The Fuckery Within

Next time you hear someone bitch about how slowly the DOJ is moving, or what a no good rotten wimpy little milquetoast Merrick Garland has to be when it's been years and what the fuck is he doing and blah blah blah - when you hear that, remember, Garland has to deal with an obvious infestation of rats on the inside of every part of government.

Knowing these rats fucked with investigations and indictments all through Trump's term, and that way too many of them are still there, fucking with things - if for no other reason that to hide out waiting for their next opportunity to fuck things up. Knowing all that, there's no reason to wonder about what a fucking nightmare Garland's job has to be right now.

All that said - what the fuck, Mr Attorney General?

Rachel Maddow 01-30-2023

Waiting

"I can't wait 'til this guy's dead" - or words to that effect.

Lot of that goin' around.

• Millennials are waiting for Boomers to die
• Liberals are waiting for DumFux News viewers to die
• The world is waiting for a quarter billion Chinese to die

Ali Velshi reports

I can't think of anything more passive aggressive than somebody seeing a problem, and instead of doing something positive to address it and maybe start to get a solution for it, they decide just to wait and let The Reeper do his work.

Coupla things:

• Who says he's not gonna fuck you up while you're patiently waiting?
• If you're in elected office, part of your job is to address these problems - or confront, air out, get a handle on, deal with, or whatever. Do your fuckin' job
• But, if you're content to wait, maybe you're OK with the damage being done by the guy you wanna see dead

Eternally Impermanent

Truth is eternal - or so we think.

Truth is eternal - but not necessarily what we think is the truth right now.

Truth is eternal - so we think, and think we must.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson via MSNBC:

Today In Shitty Governance

Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, is a petty vindictive little schmuck.

Today's Toot

Oy

Where We Were

... where we are, and where the fuck do we go from here?

First it's a novelty

Then it's a tool

And then it's a weapon

A.I.: Actually Insipid Until It’s Actively Insidious

WASHINGTON — The alien invasion has begun.

Some experts say that when artificial intelligence takes off, it’s going to be like Martians landing on the National Mall.

So far, our mind children, as the roboticist Hans Moravec called our artificially intelligent offspring, are in the toddler phase, as we ooh and aah at the novelty of our creation. They’re headed for the rebellious teenage phase. When A.I. hurtles into adulthood and isn’t so artificial anymore, we’ll be relegated to being the family pets, as a resigned Steve Wozniak put it.

Silicon Valley is reeling at the prowess of an experimental chatbot called ChatGPT, released by OpenAI in late November and deemed “scary good” by Elon Musk. Musk, one of the founders with Sam Altman, left and now Microsoft is a partner.

There’s keening that ChatGPT — couldn’t they have come up with a better name, like HAL? — will eliminate millions of jobs. Why hire a college graduate if a bot can do the same work faster and cheaper? No more arguments about work-from-home rules, no more union fights. You don’t need to lure A.I. back into the office with pizza.

ChatGPT opens a Pandora’s box of existential fears. Silicon Valley brainiacs have talked about safeguards and kill switches for A.I., but you know they won’t pull the plug when their baby turns into M3gan.

Once A.I. can run disinformation campaigns at lightning speed, will democracy stand a chance? We seem headed toward a Matrix where “it will become cheaper to show fakes than to show reality,” Jaron Lanier, the father of virtual reality, wrote in Tablet. Will bad actors use A.I. to promote bigotry or hijack nuclear weapons?

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As Musk once told me about his A.I. angst: “It’s great when the emperor is Marcus Aurelius. It’s not so great when the emperor is Caligula.”

Several years ago, I interviewed the OpenAI founders in San Francisco, as well as other Valley digerati. And that is when I realized that we are doomed. For the Lords of the Cloud, as they form their sleek new world, we’re VCRs.

That is why I feel free to kick back and shoot the breeze with our incipient overlords. I read that you could use advanced A.I. to interview historical figures. So I conducted my dream interview with Shakespeare, bantering with the Bard.

“Greetings, fair sir or madam,” ChatGPT said, embodying Shakespeare.

What is your response to those who think “The Merchant of Venice” is antisemitic?

“While it is true that some of the language and imagery used in the play may be considered offensive by modern standards,” he replied, Shylock “is a complex and multifaceted figure who is both villain and victim.”

The Bard of Avon, as he called himself, cautioned that while the Oscar-winning movie “Shakespeare in Love” was “whimsical,” “it should not be taken as a factual representation of my life.”

Can you write me a love sonnet?

He could, even though, as he said, he was “a mere machine.” One stanza read: “With eyes that shine like stars upon the sea, And lips as sweet as summer’s ripest fruit, Thou art the one my heart doth long to see, And in thy beauty, all my dreams take root.”

Shakespeare, it ain’t. Still, I tell him, I would love to be the heroine in a Shakespearean comedy! It took ChatGPT only moments to write “The Clever Maid.”

“Act I, Scene 1: A grand ball is being held in a grand estate. You, the fair maiden, are in attendance, dressed in the finest gowns. However, you are not there to dance and make merry, for you have a secret mission.

“Act II, Scene 1: You sneak away from the ball and make your way to the estate’s library. There, you discover a hidden door, which leads to a secret chamber. Inside, you find a chest filled with precious jewels.

“Act III, Scene 1: As you are admiring the jewels, you hear a noise. It is the estate’s owner, a wealthy and arrogant nobleman. He catches you red-handed but instead of punishing you, he is taken by your wit and charm.

“Act IV, Scene 1: The nobleman reveals that the jewels were a test of character and he had been seeking a clever and resourceful woman to be his wife. You are overjoyed and accept his proposal.

“Act V, Scene 1: The play ends with a grand wedding ceremony and a celebration of your cleverness and wit.”

Sounds more like a Salma Hayek heist movie. I spent the rest of the afternoon soliciting love poems from John Donne, Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe, who called me a “telltale columnist.” I tried to channel Sylvia Plath, but ChatGPT told me that would be “inappropriate.”

The most entertaining mimicry was when A.I. Kendrick Lamar wrote me a rap: “Listen up, I got a story to tell, ’bout a journalist who’s sharp as a nail. She’s got the pen and the power, To make politicians cower.”

For now, ChatGPT is typing, not writing. The creative spark requires humanity. But soon, A.I. could be sentient. Then we’ll need our dog bowls.

To be clear - a machine is a machine is a machine. When it goes from electro-mechanical to bio-chemical, then I'll start to reconsider - but only if you can convince me this new type of machine can produce "original thought", and demonstrate some kind of organic curiosity.

How do I believe this artificial thing can recognize, much less develop a true appreciation for beauty?

How does it learn right from wrong, and how can it make those really awful decisions on doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, or the wrong thing for the right reasons?

I can easily understand the high probability for AI to be total nerds that love math and have no fucking clue about how to get along socially. But how likely is it that an AI will be completely enamored with arts and language, but considers math and science to be a mystical wonderment?

Will AI invent gods?

Ukraine

Nearly 5,500 Russians Killed Last Week in War: Defense Ministry

The daily and weekly death toll of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine keeps rapidly climbing, the defense department in Ukraine claims. More than 5,000 Russian soldiers died within the last week alone, the Ukraine Ministry of Defense posted.

As the war rapidly approaches its one-year mark next month, the estimated death count of Russians keeps mounting higher by the week. So far, there have been more than 125,000 dead Russian soldiers since the war began in late February 2022.

Ukraine's Ministry of Defense posted Saturday that another 800 Russian soldiers had been killed the previous day, bringing that estimated total to 125,510 deaths. According to the ministry's numbers, there have been 5,350 casualties within the last seven days. Here are those figures:

• January 22: 600
• January 23: 720
• January 24: 690
• January 25: 910
• January 26: 780
• January 27: 850
• January 28: 800

That's just over 764 Russian casualties per day in the last week. In addition Saturday, Russia lost seven tanks, eight more artillery vehicles, six drones and 26 more vehicle and fuel tanks the previous day.

Russia, despite many losses in the war now in its 12th month, has shifted focus to eastern and southern Ukraine. That includes a strong presence in the Black Sea.

Russia reportedly has three vessels in the Black Sea capable of firing the Kalibr cruise missiles. The Kyiv Independent states that these ships have 20 such missiles on them, and that there are 16 Russian warships positioned in the Black Sea ready to strike at a moment's notice.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has successfully gained a swath of tanks and some air defense systems from western allies that will soon arrive, and now he has reportedly asked the West for fighter jets.

Ukraine is looking for more support to protect itself from things like Kh-22 missiles, which destroyed Dnipro two weeks ago.

Ukraine's office of the Prosecutor General said it was Russia's 52nd Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment.

"According to preliminary information, the Kh-22 missile was used. This type of missile leads to the greatest human casualties, because the missile is extremely inaccurate, has a huge deviation. Therefore, the use of such weapons for targets in densely populated areas is clearly a war crime," the Ukraine office said in a Telegram post. "This type of rocket was used in Sergiivka and Kremenchuk. It can be launched by a single Russian unit - the 52nd Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment."

The Kh-22 missiles were largely responsible for massive destruction and deaths Saturday in Dnipro, located in the contentious Eastern Ukraine, where Russia has already occupied many territories and battles to save that territory.

Newsweek reached out to Russia's Defense Ministry for comment.

Overheard

The people who insisted on putting

'parental advisory' stickers

and 'explicit content' stickers

on music are now complaining

about trigger warnings.

Stop trying to win something

with these fuckin' clowns.

Our Misadventures In Bucolia

... summary of work by Katherine J. Cramer, who attributes rural resentment to perceptions that rural areas are ignored by policymakers, don’t get their fair share of resources and are disrespected by “city folks.”

As it happens, all three perceptions are largely wrong. ...

Can Anything Be Done to Assuage Rural Rage?

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Rural resentment has become a central fact of American politics — in particular, a pillar of support for the rise of right-wing extremism. As the Republican Party has moved ever further into MAGAland, it has lost votes among educated suburban voters; but this has been offset by a drastic rightward shift in rural areas, which in some places has gone so far that the Democrats who remain face intimidation and are afraid to reveal their party affiliation.

But is this shift permanent? Can anything be done to assuage rural rage?

The answer will depend on two things: whether it’s possible to improve rural lives and restore rural communities, and whether the voters in these communities will give politicians credit for any improvements that do take place.

This week my colleague Thomas B. Edsall surveyed research on the rural Republican shift. I was struck by his summary of work by Katherine J. Cramer, who attributes rural resentment to perceptions that rural areas are ignored by policymakers, don’t get their fair share of resources and are disrespected by “city folks.”

As it happens, all three perceptions are largely wrong. I’m sure that my saying this will generate a tidal wave of hate mail, and lecturing rural Americans about policy reality isn’t going to move their votes. Nonetheless, it’s important to get our facts straight.

The truth is that ever since the New Deal rural America has received special treatment from policymakers. It’s not just farm subsidies, which ballooned under Donald Trump to the point where they accounted for around 40 percent of total farm income. Rural America also benefits from special programs that support housing, utilities and business in general.

In terms of resources, major federal programs disproportionately benefit rural areas, in part because such areas have a disproportionate number of seniors receiving Social Security and Medicare. But even means-tested programs — programs that Republicans often disparage as “welfare” — tilt rural. Notably, at this point rural Americans are more likely than urban Americans to be on Medicaid and receive food stamps.

And because rural America is poorer than urban America, it pays much less per person in federal taxes, so in practice major metropolitan areas hugely subsidize the countryside. These subsidies don’t just support incomes; they support economies: Government and the so-called health care and social assistance sector each employ more people in rural America than agriculture, and what do you think pays for those jobs?

What about rural perceptions of being disrespected? Well, many people have negative views about people with different lifestyles; that’s human nature. There is, however, an unwritten rule in American politics that it’s OK for politicians to seek rural votes by insulting big cities and their residents, but it would be unforgivable for urban politicians to return the favor. “I have to go to New York City soon,” tweeted J.D. Vance during his senatorial campaign. “I have heard it’s disgusting and violent there.” Can you imagine, say, Chuck Schumer saying something similar about rural Ohio, even as a joke?

So the ostensible justifications for rural resentment don’t withstand scrutiny — but that doesn’t mean things are fine. A changing economy has increasingly favored metropolitan areas with large college-educated work forces over small towns. The rural working-age population has been declining, leaving seniors behind. Rural men in their prime working years are much more likely than their metropolitan counterparts to not be working. Rural woes are real.

Ironically, however, the policy agenda of the party most rural voters support would make things even worse, slashing the safety-net programs these voters depend on. And Democrats shouldn’t be afraid to point this out.

But can they also have a positive agenda for rural renewal? As The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent recently pointed out, the infrastructure spending bills enacted under President Biden, while primarily intended to address climate change, will also create large numbers of blue-collar jobs in rural areas and small cities. They are, in practice, a form of the “place-based industrial policy” some economists have urged to fight America’s growing geographic disparities.

Will they work? The economic forces that have been hollowing out rural America are deep and not easily countered. But it’s certainly worth trying.

But even if these policies improve rural fortunes, will Democrats get any credit? It’s easy to be cynical. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the new governor of Arkansas, has pledged to get the “bureaucratic tyrants” of Washington “out of your wallets”; in 2019 the federal government spent almost twice as much in Arkansas as it collected in taxes, de facto providing the average Arkansas resident with $5,500 in aid. So even if Democratic policies greatly improve rural lives, will rural voters notice?

Still, anything that helps reverse rural America’s decline would be a good thing in itself. And maybe, just maybe, reducing the heartland’s economic desperation will also help reverse its political radicalization.

The War Of Economics

Exclusive: Top U.S. Treasury official to warn UAE, Turkey over sanctions evasion

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department's top sanctions official on a trip to Turkey and the Middle East next week will warn countries and businesses that they could lose U.S. market access if they do business with entities subject to U.S. curbs as Washington cracks down on Russian attempts to evade sanctions imposed over its war in Ukraine.

Brian Nelson, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, will travel to Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey from Jan. 29 to Feb. 3 and meet with government officials as well as businesses and financial institutions to reiterate that Washington will continue to aggressively enforce its sanctions, a Treasury spokesperson told Reuters.

"Individuals and institutions operating in permissive jurisdictions risk potentially losing access to U.S. markets on account of doing business with sanctioned entities or not conducting appropriate due diligence," the spokesperson said.

While in the region, Nelson will discuss Treasury's efforts to crack down on Russian efforts to evade sanctions and export controls imposed over its brutal war against Ukraine, Iran’s destabilizing activity in the region, illicit finance risks undermining economic growth, and foreign investment.

STRAINED RELATIONS

Nelson's trip coincides with a period of strained ties between the United States and Turkey as the two NATO allies disagree over a host of issues.

Most recently, Turkey's refusal to green-light the NATO bids of Sweden and Finland has troubled Washington, while Ankara is frustrated that its request to buy F-16 fighter jets is increasingly linked to whether the two Nordic countries can join the alliance.

Nelson will visit Ankara, the Turkish capital, and financial hub Istanbul on Feb. 2-3. He will warn businesses and banks that they should avoid transactions related to potential dual-use technology transfers, which could ultimately be used by Russia's military, the spokesperson said.

Dual-use items can have both commercial and military applications.

Washington and its allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions targeting Moscow since the invasion, which has killed and wounded thousands and reduced Ukrainian cities to rubble.

Turkey has condemned Russia's invasion and sent armed drones to Ukraine. At the same time, it opposes Western sanctions on Russia and has close ties with both Moscow and Kyiv, its Black Sea neighbors.

It has also ramped up trade and tourism with Russia. Some Turkish firms have purchased or sought to buy Russian assets from Western partners pulling back due to the sanctions, while others maintain large assets in the country.

But Ankara has pledged that international sanctions will not be circumvented in Turkey.

Washington is also concerned about evasion of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

The United States last month imposed sanctions on prominent Turkish businessman Sitki Ayan and his network of firms, accusing him of acting as a facilitator for oil sales and money laundering on behalf of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

While in the United Arab Emirates, Nelson will note the "poor sanctions compliance" in the country, the spokesperson said.

Washington has imposed a series of sanctions on United Arab Emirates-based companies over Iran-related sanctions evasion and on Thursday designated a UAE-based aviation firm over support to Russian mercenary company the Wagner Group, which is fighting in Ukraine.