A DEEP DIVE FROM GEORGE MF WASHINGTON: And the Strike Dragged On…

The confusion over the WGA A.I. fight is best described by a question I got on Twitter… “is the WGA actually worried that they will be replaced by A.I.?”

The answer is… sort of.

And whether or not you agree depends on whether you think it’s a short-term problem or a long-term one.

In the short-term, I believe the answer is no, with a but.

There is some concern in the short-term that some of the writing steps that are currently done by humans, and which generate significant fees, could be taken over by A.I.

Imagine a long-running formulaic show like a police procedural that has been airing 22 episodes every season for ten years. It is possible that for a show like this, the Network might be able to put all of the previous episodes into an AI program and ask the system to generate new scripts featuring ripped from the front page crime stories. And then even if the scripts are bad, a room with just a couple of human writers in it could revise those scripts and get them into production shape without the need for a full-sized room of ten or more writers.

This is a long piece but, if you’re interested in the writers’ strike, you’ll come away with quite an education.

PAULA BOLYARD: Ohioans Vote Today on Protecting Constitution from Special Interests Hell-Bent on Gun Control, Abortion Rights.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Moody’s downgrades US banks, warns of possible cuts to others. “Many banks’ second-quarter results showed growing profitability pressures that will reduce their ability to generate internal capital.”

UNEXPECTEDLY: Beyond Meat cuts annual revenue forecast as faux meat demand dips.

Bogged down by inflationary pressures, customers are opting for lower-priced animal protein over alternatives such as plant-based products.

The ambiguity around the health benefits of plant-based meat is also weighing on growth, said CEO Ethan Brown in a post-earnings call.

“This change in perception is not without encouragement from interest groups who have succeeded in seeding doubt and fear around the ingredients and process used to create our and other plant-based meats,” he added.

It costs more, doesn’t taste as good, has less nutritional value, and isn’t any better for the environment — but other than that it’s far better than actual meat.

IF YOU DON’T VOTE FOR JOE, YOU AIN’T BLACK: Liberals Accuse Cornel West, a Black Man, of ‘Stealing Votes’ From Biden.

CHANGE? FTC to hold ‘last rites’ meeting before likely Amazon suit. “The move is the clearest sign yet that FTC Chair Lina Khan intends to soon file an antitrust suit against Amazon. The meeting will be a so-called ‘last rites’ meeting that generally precedes a lawsuit.”

VICTORIA TAFT: Gavin Newsom’s Latest Attack on California Parents Is Pure, Unalloyed Evil.

THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP, ELECTION DENIER: Georgia GOP Chair Reminds Us of When The Dems Tried to Block an Election in the Peach State.

DECOUPLING: Chinese Exports Fall at Steepest Pace Since February 2020.

China’s exports to the rest of the world tumbled in July, adding to the challenges for the world’s second-largest economy and offering fresh evidence that a drying up of Western demand is hurting Beijing’s attempts to rekindle growth.

After a short-lived rebound in the spring, goods exports from China resumed a long-term slide that dates to October last year, when consumers in Western developed countries began shifting their spending away from buying furniture and electronic gadgets, and instead diverted it toward services such as entertainment and dining out.

Worsening geopolitical tensions between Beijing and the U.S.-led West have also prompted some Western manufacturers to reduce their reliance on China’s supply chain, which in turn is expected to erode trade ties between the two sides.
…
Compared with those of a year earlier, China’s exports to the U.S. and European Union plunged by more than 20% each last month. There was a lone bright spot: Chinese shipments to Russia soared in July, calculations from the customs data show.

Russia is a poor substitute for the entire West.

DOUBLING DOWN ON WOKE: ‘I Literally Look Like Minnie Mouse!’: Disney Partners With Crossdressing TikTok Star to Push Girls’ Apparel.

COLD WAR II: The United States’ Quantum Talent Shortage Is a National Security Vulnerability. “Given its potential for economic growth as well as military advantage, QIST has become a central battleground of U.S.-China competition. Neither country maintains a decisive advantage across all three QIST subfields. The United States leads in the development of quantum computing and quantum sensing—but Beijing is catching up. China is ahead of the United States in the development of quantum communications technologies and holds the highest number of total quantum technology patents, indicating that it could soon erode the United States’ advantages.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Joe Biden’s Personal Brand Is ‘Squeaky Clean,’ and I’m the Pope of Persia.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Commercial Real Estate Turmoil Worsens As Office Delinquencies Accelerate. “Trepp data found the delinquency rate rose 51 basis points to 4.41% last month — the highest level since December 2021. Office delinquencies increased by 46 basis points to 4.96% — up more than 350 basis points since the end of 2022. The deterioration in the office segment is intensifying at an alarmingly rapid pace.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Commie Sad Grandma Hillary Clinton Is Even Drunker Than We Thought. “Granny Maojackets has — in my opinion — never been the picture of emotional health and stability. I thought that long before Donald Trump became the man who saved a grateful nation from her presidency and subsequently took up permanent residence as the monster under her bed. She’s more drunkenly weird now than ever.”

JOANNE JACOBS: ‘We took care of our kids’ — but they lost a year in reading, math. “I’ll be honest, academics was not at the forefront of what we were pushing our teachers to push to their students. It really wasn’t. It was, how do we build a sense of community?”

CHRIS QUEEN: Here’s the Feel-Good Story of the College Football Pre-Season. “It’s a tale of two hard-working players and a tremendous gesture of generosity that took place after a team meeting last week.”

JEFF BEZOS, SPACE HOBBYIST: Amazon shifts launch of its first Internet satellites to Atlas V rocket.

Amazon has confirmed it now plans to launch the first two test satellites for the company’s Kuiper broadband network on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket as soon as next month, shifting the payloads off of the inaugural flight of ULA’s new Vulcan rocket.

The shift has been rumored for several weeks after ULA delayed the first flight of its Vulcan rocket from the summer until the fourth quarter of the year. The delay will allow time for ULA to beef up the structure of the Vulcan upper stage’s liquid hydrogen tank, which sprang a leak that resulted in a destructive fireball on a test stand in March.

The first Vulcan rocket was slated to launch the first two prototype satellites for Amazon’s Kuiper constellation, a network of more than 3,200 broadband satellites that the retail and tech giant plans to deploy over the next few years. The Kuiper network is similar to SpaceX’s Starlink “mega-constellation,” which already has more than 4,000 satellites in orbit.

Amazon delivered the two Kuiper test satellites to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for the Vulcan launch earlier this year, and the spacecraft have been sitting in storage since March, waiting for Vulcan to fly.

Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine was supposed to power the Vulcan rocket starting in 2019 but there have been a lot of delays — postponing the Vulcan and Bezos’ own New Glenn rocket.

A COVERUP SO BLATANT THAT IT’S ONLY REAL PURPOSE MUST BE TO DISPIRIT THE OPPOSITION: The Cover-up of Cocainegate Continues. “Not only are we supposed to believe that no cameras captured who brought the cocaine in, but we’re supposed to believe the plastic bag it was in had no fingerprints on it.”

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Colorado gun law raising age to purchase gun to 21 set to take effect Monday. “SB23-169, one of several sweeping gun reform measures approved by the state legislature and signed by the governor in the spring, will prohibit people under the age of 21 from purchasing a gun, with exceptions for active members of the U.S. armed forces, peace officers and people certified by the Peace Officer Standards and Training board.”

I’D BE SHOCKED IF HE – OR THE WHITE HOUSE CABAL – HADN’T: Is This Proof That Joe Biden Ordered the Indictment of Trump?

OABAMA’S UNFETTERED THIRD TERM: Power companies ask Biden to end war on fossil fuel plants as EPA comment deadline looms. “Electricity providers recently spoke out against the Biden administration’s attack on the fossil fuel industry, specifically power plants, warning that the speed at which officials are pursuing a “green energy transition” risks significant energy shortage.”

Previously: Obama: ‘Under my Plan … Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket.’

OF COURSE SHE’S UNPOPULAR, EVERYBODY LIKES HER TOO MUCH: Former Kamala Staffer Has a Theory Why the VP Is Unpopular, and You Can Probably Guess What It Is.

LEFTIES KEEP TELLING ME THE RIGHT HAS BEEN GETTING MORE RADICAL BUT I KEEP READING STORIES LIKE THIS ONE: This Group Of Self-Described Socialists Is Growing In Numbers And Pushing Local Democrats To The Left. “Democratic Socialists make up the left flank of the Democratic Party, supporting abolishing prisons, aggressive climate policies, rent controls and radical racial equity policies, according to the Democratic Socialist website. They’ve been aggressively adding to their membership over the past few years, as well as gaining ground in key deep blue cities such as New York City, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, calling for radical policy changes and opposing mainstream Democrats.”

FITNESS: Fittest Woman on Earth: ‘I Don’t Want to Look Like the New Barbie.’

FUNNY HOW THAT WORKS: As US standards fall, military less trusted.

Not only has public trust in the US military declined, so has the US military itself.

The Wall Street Journal in its article “The Military Recruiting Crisis: Even Veterans Don’t Want Their Families to Join,” noted a growing crisis facing US military recruiters who are struggling to find qualified Americans who are both capable and willing to join the US military even as standards are repeatedly lowered.

Standards are lowered for two reasons: to attract more people who are otherwise unqualified to join the military and to resolve the problem that each year the average American is less qualified for military service. This is due to factors such as drug abuse, obesity, criminal backgrounds, and poor education, which in turn lead to poor military entry test scores.

America’s decline feeds into all of these factors, and all of these factors contribute to America’s decline as well as the US military’s decline.

There’s a direct correlation between a declining America and an increasingly chaotic world.