Biden heading to Maui to meet with wildfire survivors https://t.co/Svw6dqlnYQ pic.twitter.com/uF7kNvWwG6
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 21, 2023
President Joe Biden’s duty as consoler-in-chief will be put to the test on Monday when he visits Maui, nearly two weeks after wildfires swept through the Hawaiian island and killed more than 100 people.
Biden will pause his vacation in Lake Tahoe to fly from Reno, Nevada, to Maui, where he and first lady Jill Biden will take a helicopter tour of the burned-out areas.
They will then visit the devastated Lahaina community to see the wildfire damage firsthand and receive a briefing from state and local officials.
After the tour, Biden will make remarks “paying respects to the lives lost and reflecting on the tragic, lasting impacts of these wildfires on survivors and the community,” a White House official said…
… Biden has been leading a “whole of government” effort to help Hawaii recover. Biden himself said he did not want to travel to Maui until he was assured that he would not interfere with emergency response efforts.
On Monday, he will announce the appointment of FEMA Region 9 administrator Bob Fenton as the chief federal response coordinator to oversee a long-term federal recovery effort, the White House official said.
Biden also will meet emergency responders, survivors and community members, the official said.
“I will do everything in my power to help Maui recover and rebuild from this tragedy,” Biden said in a statement on Sunday. “And throughout our efforts, we are focused on respecting sacred lands, cultures, and traditions.”…
Amid concerns by displaced Lahaina residents that developers will seek to buy them out, FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said on Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” show that Biden will reassure the residents that they will be in control of how they rebuild.
All the criticisms about Biden, no matter the topic, are about optics. I love how Biden ignores his critics, does the heavy lifting, and delivers results. Be it delivering sick days to the rail strikers or disaster relief to Maui. He has shown himself to be a hard hat President.
— simpleplan90s (@simpleplan90s) August 21, 2023
You know who else has been awesome? My amazing senator @brianschatz. On the ground in Maui. Helpful. Kind. Empathetic. 100% responsive. Everything you want in your senator. Mahalo nui loa.https://t.co/SZ9NTwSzgV
— HawaiiDelilah™ 🟦 #MauiStrong (@HawaiiDelilah) August 21, 2023
Lured by jobs, a laid-back lifestyle and gorgeous scenery, immigrants had flocked to Lahaina from all over the world. But after fires leveled the town, some foreign-born workers perished, and many lost everything in the inferno, including documents.. https://t.co/mrz0pXyy7S
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 21, 2023
Meanwhile, the Disloyal Opposition:
Disaster tourism.
No better than that kid who traveled to Syria or the multitude of people who decide they're going to show the "Truth about North Korea". https://t.co/EJjRUdhl7p
— Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ (@padresj) August 20, 2023
On The Road – Albatrossity – Spring and summer birds in Flyover Country – The Brown Birds
Jeffro
Meanwhile, speaking of “disaster tourism”, Chris Sununu implores the GOP to dodge the impending mother of all train wrecks: a trump nomination
Rooting for many, many injuries here
That ‘albatross’ part, Chris, is actually the plan here. =)
ETA: also frist! And happy Monday, folks!
Baud
I’m glad to hear about this. I wish more people were liberal, but you don’t have to be liberal to appreciate how offensive the right is these days.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
and yet when Dump wins the nomination Sununu will endorse the convict
Baud
@Jeffro:
Can you imagine the freak out if a Dem governor had written that about our primary?
Princess
Sununu seems to think Trump’s convictions are a problem even though Peter Baker and the NYT think they’re just a yawnsville bore.
Jerzy Russian
I am not aware of all Internet Traditions, and as a consequence I don’t know what “the truth about North Korea” is. Can anyone help me out here?
Baud
@Princess:
They’re both trying to save the Republican party in their own way.
Argiope
I’m stating to develop a theory absent much evidence that a lot of Republicans are secretly okay with Biden, and would rather ride or die for Trump for the identity and grievance fuel than actually win the election. I guess we’ll see.
hueyplong
@Argiope: It’s tempting but usually mistaken to anthropomorphize Republicans. Scorpions ain’t human.
Trivia Man
Great journalism skills, Steve.
I don’t know if I’m safe!
Scrambles while in fear for his life. (Or being scowled at)
Steve:
Lots if silent air. Most of the other RWNJ performance artists are much quicker to confront. I was expecting the kid to ask the angry resident about hunter’s laptop or about why Biden isn’t in Hawaii yet.
Suzanne
See, I think they all absolutely know that Trump is toxic, terrible, etc….. And they want someone else to be the one to take him out so they can swoop in and get the MAGAts. But they know being That Person means they will lose.
Which is why I think they all secretly love Chris Christie.
M31
HAHAHAHAHAHHHA
HAHAHAHAHHAHAH
Baud
@M31:
Nickie Haley has to be feeling a little disappointment.
Suzanne
@Baud: I hope she’s feeling a lot of disappointment. She is Not A Factor.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Thank god college football comes back this weekend to distract me.
Wolverines!
Baud
@Suzanne:
Is she the only woman running on their side?
I wouldn’t be surprised if over half the Dem field in 2028 will be women, and many of them definitely will be leading contenders.
hueyplong
“Self-aware” isn’t a descriptor that comes to mind when you see Haley’s name in print. People less addicted to Schadenfreude would probably avert their eyes.
Baud
Even with Christie though, is his criticism of Trump that Trump did bad things, or simply that Trump is toxic and creates distractions.
Ken
@M31: He didn’t say compellingly good. Disasters are compelling in their own way.
bbleh
Biden Ignores Media Criticism
Focuses On Delivering Aid
Will Ignoring Media Doom His Campaign?
A media panel discussion
eversor
@Argiope:
There’s a large portion of the Christian vote that actively hates the GOP establishment. Their gripes are the GOPs economics priorities and that the GOP has failed to stop all sorts of stuff from the sexual revolution to gay marriage to trans issues. They are trying to burn down their own party and build a proper theocratic party in it’s place.
Suzanne
@Baud: She’s the only woman whose name we recognize. I’m sure there’s some county supervisor somewhere who says she’s running.
I saw it posited by some pundit — cannot remember who or where — that the first woman president would be a Republican. The logic was that liberal or Democratic women are invariably seen as radicals and that’s too hard for Americans to cope with. A Republican woman wouldn’t be seen like that. I saw this many years ago, pre-Trump, so obviously the whole landscape is different.
But it has stuck with me, because I had never thought of it that way, and it deeply scares me to think that that is accurate.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@bbleh: Will Ignoring Media Doom Doom His Campaign?
/fixed
Baud
@Suzanne:
They used to say the same thing about the first black president. Maybe if Colin Powell had run in 2000, they would have been right. But probably not.
ETA: For a minute in 2016, there was a possibility of the GOP having the first Hispanic president.
OzarkHillbilly
@Suzanne: Neither are Tim Scott, Ron DeSantis, or Vivek Ramaswamy. Well, DeSantis is a rounding error, I guess that counts for something.
bbleh
@eversor: I don’t know if the real fundie types are trying to “build” anything. The grift artists who prey on them are willing to slap something together that keeps the gravy train rolling, but I think the vast majority of them are focused on tearing down everything they don’t like (which is a lot), after which they expect Jesus to come swooping in on a heavenly trapeze and loft them all to heaven.
Baud
@bbleh:
I wish he would already. Talk about a win-win.
OzarkHillbilly
Forget the panel, in a normal election the answer would be “yes”. With trump in it tho… It’s anybody’s guess.
catclub
Except Hillary Clinton was seen as too ‘establishment’ by both Democrats and republicans. The offending quality will vary depending on circumstances.
hueyplong
They talk about judging the quick and the dead as though that would go well for them.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@M31: Ha, he discarded Pence from the narrative
OzarkHillbilly
@Suzanne: I think Dobbs has changed the math. How much, I have no idea.
Suzanne
@bbleh: There’s a swath of social conservatives like Sohrab Ahmari, who are not evangelical but are Catholic (and some Orthodox), who are absolutely trying to build an “integralist” political force. They are finding some evangelicals who are also willing to hop on the train.
(“Integralist” is their nice way of saying “combining church and state”.)
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Suzanne
@catclub:
Women can never win. When she was FLOTUS, she was definitely crapped on for being supposedly a radical feminist, and a bad mom who was too into her career, and all that shit. And then you’re right, she was apparently too much part of the “establishment” later in her life.
None of this has any internal logic.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Baud: I was thinking the same thing – that people were saying back in 2000 or so that the first black President would be a Republican. I think it was even brought up in a Bloom County strip.
That was, of course, before Barack Obama burst onto the scene with his 2004 Democratic Convention speech, which left me thinking: “in twenty years or so, this guy is going to be President.”
Nostradamus I ain’t.
Anyway
@Jeffro:
Spaghetti Monster, make it so…(all appendages crossed)
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Because it didn’t help Abrams against Kemp, I worry about that. GA is different though because they atill have two republican parties.
gene108
@Suzanne:
I remember the 1992 campaign and the shock of her having career outside of supporting her husband’s political career. The MSM, IIRC, were on this angle. It so shocked the sensibilities of how D.C. politics work.
M31
hahaahah I didn’t even notice that Pence didn’t get noticed.
So compelling, that Pence.
catclub
and not as domineeringly Christian as “Dominionist”, but thats what they mean. Government under the church. Not exactly sharing.
evodevo
@Jerzy Russian: Something, something Workers Paradise in comparison with the racist West something something…the guy will be feted and kept in isolation as a prime piece of propaganda, and then participating in a spy trade years later (or gulaged like they were in the USSR in the old days).
https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/07/24/205121529/for-american-defectors-to-russia-an-unhappy-history
Suzanne
@gene108: I was 12 in 1992, and it made such an impression on me. I am the only child of a single mom (Chelsea Clinton is almost exactly my age) who obviously had a job. And the abuse HRC took at the time for all of those things made me realize that conservatives hated me and my family and my mother.
Suzanne
@catclub:
100% correct.
Integralism would have a more Catholic flavor! More funny hats! It’s totally different. Shhhhh.
bbleh
@Suzanne: I’d guess they are, or are close cousins of, Dominionists (among whom is Bill Barr!), and yes they figure on sticking around and very much intend to take over.
ETA: aha, you & catclub beat me to it. And Dr Google tells me Integralism is now considered a form of Dominionism but is much older than the other flavors. So I guess that would make Barr an Integralist.
LiminalOwl
@Suzanne: This. I will forever remember a Greyhound trip in the summer of 2016, in which I ended up on a busload of screaming Bernie Bros on their way to the Democratic convention. Argued with one briefly before coming to my senses and saying “let’s agree to disagree,” but had to ignore him the rest of the trip.
Betty Cracker
I rarely watch the Sunday shows, but this weekend I was doing the subtropical version of spring cleaning, and I thought, “How can I make this activity even shittier?” and turned on CNN.
Larry Hogan and David Axelrod were on, and Hogan is all wrapped up in the No Labels scam. Apparently that ratfuck outfit has vowed to run a third party candidacy — maybe with Hogan or a similar squish at the top of the ticket — if Trump and Biden are the nominees again.
The host and Axelrod both jumped on Hogan, saying No Labels would be a spoiler and reelect Trump if they did that, which is supposedly a scenario No Labels wants to avoid. But Hogan blithely denied that possibility and claimed No Labels would siphon votes equally from both tickets, which is bullshit.
It really made me want to fire up the old sun cannon and stuff Hogan in there along with Mark Penn and his horrible wife, whose name I’ve forgotten, for a solar vacation. If this democracy fails, it will be as much on assholes like that than on the fascists.
LiminalOwl
@Suzanne: “Ultramontanism” is a less-nice term for the specifically Roman Catholic variant of Dominionism. Of course, though it originally meant regarding papal authority as supreme over the secular government, modern ultramontanist types generally ignore papal teachings when the latter challenge RWNJ political truisms. (And I have Opinions about Mel Gibson…)
Suzanne
@LiminalOwl: My BIL is a big Bernie loyalist. He absolutely voted for HRC and Biden, but he made many of the familiar grumblings about it both times. I don’t care — a vote counts just the same if you’re happy or salty about it.
I get more annoyed how he, like, sees everything in these competitive terms. One time, I shared an article on my FB about Andrew Cuomo showing up in my hometown (when he was still in office) to do a ribbon-cutting at a new affordable housing project. And he wrote to me to helpfully inform me to absolutely make sure I knew that Andrew Cuomo sucked. I was like, “BRUH. STOP. IDGAF about Andrew Cuomo, but I care about my town. I didn’t share that to praise the guy.”
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Agree completely. But we shouldn’t forget the other half of the pincer move — Cornell West and the Greens.
Anyway
I saw some clickbait that HRC’s interview with Maddow got blockbuster ratings for MSNBC. Granted it was during the wait for Dump’s indictment details but still — MSNBC, get a clue. Time-box the non-stop Rethug primary inane chatter.
LiminalOwl
@Suzanne: oh, I’m fine—well, moderately OK—with Bernie loyalists who vote for the Democrats when it counts. These guys were screaming at me about how they would NEVER vote for conservative, establishment HRC—so vituperative that I’m sure sone of them voted for Trump in November.
(And much sympathy to you re: the 1992 misogyny.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker:
Nancy Jacobson.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: Thank you. I’d put an evil swamp witch curse on her to suffer a lifetime of misery, but since she’s married to Mark Penn, she’s got that covered already.
RevRick
Meanwhile, in the unimportant, boring Biden news, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports blockbuster news about unemployment rates, with 26 states at or below 3% in July — for the third straight month. And only Texas, California, and Nevada are above 4%, which historically has been considered full employment.
But let’s let that light be hidden under a bushel basket.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: It’s like the same people saying both Biden is too old to run for re-election, and we love Bernie and wish he were president.
ETA – We met a young man from Lahaina while we were in St. Louis this weekend – he was a manager at Maggie O’Brien’s, where we ate after the Saturday night game. He said he cried for a week after the fire – everything he knew there is gone, his home and his school and everything else. He said his family is safe, scattered around the islands with other relatives. I told him how sorry I was for his loss, and that I was glad all of his family was safe. I also said it was ironic that he’s here, since my experience with Maui was that most of the people there are from somewhere else! I’m sure NotMax will correct me if I’m wrong, but it sure seemed to me that most of the people I met who lived there didn’t come from Hawaii, but from other countries or the mainland USA.
Today is my husband’s dr appointment where we find out the results of his MRI and the neuropsych exam. I’m both dreading and welcoming it. I don’t want a diagnosis, because that makes his memory loss problem more real, but I need a diagnosis so I have a name for what we’re dealing with. I have no idea what his reaction to the news will be; my guess is that he’ll say everything is being blown out of proportion. Trust me, it’s not.
bbleh
@Baud: dibs on Cornel West and the Greens for a band name!
WaterGirl
I have no clue who the Disaster tourism guy being interviewed by Bannon is. How would the guy who’s yelling at him even know who he is?
Someone please tell me who it is so I know who mock and despise?
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Maybe I’m off base, but I can’t see Cornel West getting much traction. Jill Stein wasn’t a serious person either, but she was a handy protest vote for lots of people who won’t have the same excuse to be disgruntled this time around.
Jeffro
I know, right??
He’s GIVING AWAY THE WHOLE GAME (on the GOP side, anyway)
Jeffro
Oh I know, I know. Things like that ought to come with an eyeroll warning. Mine nearly got stuck!
jonas
Which essentially means that anyone who wants work can find something. In my area, I’m still seeing restaurants and other businesses with curtailed hours and/or services because they simply can’t find employees. The government needs to start getting work permits into the hands of all those asylum seekers. They’re not all just manual laborers — a lot of the Venezuelans in particular are educated workers who could do a lot of different things.
Doug R
Why does the right wing rage machine always seem to come back to Russia?
Pro-Moscow voices tried to steer Ohio train disaster debate
topclimber
@Soprano2: Hang in there.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know if either No Labels or Cornell West will get any traction. At this point, all I can do is judge them by their apparent intent.
sdhays
@Suzanne: They said the same thing about the first black President. Thatcher made them happy and they have decided that’s “the way things are”, even if it’s another country and 40 years ago.
eversor
@Suzanne:
It’s called National Conservatism and has support from people who do not give one whit what Christians think as well. Such as Peter Theil, Marco Rubio, and Josh Hawley and it’s an international movement.
The basic idea of this is first right wing economic orthodoxy full stop. Second is that the nations laws, culture, and government, should be alligned with it’s majority religion (ie Christianity) and then shit tons of government give outs to Christians while stripping non Christians, or Christians that don’t follow all the socially conservative parts liberals pretend (well lie their asses off) don’t exist.
It’s not a fringe movement by any stretch. It has support from the majority of GOP base voters and the majority of Christians, but you know those are the same thing!
They are going to get it to. Because too many people keep coming up with excuses to keep Christianity or flat out lying that it isn’t exactly what it is on the social/sexual/gender side of things. So at best they are actively supporting this, at worst they are lying that they don’t and screwing us all. So until Christianity is gone and spat on we are truly fucked.
jonas
@Betty Cracker: I tend to agree. If Biden/Harris were running as neoliberal centrists calling for lower capital gains taxes or something, I could see the attraction of a more progressive ticket running to their left. But what progressive priority haven’t they either 1. championed and pushed through or 2. at least tried to address as much as possible given the political realities on the ground (e.g. student loan forgiveness)?
The only thing the far lefties seem to oppose Biden on is that we shouldn’t be supporting Ukraine, because, you know, war is icky and we should show Putin the power of love instead or something, but fuck that shit.
Scout211
Again, I feel you because I was there last month. The diagnosis might come as a shock at first. At least it did for me (even though I knew it was coming). But it’s also a starting point, with a treatment plan. And that part feels positive and even a little hopeful.
Good luck today.
Frankensteinbeck
@Betty Cracker:
I’m glad to see you embracing this lifestyle. Please teach your alligators to sing musical numbers so that visitors are properly warned.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: CORNEL WEST
Omnes Omnibus
@Soprano2:
You have my sympathy. Hopefully putting a name to it will allow you two to take the best measures to handle it.
eclare
@Soprano2:
Best wishes on the dr appt today. The diagnosis must be so hard to hear, as patient and caregiver. Hopefully there are some new treatments that help.
Soprano2
@Scout211: I hope there’s some kind of plan. My perception of these things so far is “there isn’t anything we can do except monitor the decline, here’s a list of resources, good luck”. Oh, and “here’s a support group that meets every month, you’re welcome to come”. Maybe I will go to some of these meetings once I know what’s happening with him.
Steeplejack
Re those Post snippets in the Ian Millhiser tweet: I am appalled that the Post is still flogging that “insensitive Biden said ‘no comment’ about Maui” trope. If you Google “Biden ‘no comment’ Rehoboth” you get a ton of articles criticizing Biden, most from the usual right-wing sites but quite a few from the mainstream press. It’s an accepted “fact” now.
What they omit is that the “no comment” thing originated from a single pool reporter, Rob Crilly of the British (right-wing) Daily Mail tabloid, who admitted that he didn’t hear what Biden said from a distance but was given the quote by (unnamed) “lip readers.” Talk about fake news.
Roger Moore
@Suzanne:
I remember a slightly different argument. The argument I’ve heard was roughly that sure the Democrats would nominate a woman (or a Black, or whatever) candidate before the Republicans, but that candidate would inevitably be an affirmative action hire. When the Republicans finally got around to finding a (whatever) candidate, it would because they had actually earned the nomination. It was a very Republican argument that accepted a lot of Republican talking points as if they were just inevitably true.
eclare
@Steeplejack:
Wow. Thanks for that info, I thought the “no comment” comment had more evidence behind it.
Ben Cisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Soprano2: Hoping that the appointment brings some clarity and a way forward.
Suzanne
@Soprano2: Hugs and best wishes for a good appointment. I find limbo to be really difficult, so I sympathize.
martha
@Soprano2: I’m so sorry for what you’re going through, we’ve been on that road with my mom and my wonderful FIL. In our experience, we did get more help than “here are some pamphlets, good luck”. I know there are new medications that can help slow things down (they were just being offered 15 years ago, so…). And I will say, having a specific diagnosis did help us understand what was happening, even though it hurt looking at the future.
Soprano2
@martha: Thanks, it’s mostly my fears talking there I think. My biggest fear is having to deal with this alone. I have no idea how my husband or his family is going to react to whatever the diagnosis is. My therapist insisted that I think about what I was going to do for myself after this appointment, because everything I told her was about my husband. LOL I’m so wrapped up in thinking about what to do for him that I don’t think about how I need things too.
narya
@Soprano2: And if it’s helpful to you, there’s always the jackaltariat here to support you . . .
JML
I have to laugh at the idea that Biden will in any way be tested as “consoler-in-chief” in Maui. While I’m sure that this will be difficult and draining for him personally, Joe Biden understands grief and loss in a way that few modern presidents have and certainly weren’t willing to share. Combine that with the fact that Joe Biden genuinely likes and is interested in people and I expect that basically everyone he comes into contact with on this trip will feel cared for and heard, and possibly uplifted.
Biden’s probably better suited to this and just better at it than any post-WWII president. (Clinton was great at it too, but gets some small demerits for the the fact that part of what made him good at it was it was always filling his own need to have people around him at all times) Here’s how I’d rank them as “consoler-in-chief”: Biden, Clinton, Reagan, Carter, LBJ, Obama, Truman, W, Eisenhower, Ford, Kennedy, GHWB, Nixon, Trump. (and I say this as someone who despises Reagan)
Geminid
@Doug R: Stew Peters, producer of the anti-vax movie Died Suddenly, got on the E. Palestine bandwagon with a widely propogated tweet that started, “What the hell is going in East Palestine?”
It got all over. There’s an Iranian military tech commenter I follow sometimes, and right in the middle of his discussion of Iranian low-band radar vs. stealthy Israeli F-35s was Stew Peters asking , “What the hell is going on in East Palestine?”
Then, about a week later, Rep. Ro “The Clueless” Khanna’s account retweeted, “What the hell is going on in East Palestine?” I don’t think he (or his staffers) knew about Peters’ anti-vax background but commenters sure filled him in quickly.
I sometimes wonder whether Ro Khanna really is a dummie or just acts like one.
bbleh
@Soprano2: a valuable insight! Having been a caregiver for a demented parent for several years, it took me a while to realize that caregivers need to care for themselves too. You can’t provide care if you’re burned out.
And as to relatives, don’t feel shy about making polite demands. Too often relatives tend to tiptoe away and leave it to someone else. There’s nothing wrong with asking them to contribute time and/or money, eg for a caretaker from an agency, which translates to time off for you.
Sorry to hear about this. It isn’t easy for either of you.
Roger Moore
@jonas:
I think the thing the leftists are running on is that Biden and Harris haven’t governed as liberally as they ran, and this is supposed to be a sign they’re a bunch of sellouts. The best part is this same criticism can be leveled at any candidate who actually has to govern, so the cosplay Socialists will always be able to use it against the Democrats without ever having to fear it being used against them.
kalakal
@Soprano2: best wishes for the Dr appointment
gvg
@M31: Pence isn’t really that against Trump and he excused way too much before the end. I know Trump fans don’t see it that way but if you are really saying get rid of Trump, I don’t think I would recommend Pence.
Suzanne
@bbleh:
Or, they’re happy to tell you UR DOIN IT RONG, but make themselves really scarce when they could actually be helpful.
One of my golden rules of life is — with the one exception of communication with elected officials — I never criticize anyone’s effort at anything unless I am willing to do it myself.
gvg
@Suzanne: Yes. Hillary seemed normal to me, ordinary. My mother was a teacher who worked happily. My dad had a lot to do with my being a feminist too, because of his disdain of other men’s attitudes. I was not deprived by mom working.
Their attacks on Hillary were very revealing and I never forgot it.
UncleEbeneezer
@Suzanne: They just can’t quit the nut-jobs! They need them and they know it. It’s a story as old as The John Birch Society.
rikyrah
I love that second tweet about 46 being a ‘ hard hat ‘ President.
That’s the Scranton in him.
frosty
@M31: That was my immediate reaction to those three in that sentence. It is to laugh!
rikyrah
Anyone crack up after that judge issued the ruling that AI can’t be copyrighted?
BWA AH AH AH AH AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: I’m not sure I cracked up, but a fist pump or two and a “YEEEAAAH!” might have been had. :)
Somewhere on FB there was a post that resonated with me, that we should stop referring to “AI” software and call it what it is: “plagiarism software.” It can’t create, it can only copy – sometimes spookily well, sometimes hilariously badly.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
I’m not the tiniest bit surprised. This was the expected result. There have been earlier cases (e.g. the selfie-taking monkey) that said only humans are capable of authorship under copyright law, so extending it to AI is totally unsurprising.
UncleEbeneezer
@Suzanne: Hillary earned that “establishment” knock by doing and achieving things no woman had before. How dare she!!!…
narya
@rikyrah: [waves hand in the air] You know there will be more fighting over it, but I love to see this.
Also, I was thinking about the mifepristone decision–that will be in the next court term, which means the opinion will be out in time for the 2024 elections. I think it’s gonna be useful for us–even if they uphold the use overall, if they keep the restrictions currently in place (having to do w/ the window it can be used, IIUC), that will drive the vote.
eclare
@Miss Bianca:
Interesting point of view, I don’t know much about AI but I tend to agree. And I definitely agreed with that judge’s decision.
The only time I can think of AI creating something was when those idiot attorneys in NY used AI to research a case. AI literally made up cases that the attorneys used before a judge. Oopsie!
I guess someone was too arrogant or cheap to do a LexisNexis search.
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
They never liked that Hillary was her own person.
Hillary has been one of the most consistent political people we have ever had in public life.
‘ Establishment’, IMO, is code for, ‘ too many Black people support her’.
After all, who is the Democratic ‘Establishment’, if not Black people.
I love that picture of Black Church Mothers, with ‘ Establishment’ underneath.
Will NEVER forget the writings, post 2016, that Hillary should just go away and knit.
While they had no problem with Willard becoming the Senator from UTAH. No mention of the 2 time presidential loser ‘ going away.’
Mike in Pasadena
5.4 inches of rain from Hilary, more than 3 inches last night. It is still sprinkling. Windy last night, but not high winds. I am about 8.5 miles from downtown Los Angeles. I have lived in So Cal most of my seventy years and never seen much more than a trace of rain in August.
Now, back to Maui, which is more significant.
Suzanne
@UncleEbeneezer: She also got called “establishment” because she fought her way into The Room Where it Happens. She was successful.
I understand the suspicion of power…. But also, you can’t get shit done without it.
UncleEbeneezer
@Soprano2: My FIL, who just past away in hospice, was having a lot of mental confusion, loss of memory etc. But he went for all the tests etc., and the ruling was that he probably had some dementia but not enough to diagnose Alzheimers or other degenerative diseases. He would also have some days where he was fairly lucid. All of which is to say that sadly, sometimes it’s not easy to pin-point exactly what is going on even by the experts. We just spent two years forever in search of answers on what was going wrong with first Mom-in-law, then Dad. Most of that time we never really had solid answers, even at the very end. It’s a hard and super-frustrating situation to navigate. Wishing you the best.
Roger Moore
@Miss Bianca:
I like the description of large language models as ultra-fancy autocomplete. It isn’t 100% correct, but it gets enough of the essence to make it understandable to laypeople. It also explains some of the phenomena you see, where the AI gets completely sidetracked after a while and starts spinning obvious nonsense. When it starts from a human prompt, it can use that human prompt to stay on track conversationally, but only for a limited amount of conversation. The more it talks, the more it’s responding to its own talk and not to what the human said, so it wanders off topic. It needs the human prompt for regulation.
rikyrah
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
and yet when Dump wins the nomination Sununu will endorse the convict
uh huh
uh huh
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Yes! That’s gonna put a dent in the race to AI, I think. I certainly hope so.
Jeffro
fellow Virginians, rejoice: Fleece Vest Glenn’s stealth campaign to keep GOP parents and sucker low-info voters fired up just might end up biting him in the ass this November.
Youngkin “retools” message for the fall campaign
Man, you almost have to feel for GOP candidates…the “war on woke” is fading quickly, their base wants its fundie paradise that they were promised, and now even this “retooled” parents’ BS is folding no one.
And waiting in the wings from some young enterprising reporter are two deadly questions for any GOP pol from county dogcatcher on up:
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
brave ones, all.
rikyrah
@Soprano2:
Prayers for both of you.
UncleEbeneezer
@rikyrah:
“They never liked that Hillary was her own person.”
PREACH!
Yarrow
@Soprano2: A friend’s mother has dementia. Apparently they’ve ruled out Alzheimer’s through some brain scans. She’s on a medication to slow the progression and it seems to be working well. I know it doesn’t stop it but it has given her a lot more fairly good years.
I’m sure you know and have done all this, but just in case – make sure his medication list is thoroughly checked to be certain something there isn’t conflicting with something else and making things worse. Also, UTIs in seniors frequently go undiagnosed and a major sign is confusion. Not that this is what’s going on in your husband’s case but it’s always good to rule it out in case it’s adding to any issue. Or if things suddenly get worse.
Sending good thoughts.
UncleEbeneezer
@Mike in Pasadena: We had a big tree limb drop in our yard, but that’s because it’s a dead tree. Honestly, I’m surprised because winds never even got enough that I could hear them.
Ken
@rikyrah: I was happy on behalf of the striking writers and actors. It sounds like the studios are free push ahead with their dream of movies created completely with AI-generated scripts and AI-generated voice and images — but they’d be generously donating those to the public domain without copright?
(Though I’m sure Disney has assigned a bunch of lawyers to making damn sure this doesn’t cover computer-generated animation. They may even pull a few off the effort to crush DeSantis.)
Trivia Man
@WaterGirl: re: Bannon and his “ace reporter” – no idea who it is, I suspect it’s just some schlub who idolizes Bannon. Clearly SB has fallen from his lofty perch and so ANY fan is welcomed to help him create “content“. Funny to see a clip with the host just sitting mute, not even an attempt to provide commentary. IMHO it looks like he has completely lost a huge portion of his mental processing capacity.
It reminds of the stretch when Rush* was 100% deaf and had to hold off commenting while he waited for a written transcription of caller comments. (Gotta admire the hubris – host the most popular radio show on air, solo, when you can’t hear a single spoken word.)
*expanded commentary deleted
sdhays
@Jeffro:
…”Parents matter” is just about the most politician phrasing ever. What a dipshit.
And, of course, the Orwellian “Parents Matter agenda” is really the “Nobody Matters – Only ME!!” agenda, since it’s about handing over decisions to the loudest, nastiest, most obnoxious people – who might not even be parents in a locality.
UncleEbeneezer
@Suzanne: The whole “Establishment” thing is such bullshit and sophomoric. And yes, it’s always disproportionately applied to Dems, especially Women and Black candidates. Government is a sprawling, complicated system. I WANT candidates who have experience and knowledge of how it works. Biden is a perfect example. His experience is paying off, for all of us, big time as he expertly manages things in tricky and difficult times. His handling of Covid, Ukraine, Inflation, Judges etc., all with only a narrow Dem margin in the Senate has been masterful.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Indeed! I’ve been saying for years what a great thing it would be, if everyone who believes in the Rapture got Raptured. I wouldn’t give a damn where Jesus takes them or does with them, so long as Jesus got them the fuck out of our way.
UncleEbeneezer
@sdhays: Parents Matter is just the new Parents Rights, a reverse-speak sentiment that goes back to the freakout of white parents in reaction to Brown V. Board of Education, bussing (as well as Evolution, Sex Ed) etc. It always reminds me of this.
Jeffro
I’d say we were separated at birth…but y’all have already heard the horror stories about my fam…so I’m just going to (ironically enough) go with “AMEN!”
Ken
So we have created something that’s indistinguishable from a human!
Sure Lurkalot
@Soprano2: Good luck with the appointment and I hope you get the guidance you need. It appears from the comments that many juicers have been through this with their loved ones and this community will be there for you.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
I guess they all feel their church will be the one to run the government once they’re combined.
Suzanne
@UncleEbeneezer: Agreed. Experience and competence and knowing how to push on the levers of power are just as critical to achieving goals as alignment on political position.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: Integralism is largely a Catholic thing. So the leader will be the Pope. Not this one, tho, of course. LAWL.
tam1MI
@Baud: I wouldn’t be surprised if over half the Dem field in 2028 will be women, and many of them definitely will be leading contenders.
I don’t think we’ll see a serious female contender for the damn nomination for presidents again in our lifetime. We are just two snake bit over what happened to Hillary in 2016. Something I will never ever forgive Bernie Sanders for.
RevRick
@jonas: Oh, yes, this just screams open the doors to immigration. But GOP bigotry won’t let that happen.
Ken
@lowtechcyclist: Most flavors of Rapture theology hold that there will be a period after it, of as much as a thousand years, where those left behind will undergo great suffering. (Usually this is described with a certain amount of gloating.)
I’m imagining the rapturees coming back after a thousand years to find a pristine Earth restored to ecological health, empty of human presence but for a big sign, “Thanks for getting out of the way — we colonized the galaxy.”
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
A woman OK with stripping other women of Body autonomy..
And, every advancement this country has made since Brown v Board?
Yeah, ok…they can go for it.
Soprano2
@Yarrow: This doctor, who is a gerentologist, looked at his meds and said they were fine and he should continue them. I did research that a little bit, but didn’t find anything obvious, plus his pharmacists are good so I’d think they would say something. As for UTI, no obvious symptoms and nothing from him about pain or burning, but I know some illnesses can cause this. I’ve wondered if part of it could be a lingering symptom of Covid. The MRI scan indicated a past stroke we knew nothing about; I’ll be interested to see what he says about that. His father had strokes, so it’s not a surprise.
Sure Lurkalot
@Betty Cracker:
Something something whispers in my ear that this is just as much or even more about Kamala Harris.
On the main topic of the Bidens’ trip to Maui, I hope the people of Maui feel the kindness and compassion the Bidens have for their fellow human beings. I’m sure the press will be their awful lying selves and I hope their inevitable attempt to both sides this comes of as ludicrous as it is.
Omnes Omnibus
@tam1MI: Harris and Whitmer. Both should be serious contenders of they choose to run.
rikyrah
2RawTooReal (@2RawTooReal) posted at 6:52 AM on Mon, Aug 21, 2023:
How do you expect Cornell west to pay off your student loan debt when he wouldn’t even pay child support? But it’s OK cuz President Biden gotcha covered. https://t.co/ZeZ04QjRC7
(https://twitter.com/2RawTooReal/status/1693591980566061456?t=l8QGjAia9e3o0tAusEwTcA&s=03)
rikyrah
They are just ghoulish people.
Kenny BooYah! 🖖🏾 (@KwikWarren) posted at 6:24 AM on Mon, Aug 21, 2023:
Republicans desperately want Joe Biden to disown his own got damn son…so they can attack him for disowning his own got damn son.
(https://twitter.com/KwikWarren/status/1693584738974335218?t=64xBI_X2LO7jPtgs112h1Q&s=03)
rikyrah
Hope![]()
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(@HopeisaBison) posted at 8:40 PM on Sun, Aug 20, 2023:
Y’all see our VP hitting her stride now?
Welllll… she actually hit it the day she took office and started turning her plans on public health equity, maternal health, small businesses, environmental justice, universal broadband, cybersecurity, and more into #BidenHarris policy. https://t.co/RSUaDz8CZe
(https://twitter.com/HopeisaBison/status/1693437940423131373?t=2jnR2HNIFLc-ztV8DjBYPA&s=03)
Suzanne
This is worth reading, in a spirit of knowing your enemy:
What Is Integralism? The Catholic movement that wants to use government power in the name of public morality.
Mel
@Suzanne: This.
So many of them were also the same misogynistic monsters tormenting Chelsea Clinton for simply being a kid who looked like a typical, normal kid (braces, the usual awkward middle-school phase stuff).
It does my heart good to see photos and interviews of Hilary and Chelsea together: two brilliant, accomplished, successful, compassionate women (who also happen to be gorgeous and stylish), with such a strong mother-daughter bond.
Hilary talks about her own mother with such love and deep admiration. Great parenting in action, generationally!
rikyrah
WHITE Parents Matter.
Those others..notsomuch
Tenar Arha
@rikyrah: Head nodding yep, yep, yep. That’s of course their tell: all the parents who do want their kids to read widely and deeply, to have access to any of the books or historical information these people want to ban are told point blank their opinions don’t matter. Not if, gd forbid, one of their precious babies might be ‘uncomfortable’ or even learn to see anyone else’s POV.
karen marie
@Baud: BUT HE WAS SKEEREED!
Poor baby can’t find a safe space.
Astonishing really that these guys can’t hear themselves.