BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW: The USPS is getting seriously into Artificial Intelligence (AI) to upgrade its services and, hopefully, improve its bottom line. Today at Issues & Insights, Ross Marchand reports:

“Over the past few years, the USPS has been busily building AI-powered solutions to keep the consumer experience as smooth and efficient as possible. In 2021, ZDNet senior writer Stephanie Condon reported, ‘[w]ith a new, Nvidia-powered AI program, the USPS has built a way to dramatically reduce the time it takes to find lost packages, down from several days to just two hours.’

“Additionally, the USPS has experimented with using AI to help consumers troubleshoot through their many issues with the agency. A website chatbot launched in 2017 gave consumers a status update on their packages along with a customized greeting.”

It has been far from smooth-going as the USPS put its toes in the AI waters, but there are encouraging signs of progress. Even so, Marchand also warns that the USPS could easily become a threat to civil liberties, much as has the FBI. Therein lies a huge, but mostly overlooked, challenge for the incoming Republican House majority.

“It’s up to the new Congress to insist that any new AI technologies advance the USPS’ mission and aren’t redirected toward nefarious purposes. As a helpful first step, lawmakers can ensure that the inspector general’s office is adequately funded and equipped to investigate any agency abuses,” Marchand writes.

“Postal leadership and Congress must also work together to overhaul the USPS’ parcel pricing system and include AI-related costs in any pricing methodology. AI applications appear to overwhelmingly focus on package deliveries, and development and cybersecurity costs must be factored into parcel prices.”

HE’S TOO BUSY TRYING TO SOLVE AMERICA’S RACIST HIGHWAYS: Impotent Buttigieg Huffs and Puffs at Flailing Southwest Airlines.

YOU DON’T SAY: Inflation Takes Biggest Bite From Middle-Income Households.

Inflation is often called a tax on the poor, but this time it’s hit middle-income households the hardest.

Many low-income households, benefiting from exceptionally low unemployment rates, have found jobs and experienced wage increases that lifted income more than the cost of living, according to studies by the Congressional Budget Office and others. Many were also bolstered by federal payments during the pandemic.

At the high end, many households have seen big losses in stock and bond markets, but their income and savings were large enough that they were able to keep spending aggressively.

The middle has been in a vise.

Previously: Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.

NOTE THAT NPR IS SYMPATHETIC TO THE “CLIMATE ACTIVISTS,” NOT TO THE PEOPLE IN DANGER OF FREEZING IN THE DARK: Climate activists are fuming as Germany turns to coal to replace Russian gas.

‘WHOOPI, THAT’S WHAT THE YELLOW STARS WERE FOR:’ Fox News Guest Rips Goldberg’s ‘Ignorance’ After Holocaust Comments.

“Or they’re just gonna think you’re dumb,” Campos-Duffy replied.

“Exactly,” [Newsweek editor Batya Ungar-Sargon] said, before referencing the yellow stars of David the Nazis forced Jews to wear. “There’s just a deep ignorance there. The mistake she keeps making over and over is saying, if a Nazi showed up here and I was standing next to… Jews who have white skin, they would know I’m Black. They wouldn’t know they’re Jewish. And it’s like, Whoopi that’s what the yellow stars were for. Of course they see them as a separate race.”

Jeff Dunetz adds: Whoopi Apologizes (Again)—Whoopi Leave The Holocaust Alone! “I hope ABC doesn’t fire her from The View. That will make her a martyr, and she doesn’t deserve to have people feel bad for her. And who knows? Maybe this time, she really is contrite. As she continues her career, we will find out. My Friends at Clash Daily also covered the Whoopi idiocy but from the perspective of the Auschwitz Memorial. It’s worth your time to give it a read by clicking here.”

BLUE ON BLUE: Far-Left Group Running Ads Urging, ‘Don’t Run, Joe!’

THIS ANTHOLOGY CONTAINS ONE OF THE BEST AND WEIRDEST SHORT STORIES I’VE EVER WRITTEN*:  Saints of Malta.

#CommissionEarned

Malta. An island full of history and mystery. Conquered, invaded and defended through every age, it’s a place that inspires the very best and the very worst humanity has to offer.

Join these authors as they explore Magic and Mayhem, Saints and Demons, who battle over the island of Malta.

*And yes, I need to claim it. Somehow Amazon isn’t letting me into my author’s page. No. I’m sure it’s not nefarious. I don’t know what I did with the password.

PH’NGLUI MGLW’NAFH CTHULHU R’LYEH WGAH’NAGL FHTAGN:  A “What the heck?” glacier image on Mars.

I QUESTION “MAN”:  2022 Man of the Year: Keith Olbermann.

NPCs WILL DO AND SAY WHAT THE PROGRAM DEMANDS:  Remember the ‘horse paste’ hullabaloo about ivermectin?

AND HAS. FOR A WHILE:  The transgender movement attacks lesbians.

COURAGE. WE NEED MORE LIKE THIS:  Lady Behind Popular ‘Libs of Tik Tok’ Account No Longer Remaining Anonymous.

Every time they dox you, or try to cancel you, graph a megaphone and get louder.

IS IT REALLY GEEK DAY?  Happy Linux Day!

Probably coincidentally (?) also my (37th) anniversary.

WE WON’T BE FOOLED AGAIN:  As China’s Covid Case Increases, American Press Gins Up Fears About New Variants.

MORE OF THIS:  Iranian Dissidents Charge Oberlin College with Whitewashing Professor’s Alleged Complicity in Crimes Against Humanity

AND THERE IS A DIFFERENCE IN THAT:  Twitter’s Fauci Fan Club.

AND JUST LIKE THAT, I’M QUEASY:  Twitter’s Fauci Fan Club.

I THOUGHT WE WERE STILL REQUIRING IT OF ALL LEGAL* ENTRANTS, ANYWAY?  China Travelers Must Test Negative For Covid Before Entering U.S.

*Not illegal, of course. Because that’s racist. Border hopping without papers being a race, it seems.

WELL, CAN’T HAVE THAT. OFF WITH THEIR HEADS. CLOWNWORLD:   Today’s blacklisted American: Computer maker Raspberry Pi boycotted because it hired a former policeman.

UM:  Pfizer’s Shots Aren’t Safe and Were Never Shown to Be.

AS CRAZY AS MY CAREER AND FIELD HAVE BEEN, I GIVE THANKS DAILY I’M NOT IN ACADEMIA:  Academic shenanigans surround medieval manuscripts.

STILL DEEP DIVING: Ladders, Ramps and Holes – Riding the Catastrophic Change Wave, part IV.

OPEN THREAD: Party like it’s 2022.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Scientific American looks at the racist stigmatization of black women’s bodies and obesity.

So we already know which graphic we’re going to use with this post … the shot from Cosmopolitan declaring “This is healthy!” as an obese black woman holds a yoga pose. We specify black women because the fight against obesity has racist roots, according to Scientific American, which is one of those magazines that used to have some credibility. Who’s stigmatizing black women’s bodies, anyway? It hasn’t cost Lizzo her share of fame and fortune.

It turns out this was published in 2020, but Scientific American thought they’d tweet it out again. Sabrina Strings and Lindo Bacon explain that “prescribing weight loss to black women ignores barriers to their health.”

Black women have also been identified as the subgroup with the highest body mass index (BMI) in the U.S., with four out of five classified as either “overweight” or “obese.” Many doctors have claimed that Black women’s “excess” weight is the main cause of their poor health outcomes, often without fully testing or diagnosing them. While there has been a massive public health campaign urging fat people to eat right, eat less and lose weight, Black women have been specifically targeted.

This heightened concern about their weight is not new; it reflects the racist stigmatization of Black women’s bodies. Nearly three centuries ago scientists studying race argued that African women were especially likely to reach dimensions that the typical European might scorn. The men of Africa were said to like their women robust, and the European press featured tales of cultural events loosely described as festivals intended to fatten African women to the desired, “unwieldy” size.

Strings has also published a book entitled, “Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia,” if you want to know more.

It’s a curious choice for a topic in 2020 or 2022, considering that last year, Scientific American explored: Why Are People with Obesity More Vulnerable to COVID?

Related: Obesity may reduce effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

More: We Need to Stop Overlooking One Politically Incorrect COVID-19 Death Factor:

The United States has the 13th highest COVID-19 death rate relative to population. Many different factors shaped death rates in the pandemic. But there’s one uncomfortable reason that the U.S. likely experienced more COVID-19 deaths that has largely been ignored because it’s politically incorrect.

Out-of-control obesity rates and the “body positivity” movement predating the pandemic have left the U.S. population disproportionately vulnerable to COVID-19 compared to other countries. The U.S. ranks No. 12 in obesity worldwide, one of the highest rates among developed countries. One study found that 90% of worldwide COVID-19 deaths occurred in countries with high obesity rates.

Bill Maher concurs:

SO SUCCESSFUL THEY’VE ALMOST MADE IT BORING. ALMOST. SpaceX Launches 54 Satellites in 60th Launch of 2022.