Dylan's 27th!

 

How Democracy Dies

“(C)ontemporary autocrats tend to hide their repression behind a veneer of legality.” — How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt.

***

What happened in the Tennessee legislature encapsulates the current political crisis in America.

The ongoing sideshow that is Donald Trump obscures in some ways the very real danger his base of support poses to our democracy whether or not he is in power.

In Tennessee, the state Republican Party gerrymandered the voting districts to achieve a veto-proof supermajority. This is how those representing primarily white, rural, pro-NRA districts were able to oust two young black men from the legislature for violating the rules of decorum.

Their crime?

Loudly siding with the masses of people from their districts enraged at the lack of gun control after six people, including three nine-year olds, were massacred in yet another school shooting.

While I am not a fan of Vice-President Kamala Harris, never have been, she got it right in her speech in Nashville on Friday: “This is not a democracy.”

No, this is not how a democracy behaves; it is in fact the contemporary face of authoritarianism.

What will happen next? The people of the big cities are organizing themselves into a movement to oppose the actions of the state GOP and reclaim their democratic rights.

This is eerily familiar to the scene I witnessed in Memphis in1968 when I covered Dr. Martin Luther King’s last civil rights march. One could hope that in the intervening 55 years, Tennessee and America had come a long way toward the goal of inclusive democracy.

But maybe we have not.

LINKS:

• Tennessee vote marks latest GOP move to stifle dissent, experts say (WP)

• VP Kamala Harris to meet with 'Tennessee Three' in surprise visit to Nashville after expulsions over gun protests (USA Today)

• Watch Kamala Harris' fiery speech after Tennessee lawmakers ousted (CNN)

• Editorial: A federal judge outlaws an abortion pill that’s safer than Tylenol. This is ridiculous (LAT)

• What Happened When Uber’s CEO Started Driving for Uber (WSJ)

• Lyft’s Vibe Shift Signals the End of the Gig Economy Dream (Wired)

• What Does the Potential Demise of Lyft Mean for Citi Bike? (New York)

• How a trio of ProPublica reporters landed an explosive story on Justice Clarence Thomas (CNN)

• New data raises concerns over global sea level: study (The Hill)

• The tricky plan for “negative emissions” (Vox)

• Covid origins: Chinese scientists publish long-awaited data (BBC)

• The Flu May Never Be the Same (Atlantic)

• The newest version of ChatGPT passed the US medical licensing exam with flying colors — and diagnosed a 1 in 100,000 condition in seconds (Insider)

• The AI Will See You Now — As medical research produces ever more data on health and disease, doctors are turning to artificial intelligence to help them make the best decisions for patients. (WSJ)

• AI Desperately Needs Global Oversight (Wired)

• The impact of ChatGPT on the federal workforce (Federal Times)

• How Russia’s Offensive Ran Aground (NYT)

• How Putin Criminalized Journalism in Russia (New Yorker)

• Ukraine war live updates: Secret Pentagon and NATO files leaked (CNBC)

• Israel reinforced troops near its borders with Lebanon and Gaza following a flare-up in violence that threatened to spiral out of control after police raids this week on the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. (Reuters)

• U.S. Acknowledges Afghanistan Evacuation Should Have Started Sooner (NYT)

• ‘The world cannot abandon the people’: Top humanitarian official in Afghanistan (UN News)

• Florida removes book about Anne Frank from school libraries (Independent)

• Most oppose Social Security, Medicare cuts: AP-NORC poll (AP)

• Idaho Bans Out-of-State Abortions for Minors Without Parent’s Consent (NYT)

• Ex-Theranos executive headed to prison after losing appeal (AP)

• These deep-sea “potatoes” could be the future of mining for renewable energy (MIT Tech Review)

• The Supreme Court Justice Explains Why He Accepted Luxury Trips From A GOP Megadonor (The Onion)

 

The Meaning of Life 2.0 (or at least of work)

 (credit: KaterBegemot/wiki commons)

When you consider the evolution of the human species over the full sweep of time, our bodies have been changing only very gradually. Slowly it seems we get a bit bigger, a lot heavier and a lot less hairy.

So what else?

Well, we’ve gotten more sophisticated in using tools, building nests, crafting comfortable clothing, inventing vehicles that let us zoom around the planet at will, establishing routines that optimize pleasure and a bunch of other lifestyle stuff. 

We’ve expanded our lifespans. 

And we’ve been able to accomplish this by inventing technologies, many by accident.

But if we had a giant mirror and could reflect down on ourselves as we are living now, we are still exhibiting the behavior of a bunch of monkeys in a zoo who have gotten a hold of a hijacked truckload of portable digital toys.

We’ve got them firmly grasped in our hairless little hands and we are staring at them when we are not turning them over and over, marveling at their magic. We look up now and then, looking side to side as of to make sure nobody’s going to discover us at this guilty pleasure, lest they swoop in and take them away from us.

We smile that guilty smile of secret pleasure and we just keep looking at those screens as we hop around place to place on our hindquarters.

***

Technology is inherently neither good nor bad. It is officially neutral like Switzerland. It is also, I firmly believe, inevitable. If there are imperatives to the evolution of our species they include a technological component — we are going to continue to experiment and develop technologies that extend our ability to live our lives the way we want to, to satisfy our desires and that extend our reach — physically, mentally and even emotionally.

No government or religion can stop that.

But this process is also inherently disorienting and disruptive. It was becoming commonplace for a while to describe each new upheaval of one of our traditional industries in terms that it had just been disrupted by the internet, or by a digital device, or a software application.

In the process, suddenly all the middlemen, all of the intermediaries who dominated our society were being thrown out of work. The technical term is disintermediated.

Travel agents? Disintermediated.

Secretaries? Disintermediated.

Used car salesmen? Disintermediated.

Taxi drivers? Disintermediated.

Publishers? Disintermediated.

Journalists? Disintermediated.

I could go on (and on and on and on) but you get the idea. Why did we need these people anyway, when we could just manipulate the new technologies to do everything for ourselves?

Well, that’s a good question. You know that old thing about being careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater?

Beyond being an exceptionally odd phrase and concept, it’s nevertheless got more than a smidgeon of wisdom to it.

Because maybe we got something pretty valuable from some of those intermediaries who used to be in our lives. Something we need every bit in our lives as much as we need food, water, clothing, blankets when it’s cold and fans blowing fresh air when it’s hot.

We need to be cared for; we need to be taken care of now and then; we need to be loved.

Conversely, most of us need to be able to take care of other people. We need to be able to feel that we are needed.

It gives our lives meaning. It gives our jobs meaning. We need to feel we are helping makes things better, not worse. Trust me on this one. 

Fame, money, success, power? In the end, they are meaningless. This is the lesson Donald Trump has never learned. 

But using your time here to try and make the world just a little better for others, including those to come? That means everything.

(NOTE: I published the first version of this essay a year ago. This is version 2.0)

LINKS:

• Tennessee House expels two Democrats who joined gun-control protests (WP)

• Judge in Trump's New York case appears to have donated $15 to Biden for President in 2020 (NBC)

• Israel hits Gaza as Netanyahu vows to extract ‘heavy price’ (Politico)

• McConnell lets an indicted Trump twist in the wind (The Hill)

• Trump’s criminal case in New York may collide with the 2024 campaign (WP)

• Trump called on Republicans to cut funding for federal law enforcement as investigations swirl around him. The DOJ has also been investigating Trump’s efforts to interfere with the transfer of power after losing the 2020 presidential election. [HuffPost]

• Clarence Thomas has accepted undisclosed luxury trips from GOP megadonor for decades, report says (Pro Publica) 

• Voters in Wisconsin have flipped control of the state Supreme Court to liberals — For the first time in 15 years, voters have flipped the Wisconsin Supreme Court to liberal control. Justices are likely to overturn the state's abortion ban and could throw out GOP drawn voting maps. (NPR)

• Wisconsin Rout Points to Democrats’ Enduring Post-Dobbs Strength (NYT)

• A near-century old abortion ban that fueled one of the largest ballot drives in Michigan history was repealed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, just months after voters enshrined abortion rights in the state’s constitution. [AP]

• Dominion can force Murdochs to testify at Fox News defamation trial, judge says (CNN)

• Report details ‘staggering’ church sex abuse in Maryland (Politico)

• Where did the workers go? Construction jobs are plentiful, but workers are scarce (NPR)

• The ‘Manhattan Project’ Theory of Generative AI (Wired)

• For American workers, generative AI threatens an already unstable future (The Hill)

• I use ChatGPT 50 to 70 times a day for everything from preparing for professional meetings to getting superglue off my fingers (Insider)

• Several Chinese AI experts back call by Musk and others for a pause in rapid development of ChatGPT technologies (SCMP)

• OpenAI plans to present measures to Italian authorities to remedy concerns that led to a ban of its ChatGPT chatbot in Italy, the country's data protection authorities said. (Reuters)

• Uber Is Taking on Amazon With a Groundbreaking New Service (The Street)

• French President Emmanuel Macron urged China's Xi Jinping to reason with Russia and help bring an end to the war in Ukraine as the two held the first of a series of meetings in Beijing. (Reuters)

• Zelensky Gets Hero’s Welcome in Poland, Cementing Ukraine’s Ties (NYT)

• Hollywood writers union asks members to authorize strike amid contract talks with studios (ABC)

• Kansas bans transgender athletes from women’s, girls’ sports (AP)

• Conservatives called for a boycott of Bud Light after it partnered with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The company stood by its choice. (Insider)

• Supreme Court refuses to reinstate W.Va.’s transgender athlete ban (WP)

• US would bar full ban on trans athletes but allow exceptions (AP)

• Texas abortion funds cautiously resume services following legal reprieve (Guardian)

• Trump Boys Ask Melania If They’re Getting New Daddy Now (The Onion)

Good News (Three)

 The legal troubles facing Donald Trump remain the top story not only in the U.S. but around the world, but three stories of very different types caught my attention in this news cycle.

They are all good news, generally speaking, which is rarely the case these days.

The first article comes from EuroNews. It describes how people who are multilingual are able to display different personality traits in the various languages they speak.

I first experienced this phenomenon myself as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Afghanistan. Whereas both my bilingual Afghan and Western friends and I preferred English for our professional conversations, many of us turned to Dari, the local dialect of Farsi, for personal matters.

The two languages have different strengths, and in a certain way, they brought out different parts of our personalities when we used them with each other.

The EuroNews piece also argues that multilingual speakers can be better at creative thinking than monolinguals, as well as having several other advantages. My view is learning other languages helps to promote tolerance and appreciation of racial and cultural diversity.

The second article is in the Economist. It argues for an environmental approach based on promoting economic growth, not opposing it. For too long, these two values have seemed to be opposed, which ends up frustrating everybody.

But this article argues we can have both at the same time. “Economic growth should help, not hinder, the fight against climate change,” the piece maintains.

The third good news story today comes from a content genre I normally avoid — the celebrity guest article. But this one is special.

Jewel Kilcher, the pop singer who knows something about depression and hard knocks from her own difficult childhood, tells CNN about losing her friend Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, who struggled with depression and addiction. But she also describes the work they pioneered together, especially that devoted to helping at-risk children coping with mental heath issues.

“It turns out that, yes, happiness is a learnable skill,” she writes. “No matter our histories, we can all heal, grow and be high-performing people in healthy ways.”

These are but brief excerpts from the three articles, but follow the links to read the entire articles: 

• ‘The Power of Language’: 5 ways multilingual brains work differently (EuroNews)

• The case for an environmentalism that builds — Economic growth should help, not hinder, the fight against climate change (Economist)

• When it comes to happiness, Jewel says society has it all wrong (CNN)

Now on to the rest of the news links, starting with Trump.

LINKS:

• Donald Trump’s arraignment: How the world reacted (Al Jazeera)

• The People Versus Donald J. Trump — The Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, is effectively accusing the former President of defrauding voters in 2016. (New Yorker)

• Trump lawyers blast DA Alvin Bragg's case, but legal experts say they'll regret it. Here's why (USA Today)

• Trump Accused of Threatening Judge Hours After 'Incite Violence' Warning (Newsweek)

• The glaring omission from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago speech (Independent)

• The dubious legal theory at the heart of the Trump indictment, explained (Vox)

• Trump’s legal drama could soon continue in Georgia (WP)

• Biden Has the Oval Office. But Trump Has Center Stage. (NYT)

• Fake Trump mug shots spread in lieu of real one (AP)

• Fox News says Carlson, Hannity, Bartiromo set to testify at defamation trial (Reuters)

• Pence won't appeal order compelling grand jury testimony (AP)

• The Robots Have Finally Come for My Job (WSJ)

• ChatGPT-controlled Furbies — is this the end of humanity? (BoingBoing)

• Bill Gates says calls to pause AI won't 'solve challenges' (Reuters)

• GPT-4 Gets Even Smarter With After Effects (Fstoppers)

• The surprising case for AI boyfriends (NPR)

• AI Is Running Circles Around Robotics (Atlantic)

• ChatGPT is the hottest new job skill that can help you get hired, according to HR experts (CNBC)

• 'Screwed': Uber Claws Back Double Pay from Drivers After April Fools Glitch (Vice)

• Progressive Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner and organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, won a hotly contested race for mayor of Chicago. Johnson’s victory in one of the starkest ideological proxy battles in the annals of recent municipal politics is a historic achievement for the activist left. [HuffPost]

• Russian Journalists Sign Letter Demanding U.S. Reporter’s Release (Moscow Times)

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Poland for an official visit to a close ally that has galvanized military and political support for Kyiv. (Reuters)

• Ukraine’s fight against Russia has reached a stalemate, and neither side can make gains without a major advantagein weaponry or force size. (WP)

• Taliban Bans Women From Working at U.N., Putting Afghan Aid at Risk (WSJ)

• US Continues Relocating Afghans Even Under Taliban Rule (VoA)

• Red Cross to cut 1,500 jobs over funding crunch (Deccan Herald)

• Why are Turkey and Hungary against Sweden joining NATO?  (Reuters)

• China is ghosting the United States (Politico)

• Repeating radio signal leads astronomers to an Earth-size exoplanet (CNN)

• Ice sheets can collapse at 600 metres a day, far faster than feared, study finds (Guardian)

• Lake Mead water level rises, defies projections (The Hill)

• White House announces clean energy initiatives on coal (Reuters)

• Judge Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal, won a heated race for an open Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, shifting the balance of power on the state’s high court from conservatives to liberals for the first time since at least 2008. Her victory offers hope to supporters of abortion rights and Democrats seeking fairer district maps. [HuffPost]

• F.D.A. Plans to Allow a Second Updated Covid Booster for Vulnerable Americans (NYT)

• The salary you need to live comfortably in 15 major U.S. cities (CNBC)

• Finland, Sweden Evaluating NATO Membership With Free One-Day Guest Pass (The Onion)

Democracy v. Trump

I spent a fair amount of time in the hallways and courtrooms of various halls of justice as a reporter. That all came back to me during Tuesday’s scene in lower Manhattan when an indicted Donald Trump walked into the courtroom where he had to face the charges lodged against him.

Nothing about that scene was routine. The tension was palpable.

I’ve seen plenty of defendants at court — many were handcuffed, in prison jumpsuits and otherwise very guilty-looking.

In that context, Trump looked free and normal in his suit, red tie, hands free of cuffs, and only loosely under guard by court officials.

He did look grim, however, which is not surprising since he had just surrendered and learned of the 34 felony counts against him. Most people in similar circumstances would feel intimidated and frightened, and on some level, perhaps even he did for a few moments.

It’s a humbling experience like few other events in life, as almost every defendant I ever interviewed admitted to me. So even a personality like Trump’s would presumably go through at least a temporarily unpleasant emotional state.

But Trump’s strategy, as he’s made clear, is to fight this by labeling it a political witch-hunt. Meanwhile, the D.A.’s theory of the case apparently is that Trump and his associates committed these crimes to illegally try to win the 2016 election.

If that is true, the injured party in this case was not a person or a company or any other individual entity. It was our democracy as a whole. Our entire way of life.

Far from being a trivial matter, therefore, this was — allegedly — an extremely serious crime against our country.

What I’m afraid of is that the spectacle Trump the showman is creating will deflect and obscure that sobering fact from public view. In addition, he is already demonizing the D.A. and the judge and their family members, which raises the specter of more Jan. 6th-type violence.

Hopefully, the good sense of the majority of people will prevail, as will justice.

That’s why Tuesday was either another dark and forbidding day for our country — or the day that after eight long years of this storm, the light finally started to break through.

SEVERAL LINKS:

• The Return of the Non-stop Trump News Cycle (New Yorker)

• Analysis: A Surprise Accusation Bolsters a Risky Case Against Trump — The unsealed case against Donald J. Trump accuses him of falsifying records in part to lay the groundwork for planned lies to tax authorities. (NYT)

• The charges against Donald Trump – full text of indictment (Guardian)

• Trump charged with 34 felony counts (WP)

• Trump pleads not guilty to 34 charges; admonished by judge (AP)

• UN says its female staffers banned from working in Afghanistan (Al Jazeera)

• Finland joins NATO in historic shift, Russia threatens 'counter-measures' (Reuters)

• A Specific Innocuous Phrase Sends Google's AI Into an Existential Crisis (Futurism)

• Developers Are Connecting Multiple AI Agents to Make More ‘Autonomous’ AI (Vice)

• Apple joins Amazon, Google, and Microsoft in tech industry layoffs (Ars Technica)

• Wild Elephants Appear to Have Been Domesticated, But Not by Humans (ScienceAlert)

• Extinct bison emerges from melting permafrost up to 9,000 years later. Can it be cloned? (Miami Herald)

• Area Man Always Thought He’d Squander His Life Differently (The Onion)

 

Today's Headlines

 LINKS:

• Buckling our seatbelts (Politico)

• Justice Dept. said to have more evidence of possible Trump obstruction at Mar-a-Lago (WP)

• Majority of Americans approve of Trump indictment (CNN)

• Security ramps up in NYC ahead of Trump’s arraignment (NBC)

• Trump faces setbacks in other probes as NY case proceeds (AP)

• Police have thrown up metal barriers around Trump Tower and blocked roads near Manhattan Criminal Courthouse as they brace for potential protests ahead of Trump's expected surrender to prosecutors. (Reuters)

• Former Manhattan DA finally reveals why Trump wasn’t charged earlier in hush money case (Independent)

• Feds say online chatter of a Trump protest in NY is nothing like that seen before January 6 (CNN)

• A Presidential Candidate and a City Brace for a Consequential Week (NYT)

• Chinese spy balloon gathered intelligence from U.S. military sites, senior U.S. officials say (NBC)

• McDonald’s Temporarily Shuts U.S. Offices as Chain Prepares for Layoff Notices (WSJ)

• Open Letter From Technologists With Plea To Pause AI Training (EMS)

• AI Isn’t Omnipotent. It’s Janky. (Atlantic)

• I used to work at Google and now I’m an AI researcher. Here’s why slowing down AI development (The Conversation)

• Bill Gates Names the One New Technology To Soon Change the World (The Street)

• Tim Cook on Shaping the Future of Apple (GQ)

• Rising Atlantic Ocean Engulfs Fishing Town in Brazil (WSJ)

• A Surprisingly Uplifting, and Effective, Way to Sequester Carbon (Mother Jones)

• The Origin of SARS-CoV-2: Animal Transmission or Lab Leak? (Lawfare)

• Tenn. drag queens feared it was their final hour — and gave it their all (WP)

• Kelsea Ballerini celebrates Drag Race royalty at CMT Awards in defiance of Tennessee drag ban (Pink News)

• Have we fallen out of love with Wordle? (BBC)

• Shohei Ohtani Surprised After Learning He’s Massively Popular In Japan (The Onion)

The Open Door

On Saturday afternoon, as a friend and I returned from lunch at a local cafe and I was trying to calm Betsy, the dog who was barking loudly, we noticed that there was a bird hopping around in the kitchen.

My friend suggested I get a broom to help usher the bird out of the house. As I searched for a broom, he opened the front door, and the bird hopped out of the house to freedom on its own.

So that is all there is to the story. The bird got away, I didn’t find a broom, and Betsy finally stopped barking. It was an odd twist to a normal day.

***

As I was thinking about this minor drama, my mind turned to, variously, the indictment of Trump, the admission by Senator John Fetterman that he suffers from depression, and the state of our world generally.

We’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the Trump case, but I don’t like the prosector’s prospects. He has made a huge mistake in my estimation, by bringing these charges, because the spectacle is going to overwhelm the process, which is way too New York for my Midwestern blood.

As for Fetterman, I am familiar with depression following a stroke. Having experienced that kind of event leaves you feeling helpless in ways others cannot imagine.

You turn down invitations to appear in public, you shrink from participating in normal life, and you’re just, frankly, scared.

You really need friends and family to help you make a comeback. I feel deeply for Fetterman on a personal level. Hang in there, buddy. It gets better, trust me, but only slowly. Your brain comes around, but so do the problems.

That’s because in general, the state of our world sucks. But in my view, that is not any kind of reason to give up. After all, on the one hand, we are all like the bird, trapped and chirping for help.

On the other hand, there is always an open front door, thanks to a friend. Go through it and feel the fresh air on your face! Spring is in the air. 

No links today.