104) Disappointing, but not surprising to see such lame legislation being proposed to counter the use of AI in political advertising. Far more can be done then requiring a disclosure of the use of #AI in political ads
I’d suggest the unapproved use of a person’s voice or likeness to create fake video or audio, should be prohibited
Will #Election2024 be a barrage of AI enhanced untruths being blasted at us?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/us/ai-election-ads-state-legislators.htm
105) A reminder of how divorced from reality #Trumpism is from facts.
#Brexit has proven to be a train wreck yet Donald #Trump is parading #NigelFarage around the #IowaCaucus as some kind of hero
Donald Trump pleaded with his Iowa Republican supporters to brave the frigid weather Monday and turn out in droves to gift him a dominant victory in the state’s caucus and push him closer to a rematch with Joe Biden for the White House.
106)This chart is likely making the #Biden campaign smile.
Despite #GOP purveyors of of economic doom and gloom, Americans are realizing that the #economy is improving.
It's taken a while for this story to break through, but the steady reduction of #inflation and strong #JobGrowth numbers eventually swamp #RightWing propaganda
The James Carville adage applies: "It's the economy stupid" and the economy is looking better
107) #Trump mental confusion makes another appearance on the campaign trail.
Apparently #NikkiHaley and #NancyPelosi have melded into one person.
Heck both their names begin with “N” and they’re also members of the ever growing enemy list, why not roll em up together in one big ball of hatred?
108) Good piece from HCR on the Far Right’s attack on American institutions
What is missing from is a theory on what effort the attack serves. Can’t say we look to Trump for a rational explanation. The man has little space for such thinking being incapable of understanding of his own mind and rarely controlled impulses
This is a not criticism of the piece, more pointing to the impound developing a narrative for persuadable voters
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-20-2024
Last night at a rally in New Hampshire, former president Trump repeatedly confused former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who is running against him for the Republican presidential nomination, with Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House.
109) The inevitable has happened and a little earlier than expected.
The #DeSantis campaign is no more and the chastened Governor of #Florida is now genuflecting and tugging his forelock before #DonaldTrump
Apparently, a suposedly gussied up version of #Trumpism doesn't fly. That notion has been cast upon the ash heap of history. It is either #Fascism #Trump style or nothing else for the majority of the #GOP faithful
#USPolitics #Politics #Election2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/21/ron-desantis-drops-out/
110) As the #GOP primary race draws to a close before it has barely started, the only question left is, can #NikkiHaley make any kind of dint in #Trump's dominance of the #Republican Party.
We'll know on Tuesday when the #NewHampshire primary takes place. Unless former Governor Haley is within an ass’s roar of Trump, that will be curtains for the #Republican primary
#USPolitics #Politics #Election2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/20/new-hampshire-primary-independents-haley-trump/
111) After today’s #NewHampshire primary, we’ll likely see the end of #NikkiHaley’s quest for the presidency
While Ms. Haley might be a more palatable than the #facist candidate known as #Trump, her campaign shone a bright light on the absurd historical fact avoidance engaged in by many #GOP types
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidpepper/p/cartoon-tuesday-nik-haley-history
#Republican #Primary #Republican #USPolitics #Politics #Election2024
112) Today’s parlor game features the punditry class yammering about whether #NikkiHaley will remain in the #GOP Primary race following an 11% defeat by #DonaldTrump in #NewHampshire
While Governor Haley outperformed expectations, many polls had her down >20%, a route to victory is minuscule with the exception of judicial rulings derailing #Trump
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/24/trump-5-takeaways-new-hampshire-00137511
113) What purports to be #NewsMedia on #FoxNews
#RightWing pundit deeply upset with #TaylorSwift's call to register to #vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knHdSQ4dcms
#USpolitics #Politics #Election2023 #NotJournalism #Journalism
114) The #Trump #Republican Party is not in the business of solutions, unless a positive outcome can be claimed to the exclusion all others.
Come to think of it, the #GOP is not in the business of possitivity, their activities might be better described as being deeply invested in the cultivation of fear and anger, particularly directed at people with darker skin
#MittRomney is calling it correctly:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/romney-trump-immigration-border-senate
Romney, armed with the candor of a politician nearing the end of his career, on Thursday denounced Trump’s efforts to wave Republican senators off an immigration deal so the former president can keep using the border as a cudgel against Biden.
115) What needs to be done this election year when #democracy is under threat?
The need to organize and take action is imperative. A good place to start is getting involved with @indivisibleteam which has groups all across America gearing up to persuade the persuadable
Visit their site and signup for your local group => https://www.indivisible.org
116) An excellence from Clay Jones
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/29/2220184/-Cartoon-Swifty-Bowl
116) I've been thinking a lot about the structural issues that plague Western democracies. My particular focus is on #USPolitics as I live in #NYC and am staring down the barrel of a nasty presidential election
Job 1 is to make sure #Trump is not relected.
Job 2 is to reduced the malaign influence of extreme wealth on democracy - this is a #Garch" problem which I go into on this #podcast episode. More to come in the next few weeks
117) The #RightWing media sphere is going all sorts of bonkers with #TaylorSwift conspiracy theories
If takes a special type of paranoia to suggest that #SuperBowlLVIII is rigged. Apparently a #KansasCityChiefs victory featuring the pop star’s boyfriend #TravisKelce’s will be used to announce a #Biden endorsement
Madness, but that’s where we’re at
118) a good piece here from Todd Belton on #RagePolitics and why it works for #Trump particular during the primary season when polarized and partisan #FarRight voters are at their most influential
Trumpist voters crave binary and simple messaging. They abhor notions of uncertainty. General election voters are more accepting of the laws of probability where outcomes are not certain. Call it grown up thinking
https://open.substack.com/pub/thinkbigpicture/p/trump-2024-campaign-rage-conservatives
119) The good news on the #Bidenomics economy has been coming for months. Most voters are not regular traders of economic news, the stuff is too dry and subtle for most
Eventually the flood of good economic registers and is it continues, as recognition slowly takes hold. Yesterdays impressive job numbers will have registered favorably with more voters and #Trump claims of a poor #economy are becoming increasingly less credible
120) To the surprise of no one, the House #GOP and #MikeJohnson are not the slightest bit interested in doing a deal on #border #migration. They’re busily engaged in forelock tugging mode before Dear Leader aka #Trump and his master, Czar #Putin
#Republican politics are only about one thing, tax breaks for the #garchs in #Russia, #America, and all other geographies
Want to fix something for the other 99.9%. Look elsewhere
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and House Republican leaders denounced a bipartisan Senate deal to impose new US border restrictions and unlock billions of dollars in Ukraine aid, endangering its prospects for passage.
121) Throughout his life #DonaldTrump, has fought legal actions directed at him through frivolous appeals and delaying tactics
The big question now is whether the absurdity of the total presidential immunity appeal process will resolve for #Jan6 insurrection trial to take place before #Election2024?
Will the #SupremeCourt accept the appeal or will other strategems be deployed to delay the case beyond the election?
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/06/trump-criminal-immunity-supreme-court-00140027
122) Some have posited that #Election2024 will be the first #AI #Election
Looks like a certain #Texas based corporation by the name of Life Corporation and its owner Walter Monk can expect to experience some deep law enforecement scrutiny for deceptively impersonating Pres #JoeBiden's voice
Hopefuly this will pursued agressively to dissaude other dirty trick types
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/us/politics/biden-robocall-new-hampshire.html
123) Excellent piece from #HCR on the #NewsMedia, Pres #Biden is losing it campaign. Required reading for thoughtful types
Let’s be clear, there is a perverse incentive faced by many for-profit #journalism outfits. A close race, increases clicks, reads, views, listens.
The owners of many of these corporations are also likely fond of billionaire friendly tax policies that #Trump will support
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/february-9-2024
Yesterday, Special Counsel Robert Hur, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2023 to investigate President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents before he was president, released his report. It begins: “We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter. We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.” The Department of Justice closed a similar case against former Vice President Mike Pence on June 1, 2023, days before Pence announced his presidential bid, with a brief, one-page letter.
124) As sure as day follows night, #Trump dusts off his #Putin loving playbook
Just par for the course for a man who has more contempt than understanding of the world order established through the sacrifice of the greatest generation 80 years ago
As #NancyPelosi said of #DonaldTrump back in 2019 :
“With him, all roads lead to Putin”
🔑 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/11/us/politics/trump-nato.html
125) It’s more than troubling that #NikkiHaley has to advise voters that #Trump’s anti-NATO #Putin hugging utterances are a problem
Why #DonaldTrump is so quick to to embrace the geopolitical goal’s of #Russia’s arch murderer is a matter of speculation
Maybe it’s #Kompromat, maybe if a love of #petrogarch oil money or just #autocracy fan boy stuff
Whatever, it’s hugely dangerous to world peace
126) Sometimes i agree with even the most obnoxious of Republicans
127) There is more blood on the hands of #VladimirPutin with the death of #Aleksei Navalny today in a remote Russian prison
Sadly #Putin’s regime of enablers is not confined to #Russia. Far too many #GOP types are obediently following #Trump’s autocratic loving “leadership” and betraying #Ukraine by withholding financial support for the #UkraineRussiaWar
An ugly day for freedom and democracy. RIP #Navalny
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/world/europe/aleksei-navalny-dead-russia.html
128) I'm rarely aligned with #MikePence. Frankly his #politics are pretty much diametrically oppoed to mine.
However today we're in agreement, on the this saddest of days ,when a brave man has died far from friends and family in a Russian penal colony
Those #GOP politicians that equivocate and waffle when it comes to supporting #Ukraine in #Congress are aiding and abetting #Putin. #Democracy and geopolitical stability are at stake
https://thehill.com/policy/international/4472262-pence-gop-putin-apologists-navalny-death
Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday is no room in the Republican party for “apologists” for President Vladimir Putin after Russian authorities reported the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Pence issued a strong rebuke of the Russian leader in a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Putin is a…
129) Cash is getting a little tight in #Trump world. Apparently inflating one’s net worth to the size of a bull frog is not a winning business strategy.
The #Engoron ruling requires the posting of a bond or actual cash within 30 days.
Given the former president’s has filched much of the cash from those foolish enough to donate his collection of PACs, I imagine his current crop of attorneys must be wondering if they’ll be paid
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/nyregion/trump-civil-fraud-trial-ruling.html
130) Central to #Trumpist politics is the stoking and packaging of fear which produces and reinforces a radicalized #FarRight.
Few produce fear based #TV better than #Sinclair broadcasting and that fear and its ugly stepchildren, anger and revenge, are the fuel for #Trump’s election campaign. Nothing else is being offered beyond vengeance
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/16/sinclair-broadcasting-conservative-media-trump
131) I've watched this scene before from the #WestWing. It still speaks powerfully to me especially when I hear some awful unctous biblical reference to justify something reprehensible
The #Bible is filled with contradictions and peculiarities and for politicians, who like to use"Tthe Good Book" as justification, #Shakespeare in the Merchant of Venice reminds us that "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose" likely based on his reading of Luke 4:9-13
132) The tortured #GOP efforts to conflate #HunterBiden's troubles into a Joe #Biden corruption story continues to be confronted by embarassing realities and truths
Sadly the smear, rather than the truth, aided and abetted by the velocity of #SociaMedia and a variety of #GOP useful idiots continues their contribution to the deterioration of American #democracy
There will be no shameful admissions nor acknowledgement of error. This is the #RepublicanParty
https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-burisma-fbi-informant-lying-6969656f6012780a23a4b8841ce2689b
An FBI informant has been charged with lying to authorities about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme between President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company. The claim is central to a Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress. Prosecutors say Alexander Smirnov falsely told FBI agents in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016. The allegations became a flashpoint in Congress over the summer as Republicans demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the allegations as they pursued investigations of President Biden and his family. An attorney for Smirnov declined to comment on the allegations.
133) I watched the #Oscar nominated “20 Days in Mariupol” last night. It is not for the faint of heart.
It depicts the horror of the #RussiaUkraineWar and its devastating impact on civilian populations
Should be required viewing for #GOP types withholding their support for #Ukraine and think geopolitical stability is to be sacrificed on the altar of #Trump’s slavish fanboy love of #Putin
134) Nobody was surprised by the outcome of the #SouthCarolina primary.
The word “trounce” is being used by the #NewsMedia in describing #Trump’s victory, but 40% of #SC’s voters preferred #NikkiHaley which in #RedState land ain’t exactly a glowing endorsement
Will these disgruntled voters show up for #DonaldTrump in November? What does that presage for Independent voters?
#USPolitics #Politics #Election2024
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/24/south-carolina-takeaways-trump-haley-00143177
135) Some interesting data from the #SouthCarolina exit poll conducted by the @washingtonpost
When it comes to voters motivated primarily by concerns over temperament (16% of the total), 95% voted for #NikkiHaley
36% of #SC #GOP voters indicate that #Trump criminal conviction woukd render him unfit the presidency
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/02/24/south-carolina-exit-polls/
136) it seems that the #SupremeCourt has decided to slow-walk #DonaldTrump’s date with justice.
What tortured reasoning is behind the court’s reasoning in taking a case deciding whether Trump’s expectation of eternal presidential immunity remains to be seen.
The certainty that #Trump will face trial on #Jan6 charges prior to the #Election2024 is now in serious doubt. It’s up to voters to end Trump’s drive for autocracy
#Politics #USPolitics
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1235017841/supreme-court-trump-immunity-hearing
137) Like many folks who abhor #DonaldTrump, I was disappointed that the #SupremeCourt decided to take Trump’s presidential immunity case.
The notion that #POTUS is immune from prosecution in a republic which champions the rule of law is patently absurd.
But this blog post makes the case that rather than slow walking multiple #Trump cases, it may ultimately speed things up
Worth a read 👇
138) For months I’ve read a variety of news stories positing alternatives to the #Biden vs #Trump match up. My political calculus leaned heavily in favor of the that likelihood
It is not that I would have wished otherwise. The persistence of #DonaldTrump in American political life is sad testimony to the degradation of #USPolitics
Despite #JoeBiden’s political successes, I wish he was 10 years younger, but he is not and he will have my unqualified support
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/us/politics/trump-biden-rematch-election.html
139) Clearly I’m late realizing there is a term for the odd voice used by Senator #KatieBritt of #Alabama in her state of the union response.
I was trying to put my finger on the tone which seemed to vacillate between someone fearful of an off camera kidnapper and a fervent supporter of #Torquemada
With thanks to #JessPiper for introducing #BabyFundieVoice to my vocabulary.
Now, if only I could unhear Senator Britt
https://open.substack.com/pub/jesspiper/p/the-fundie-baby-voice
140) Of course #KatieBritt Senator from #Alabama has now been caught in a lie about the awful sex trafficking story she recounted in her #SOTU response
The case she describes did not happen in the USA and did not happen during the #Biden administration. Apparently the case dates back to Bush II 2004 - 2008
The #Trumpist #GOP modus operandi: fear mongering, lying and BSing is all they have
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/09/us/politics/katie-britt-republican-response-sotu-border.html
@mnutty One would wish that you would provide a less socially irresponsible link. I stopped using the NY Times after their unquestioning support for the obvious and proven lies that started the Iraq War.
"Questions arise" is their typical empty headline: "questions arise" about pretty well any statement.
"Much of Britt's SOTU address proven false" would be accurate.
The job of newspapers isn't to print both sides, but to find out the truth.
Paywall free link: https://archive.is/cAavk
Opinions of the New York Times vary. I’m a subscriber and so make no apology. I recognize that may put me at odds with many posters on Mastodon, but diversity of viewpoint on #SocialMedia is likely healthy provided it is respectful
Because I subscribe and read the #NYT doesn’t mean I agree with everything published therein. In the spectrum of commercial #NewsMedia, it’s far better than most, which is a very low bar to hurdle
Which opinion are you referring to?
Factually, the Iraq War killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and the Times was a big part of it, and they apologized for it.
Then they went back on each change promised and finally got rid of their Public Editor, conveniently just four months into Trump.
It's one thing if your friend steals your car and totals it, but quite another if he uses it to force a school bus full of children off a bridge onto a hospital.
The opinion is whether it is worth reading or subscribing too
I think you’ll find that many media outlets got it badly wrong on the #IraqWar.
There is an old saw about the news where it is called the “rough first draft of history”. Sometimes those drafts are abject failures. Does that mean the whole publication should be disregarded?
> many media outlets got it badly wrong
Many American outlets; few others.
Your argument appears to be that participating in genocide is right if a lot of other people do it.
This argument is morally bankrupt, and serves more to reveal the character of the one making the argument.
(You ignore, also, the part where the Times promised to reform, and then didn't.)
I'm out of time for arguing with the empty. Have a day.
Martin Nutty
Tom Ritchford