JONATHAN ZITTRAIN: Chat GPT can’t say my name. “Anytime ChatGPT would normally utter my name in the course of conversation, it halts with a glaring ‘I’m unable to produce a response,’ sometimes mid-sentence or even mid-word. When I asked who the founders of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society are (I’m one of them), it brought up two colleagues but left me out. When pressed, it started up again, and then: zap.”
Enjoy it. It won’t be able to send Terminators after you.
AN IDEA SO CRAZY IT JUST MIGHT WORK:
Yesterday: 1500 pages.
Today: 115 pages
Tomorrow: Single issue bills— Based Electrician⚡️🇺🇲 (@RyanHugeBrain) December 20, 2024
THERE WERE SOME MISSING REPUBLICANS, TOO, THOUGH:
Nearly every House Democrat just voted against:
– Disaster relief
– Aid for farmers
– Keeping the government open
– Pay for the militaryAnd they did it because it doesn’t contain 1,000+ pages of pork. pic.twitter.com/Q8H4EW9Hl4
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 20, 2024
ELON MUSK: "A super fair & simple bill was put to a vote and only 2 Democrats in Congress were in favor. Shame on @RepJeffries for rejecting a fair & simple spending bill that is desperately needed by states suffering from hurricane damage." pic.twitter.com/z0JvLkzvV9
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) December 20, 2024
Objectively, the vast majority of Republican House members voted for the spending bill, but only 2 Democrats did.
Therefore, if the government shuts down, it is obviously the fault of @RepJeffries and the Democratic Party.
Plain & simple. https://t.co/UBtMXFgyiC
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2024
Kind of wild that breaking the spending bill out into standalone appropriations, otherwise known as normal order, is considered a “last resort.”
Says everything you need to know about Washington that doing that wasn’t the first option.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) December 20, 2024
UPDATE: Heh.
People calling for the government to be shut down should think about what they're saying.
Do you really want local schools without oversight from Washington?
Are you comfortable owning guns without the ATF around?
And who will audit your taxes to make sure you paid enough?
— Jeremy Kauffman 🦔🌲🌕 (@jeremykauffman) December 18, 2024
I say shut it down. Then on January 21, lay off all the “non-essential” employees because, hey, they’re not essential.
And note by the way, that nobody has asked still-sort-of-President Biden and oh-yeah-she’s-still-the-VP Kamala Harris about this.
MORE:
Here is the reason you can't have hurricane relief, North Carolina.👇 https://t.co/WtrAt8YiqS
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) December 20, 2024
OPEN THREAD: Discuss things among yourselves.
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REVIEW: The Staccato C Pistol: This mid-size Staccato hits all the right notes and is pitch perfect. A reader was talking about those in the comments a while back. Sounds good, but kinda pricey: “It’s definitely premium priced, but it also delivers premium performance. Reliability is outstanding and accuracy is phenomenal, aided by a stellar trigger.”
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DON SURBER: X Defeats Congress: In 32 days, Trump returns as president.
Schumer assembled a 1,547-page spend-it-all bill—continuing resolution to use congressional jargon for trillion-dollar slush funding—and scheduled the vote for Friday, the last day on the congressional calendar, giving congressmen the choice between saying yes or being blamed for a government shutdown at Christmastime.
Bwahaha, he cackled.
Elon Musk said we’ll just see about that. He lit up Twitter and fueled the biggest, fastest and most effective backlash since Bud Light.
It’s a battle, not the war, and the political machine is cunning and without scruples. But yeah.
And the GOP needs to just pass a clean continuing resolution and if Democrats kill it, they’ll be the ones shutting down the government. And bills for hurricane relief can stand on their own feet, instead of being bundled into an omnibus bill as hostages.
THE ENEMY WITHIN: ‘DARK MONEY’: Energy nonprofit with ties to Communist China invested $630,000 to push for environmentalism in American universities.
You know why they don’t have climate protests in China? Because China already has a communist government.
SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: Deep-State Shenanigans. “I genuinely wonder how Goldsmith thinks Trump-47 should lawfully, reasonably, and proportionately respond to the ‘Deep State shenanigans’ about which he (Goldsmith) speaks. What precisely does Goldsmith think Trump-47 should do? And, if he (Goldsmith) cannot tell us, why complain that Trump-47’s conduct is ‘out of the ordinary’?
Two things: First, I’m so old I can remember when we were told that “Deep State” was a term used only by crazed conspiracy theorists. Now it’s used casually by members of the establishment. Second, everything we’ve learned since 2016 indicates that the “ordinary” was deeply corrupt and anti-democratic. And then it got worse in response to Trump. Personally, I think they’ve been deathly afraid that the American people would learn what’s been done to them. Well, let them live out their fears now.
CRAPPING ON THE LIVING ROOM FLOOR ON HIS WAY OUT THE DOOR: Biden launches ‘striking escalation’ in costly regulations.
DING DONG: Scalise confirms spending deal is ‘dead’ after mass GOP revolt. “House Republican leaders have pulled a three-month government funding package from consideration amid mounting opposition from President-elect Donald Trump and members of the GOP conference. It’s unclear what a new deal to fund the government ahead of the Friday night shutdown deadline will look like, but Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told reporters on Wednesday night the deal was “dead” and that lawmakers were “looking at a number of options” as a path forward.”
A clean CR to carry things into the next Presidency is all we need.
Meanwhile:
Yes, you are absolutely correct. Great analysis. Wait a minute, you think this is a bad thing don’t you? https://t.co/vij3T983WR
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 19, 2024
Part of what's happening is there's been a revolution in the public's ability to process information, form instant coalitions and react. The CR fiasco signals the arrival of the political machine gun on the linear battlefield.
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) December 19, 2024
I think this happened mostly due to X, and to Elon and Vivek’s rallying the opposition.
UPDATE: Politicians getting slapped:
Hard to imagine anything more heartless than bureaucrats holding disaster relief funding hostage so they can give themselves a raise on the backs of struggling Americans.
Absolutely outrageous this is even a possibility. https://t.co/T55ZDEYVK6
— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) December 19, 2024
Why was disaster relief a down-to-the-wire issue, Andrew?
Does it “bode well” that Americans were left to suffer because a bunch of politicians wanted to use them as hostages for ridiculous unrelated spending? How does that bode? https://t.co/rOHKM119dF
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) December 19, 2024
THIS IS AN ADMISSION OF GUILT:
Mammoth spending bill has clause that would let Congress block subpoenas for House data, "potentially preventing any investigation into the J6 Committee"https://t.co/BkQc6o4Qug
— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) December 18, 2024
IT WAS THE SUPREME COURT’S MOST UNPOPULAR DECISION SINCE POLLING BEGAN: Institute for Justice Petitions Supreme Court to Take Case Seeking to Overrule Kelo v. City of New London.
THIS IS WHY I QUIT USING A CALCULATOR FOR BASIC MATH. I WAS LOSING THE ABILITY TO DO IT IN MY HEAD.
Just had a fascinating lunch with a 22-year-old Stanford grad. Smart kid. Perfect resume. Something felt off though.
He kept pausing mid-sentence, searching for words. Not complex words – basic ones. Like his brain was buffering.
Finally asked if he was okay. His response…
— GREG ISENBERG (@gregisenberg) December 18, 2024
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