Delaware Liberal

DL Open Thread Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024

For most people the record-breaking heat of 2023 wasn’t surprising – only Republicans pretend not to know about global warming – but it was to scientists, because the increase was greater than known processes would allow for. Something else is going on, and climate scientists don’t know what it is or might be. If 2023 was an anomaly, 2024 probably won’t be much hotter. If not…

The political media is hopelessly wedded to its horse-race narratives, so the breathless coverage of the Iowa caucuses will dominate headlines for the next three days even though the only race is for second place, and nobody outside the political-journalism ecosphere gives a fuck.

If the media were more interested in facts than narrative – it isn’t, the clowns who teach journalism have been yammering about “narrative” for at least a generation – they would tell you that the Republican Party is on the verge of collapse as it becomes the cult of a malignant personality. State parties all over the country are going tits-up as slavish devotion to the Big Lie empties their bank accounts and occupies what passes for their minds. It seems like a good narrative to me, but political journalists take themselves too seriously to lean into dark comedy.

Most new technologies start out with glowing predictions about potential wonders. Not so with so-called artificial intelligence – people have been predicting disaster from its conception. Before disaster arrives, though, there will be a thousand lesser insults, indignities and, yes, crimes. For example, some cretinous outfit fed all George Carlin’s cable specials into one of these programs and produced a “new” Carlin special. Is that kosher? Carlin’s daughter doesn’t think so. She’s suing, as well she should. The most obnoxious part: They turned Carlin into a pitchman for AI. I only wish Carlin were still with us so I could hear his vicious takedown of these jackals.

The floor’s yours.

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