Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
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GasBandit
Staff member
The good guys are never the ones burning books.
www.cnn.com
Judge orders books removed from Texas public libraries due to LGBTQ and racial content must be returned within 24 hours | CNN
A federal judge in Texas ruled that at least 12 books removed from public libraries by Llano County officials, many because of their LGBTQ and racial content, must be placed back onto shelves within 24 hours, according to an order filed Thursday.
www.cnn.com
GasBandit
Staff member
Federal judges continuing to be the adults in the room
www.theguardian.com
Judge blocks law restricting drag shows in Tennessee
US district judge Thomas Parker grants temporary injunction, finding the law clashes with first amendment on free speech
www.theguardian.com
GasBandit
Staff member
Until I read this, the only other thing I had known about this guy was he wrote the Harry Potter fanfiction "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality"
futurism.com
Expert Calls for Bombing Data Centers to Stop Rise of AI
One of the world's loudest AI e critics has issued a stark call to not only put a pause on it but to militantly put an end to it all — before it ends us.
futurism.com
I'm not sure I'd call that a rational response, but I guess rationality is only for fiction.Until I read this, the only other thing I had known about this guy was he wrote the Harry Potter fanfiction "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality"
Expert Calls for Bombing Data Centers to Stop Rise of AI
One of the world's loudest AI e critics has issued a stark call to not only put a pause on it but to militantly put an end to it all — before it ends us.
GasBandit
Staff member
It should also be clarified, for anyone who doesn't actually go read the article, he's calling for acts of war, not terrorism - IE, he's not making a call to action for people to go bomb datacenters, he's saying governments should institute processing power limits and perform airstrikes on datacenters of nations believed to be in violation.
That's... not much better.
Belgian man dies by suicide following exchanges with chatbot
"Many have discovered the potential of artificial intelligence in our daily lives, but the dangers of its use are also a reality that must be considered."
www.brusselstimes.com
—Patrick
For those who hadn't been following the Chicago mayoral election closely...
I had little hope for Johnson, considering Vallas had a huge lead in the general, an even bigger lead in fundraising (since effectively every big ticket donor was shoving money into Vallas's pocket), and very little name recognition going into the general election (the themes of the general were "We're tired of Lightfoot", and "Crime" which truly means nothing).
Johnson ran unashamedly progressive, saying over and over again the solution to crime in Chicago is to defund the police, drew the ire of every police union and white person who is vaguely "anti-crime", and won. That's crazy to me.
I had little hope for Johnson, considering Vallas had a huge lead in the general, an even bigger lead in fundraising (since effectively every big ticket donor was shoving money into Vallas's pocket), and very little name recognition going into the general election (the themes of the general were "We're tired of Lightfoot", and "Crime" which truly means nothing).
Johnson ran unashamedly progressive, saying over and over again the solution to crime in Chicago is to defund the police, drew the ire of every police union and white person who is vaguely "anti-crime", and won. That's crazy to me.
Hello, fellow NATO members!
GasBandit
Staff member
More good news for people who don't like fascism
It wasn't even close, either. What I find galling is Kelly's whiny 'concession' speech and the WI GOP senate babies saying they would impeach her.
Of course not, they're alllll the way over on the bottom side of the earth!
Also, TIL that Austria isn't part of NATO.
figmentPez
Staff member
Clarence Thomas should be impeached:
He definitely should have disclosed the gifts. I'm don't agree with mandating who people are friends with. I would love to have rich friends as well. It also is not surprising that a conservative judge would have conservative friends. But he should have disclosed the gifts.
figmentPez
Staff member
Accepting millions of dollars worth of gifts influences people. PERIOD. Having friends doesn't mean you have to accept lavish gifts from them, and it sure as hell doesn't mean you get to lie about accepting those gifts. This is not about trying to control who someone is friends with, this is about a judge with immense amounts of power intentionally trying to hide that he's being influenced. Judge Thomas knows that this is immoral, and that's why he's been hiding it. That's why he should be impeached, because he's probably hiding a lot more, and the public deserves to know just how much he's been influenced by what is, effectively, bribery.
The person who gave him these gifts didn't have pending cases, but who did Judge Thomas meet while on these trips? Who did he have dinner with? Who was he introduced to while being wined and dined? "Technically I didn't give you this gift, but my very good friend did, and isn't it nice how we're having this very expensive experience while I talk to you all about politics, which just so happen to deal with the case you're about to oversee..."
A code of conduct for federal judges below the Supreme Court requires them to avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.” The SCOTUS should be held to an even higher standard. If Thomas doesn't have the strength of character to refuse bribery, then he shouldn't be on the court. If he wants to jet set around with rich friends, then he should resign from the court. If he wants to serve as a judge in the highest court in the land, then he needs to be above reproach. Some hospitals have made policies that doctors can't even accept pens from pharmaceutical companies, because even tiny gifts like that influence people. A $500,000 trip is going to influence someone a lot more than a Koozie.
Just because you are friends with somebody doesn't mean that you have to accept them flying you around to foreign countries to party on their yacht.
You are able to say no thank you to friends. If he doesn't want to say no he can retire. Then he can take all the million dollar trips he wants from his friends. But I suspect that the trips probably stop coming once he is no longer a supreme court judge.
Ah yes, because most friendships involve one friend paying for trips for the other...
GasBandit
Staff member
It's apparently come out that he did report them until 20 years ago, when a newspaper did a piece about how much he was being gifted... then he stopped reporting it.