senate would have to join them to get to the 2/3 majority needed to convict.

That said, if they were to get such a huge landslide in the midterms that they came anywhere near a 2/3 majority, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few Republicans decide that maybe the Trump administration isn’t something they want to be handcuffed to. Still highly unlikely, but less implausible than a clean sweep.

The headline is underselling it. The settlements were part of the deal. They were literally bought off.

At this point, there is no position so indefensible and abhorrent that I would bet against the Supreme Court ruling in favor of it.

Not to mention that the bullshit in AI videos made by the left would absolutely get called out in every propaganda outfit on the right. It would just give them more ammo (without the usual lies).

But even more important, it will grant legitimacy to everyone who responds to damning video evidence by claiming it was AI. We don’t need to make shit up, the reality is already horrifying. All AI will do is make it harder for people to believe their own eyes.

We need to have criminal charges for this shit and throw the assholes responsible in prison. And not the minimum security bullshit either, they need to get the same punishment that the rest of us would get if we stole that much from them.

Do that, and seize the money, and hit them with fines, and make them pay for the cost of their prosecution if they are convicted. Then we might start taking the legal risks a bit more seriously.

IIRC, a contempt charge has to be voted on (not happening) and if it passes it is then referred to the US attorney’s office for them to pursue. And since that office is currently held by a Fox News host whose only qualifications are loyalty to Trump and a total lack of ethics, that case wouldn’t go anywhere.

Assuming the 23% and the 28% aren’t overlapping, that makes 51% that think a shut down is woth it if it gets their side what they want.

Artificial Imagination

So if your character is from Alabama it could still work then.

The more we communicate in memes and pop culture references, the closer we get to going full Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

The building was on fire, and it wasn’t my fault.

Blood Rites, book 6 of The Dresden Files

That actually involves being slightly helpful. This is just security guard stuff. Paul Blart would be overqualified for this.

The only reason it hasn’t happened yet is because the people who would have to support it would prefer to hide behind an erratic Trump who is prone to manipulation. His cabinet can get what they want and let Trump take any heat from the consequences. And congress sure as fuck doesn’t want to be seen as betraying Trump, nor do I expect many of them want to see a president Vance, especially in the lead up to the 28 primaries.