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mostlysignssomeportents · 28 days ago

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AI can’t do your job

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in SAN DIEGO at MYSTERIOUS GALAXY on Mar 24, and in CHICAGO with PETER SAGAL on Apr 2. More tour dates here.

AI can't do your job, but an AI salesman (Elon Musk) can convince your boss (the USA) to fire you and replace you (a federal worker) with a chatbot that can't do your job:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/amid-job-cuts-doge-accelerates-rollout-of-ai-tool-to-automate-government

If you pay attention to the hype, you'd think that all the action on "AI" (an incoherent grab-bag of only marginally related technologies) was in generating text and images. Man, is that ever wrong. The AI hype machine could put every commercial illustrator alive on the breadline and the savings wouldn't pay the kombucha budget for the million-dollar-a-year techies who oversaw Dall-E's training run. The commercial market for automated email summaries is likewise infinitesimal.

The fact that CEOs overestimate the size of this market is easy to understand, since "CEO" is the most laptop job of all laptop jobs. Having a chatbot summarize the boss's email is the 2025 equivalent of the 2000s gag about the boss whose secretary printed out the boss's email and put it in his in-tray so he could go over it with a red pen and then dictate his reply.

The smart AI money is long on "decision support," whereby a statistical inference engine suggests to a human being what decision they should make. There's bots that are supposed to diagnose tumors, bots that are supposed to make neutral bail and parole decisions, bots that are supposed to evaluate student essays, resumes and loan applications.

The narrative around these bots is that they are there to help humans. In this story, the hospital buys a radiology bot that offers a second opinion to the human radiologist. If they disagree, the human radiologist takes another look. In this tale, AI is a way for hospitals to make fewer mistakes by spending more money. An AI assisted radiologist is less productive (because they re-run some x-rays to resolve disagreements with the bot) but more accurate.

In automation theory jargon, this radiologist is a "centaur" – a human head grafted onto the tireless, ever-vigilant body of a robot

Of course, no one who invests in an AI company expects this to happen. Instead, they want reverse-centaurs: a human who acts as an assistant to a robot. The real pitch to hospital is, "Fire all but one of your radiologists and then put that poor bastard to work reviewing the judgments our robot makes at machine scale."

No one seriously thinks that the reverse-centaur radiologist will be able to maintain perfect vigilance over long shifts of supervising automated process that rarely go wrong, but when they do, the error must be caught:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/01/human-in-the-loop/#monkey-in-the-middle

The role of this "human in the loop" isn't to prevent errors. That human's is there to be blamed for errors:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/30/a-neck-in-a-noose/#is-also-a-human-in-the-loop

The human is there to be a "moral crumple zone":

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260

The human is there to be an "accountability sink":

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/

But they're not there to be radiologists.

This is bad enough when we're talking about radiology, but it's even worse in government contexts, where the bots are deciding who gets Medicare, who gets food stamps, who gets VA benefits, who gets a visa, who gets indicted, who gets bail, and who gets parole.

That's because statistical inference is intrinsically conservative: an AI predicts the future by looking at its data about the past, and when that prediction is also an automated decision, fed to a Chaplinesque reverse-centaur trying to keep pace with a torrent of machine judgments, the prediction becomes a directive, and thus a self-fulfilling prophecy:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

AIs want the future to be like the past, and AIs make the future like the past. If the training data is full of human bias, then the predictions will also be full of human bias, and then the outcomes will be full of human bias, and when those outcomes are copraphagically fed back into the training data, you get new, highly concentrated human/machine bias:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/14/inhuman-centipede/#enshittibottification

By firing skilled human workers and replacing them with spicy autocomplete, Musk is assuming his final form as both the kind of boss who can be conned into replacing you with a defective chatbot and as the fast-talking sales rep who cons your boss. Musk is transforming key government functions into high-speed error-generating machines whose human minders are only the payroll to take the fall for the coming tsunami of robot fuckups.

This is the equivalent to filling the American government's walls with asbestos, turning agencies into hazmat zones that we can't touch without causing thousands to sicken and die:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/19/failure-cascades/#dirty-data

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/18/asbestos-in-the-walls/#government-by-spicy-autocomplete

Image: Krd (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DASA_01.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #reverse centaurs #automation #decision support systems #automation blindness #humans in the loop #doge #ai #elon musk #asbestos in the walls #gsai #moral crumple zones #accountability sinks

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 months ago

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Nick Anderson/Political Cartoonist :: @Nick_Anderson_

Spreading like...

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 13, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 14, 2025

The incoming Trump administration is working to put its agenda into place.

Although experts on the National Security Council usually carry over from one administration to the next, Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller of the Associated Press today reported that incoming officials for the Trump administration are interviewing career senior officials on the National Security Council about their political contributions, how they voted in 2024, and whether they are loyal to Trump. Most of them are on loan from the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Central Intelligence Agency and, understanding that they are about to be fired, have packed up their desks to head back to their home agencies.

The National Security Council is the main forum for the president to hash out decisions in national security and foreign policy, and the people on it are picked for their expertise. But Trump’s expected pick to become his national security advisor—his primary advisor on all national security issues—Representative Mike Waltz (R-FL) told right-wing Breitbart News that he wants to staff the NSC with people who are “100 percent aligned with the president’s agenda.”

Ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA) warned that the loyalty purge “threatens our national security and our ability to respond quickly and effectively to the ongoing and very real global threats in a dangerous world.”

But during Trump’s first term, it was Alexander Vindman, who was detailed to the NSC, and his twin Eugene Vindman, who was serving the NSC as an ethics lawyer, who reported concerns about Trump’s July 2019 call to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to their superiors. This launched the investigation that became Trump’s first impeachment, and Trump appears anxious to make sure future NSC members will be fiercely loyal to him.

With extraordinarily slim majorities in the House and Senate, Republicans are talking about pushing through their entire agenda through Congress as a single bill in the process known as budget reconciliation. Budget reconciliation, which deals with matters related to spending, revenue, and the debt limit, is one of the few things that cannot be filibustered, meaning that Republicans could get a reconciliation bill through the Senate with just 50 votes. If they can hold their conference together, they could get the package through despite Democratic opposition.

House speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders have said that the House intends to pass a reconciliation bill that covers border security, defense spending, the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, spending cuts to social welfare programs, energy deregulation, and an increase in the national debt limit.

But Li Zhou of Vox points out that it’s not quite as simple as it sounds to get everything at once, because budget reconciliation measures are not supposed to include anything that doesn’t relate to the budget, and the Senate parliamentarian will advise stripping those things out. In addition, the budget cuts Republicans are circulating include cuts to popular programs like Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as Obamacare), the Inflation Reduction Act’s investment in combating climate change, and the supplemental nutrition programs formerly known as food stamps.

Still, a lot can be done under budget reconciliation. Democrats under Biden passed the 2021 American Rescue Plan and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act under reconciliation, and Republicans under Trump passed the 2017 Trump tax cuts the same way.

A wrinkle in those plans is the Republicans’ hope to raise the national debt limit. As soon as they take control of Congress and the White House, Republicans will have to deal immediately with the treasury running up against the debt limit, a holdover from World War I that sets a limit on how much the country can borrow. Although he has complained bitterly about spending under Biden, Trump has demanded that Congress either raise or abandon the debt ceiling because the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the tax cuts he wants to extend will add $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next ten years, and cost estimates for his deportation plans range from $88 billion to $315 billion a year.

Republicans are backing away from adding a debt increase to the budget reconciliation package out of concern that members of the far-right Freedom Caucus will kill the entire bill if they do. Those members want no part of raising the national debt and have demanded $2 trillion in budget cuts before they will consider it. Tonight, Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) told Jordain Carney of Politico that Senate Republicans expect the debt limit to be stripped out of the budget reconciliation measure.

So Republicans are currently exploring the idea of leveraging aid to California for the deadly fires in order to get Democrats to sign on to raising the debt ceiling. Meredith Lee Hill of Politico reported that Trump met with a group of influential House Republicans over dinner Sunday night at Mar-a-Lago to discuss tying aid for the wildfires to raising the debt ceiling. Today, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) confirmed to reporter Hill that this plan is under discussion.

Indeed, Republicans have been in the media suggesting that disaster aid to Democratic states should be tied to their adopting Republican policies. The Los Angeles fires have now claimed at least 24 lives. More than 15,000 firefighters are working to extinguish the wildfires, which have been driven by Santa Ana winds of up to 98 miles (158 km) an hour over ground scorched by high temperatures and low rainfall since last May, conditions caused by climate change.

On the Fox News Channel today, Representative Zach Nunn (R-IA) said: "We will certainly help those thousands of homes and families who have been devastated, but we also expect you to change bad behavior. We should look at the same for these blue states who have run away with a broken tax policy.... Those governors need to change their tune now.” Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) blamed Democrats for the fires and said of federal disaster relief: “I certainly wouldn't vote for anything unless we see a dramatic change in how they're gonna be handling these things in the future.”

Aside from the morality of demanding concessions for disaster aid after President Joe Biden responded with full and unconditional support for regions hit by Hurricane Helene (although Tennessee governor Bill Lee is still lying that Biden delayed aid to his state, when in fact he delayed in asking for it, as required by law), there is a financial problem with this argument. As economist Paul Krugman noted today in his Krugman Wonks Out, California “is literally subsidizing the rest of the United States, red states in particular, through the federal budget.”

In 2022, the most recent year for which information is available, California paid $83 billion more to the federal government than it got back. Washington state also subsidized the rest of the country, as did most of the Northeast. That money flowed to Republican-dominated states, which contributed far less to the federal government than they received in return.

Krugman noted that “if West Virginia were a country, it would in effect be receiving foreign aid equal to more than 20 percent of its G[ross] D[omestic] P[roduct].” Krugman refers to the federal government as “an insurance company with an army,” and he notes that there is “nothing either the city or the state could have done to prevent” the wildfires. “If the United States of America doesn’t take care of its own citizens, wherever they live and whatever their politics, we should drop “United” from our name,” he writes. “As it happens, however, California—a major driver of U.S. prosperity and power—definitely has earned the right to receive help during a crisis.”

Today, Biden announced student loan forgiveness for another 150,000 borrowers, bringing the total number of people relieved of student debt to more than 5 million borrowers, who have received $183.6 billion in relief. This has been achieved through making sure existing debt relief programs were followed, as they had not been in the past.

Establishment Republicans continue to fight MAGA Republicans, and MAGA fights among itself: former Trump ally Steve Bannon yesterday called Trump’s sidekick Elon Musk “truly evil” and vowed to “take this guy down.” But even as their enablers in the legacy media are normalizing Republican behavior, a reality-based media is stepping up to counter the disinformation.

Aside from the many independent outlets that have held MAGA Republicans to account, MSNBC today announced that progressive journalist Rachel Maddow will return to hosting a nightly one-hour show for the first 100 days of the Trump presidency.

And today journalist Jennifer Rubin joined her colleagues who have abandoned the Washington Post as it swung toward Trump. She resigned from the Washington Post with the announcement that she and former White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen have started a new media outlet called The Contrarian. Joining them is a gold-star list of journalists and commentators who have stood against the rise of Trump and the MAGA Republicans, many of whom have left publications as those outlets moved rightward.

“Corporate and billionaire owners of major media outlets have betrayed their audiences’ loyalty and sabotaged journalism’s sacred mission—defending, protecting and advancing democracy,” Rubin wrote in her resignation announcement. In contrast, the new publication “will be a central hub for unvarnished, unbowed, and uncompromising reported opinion and analysis that exists in opposition to the authoritarian threat.”

“The urgency of the task before us cannot be overstated,” The Contrarian’s mission statement read. “We have already entered the era of oligarchy—rule by a narrow clique of powerful men (almost exclusively men). We have little doubt that billionaires will dominate the Trump regime, shape policy, engage in massive self-dealing, and seek to quash dissent and competition in government and the private sector. As believers in free markets subject to reasonable regulation and economic opportunity for all, we recognize this is a threat not only to our democracy but to our dynamic, vibrant economy that remains the envy of the world.”

In what appears to be a rebuke to media outlets that are cozying up to Trump, The Contrarian’s credo is “Not Owned by Anybody.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#wildfires #nick anderson #political cartoon #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #incoming #TFG #corporate and billionaire owners #The Contrarian #corruption #disaster aid #house republicans #MAGA agenda

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rainbowsky · 11 months ago

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This is not a question, but a reflection. With this BF story, I thought a lot. And I think that as French, I don't have the same point of view. I was especially shocked by these words: “he must be educated”. France has a deep colonial past. and I thought: "we must educate these ignorant Chinese? but who are we to think that we are better and superior? we who today have so much hatred for them?" Each country has its point of view depending on his history. no need to respond if you don't want to. And thank you for your always respectful and thoughtful publications.

This is in reference to a previous post.

Bonjour lyndariell, j'espère que tu vas bien. ☺️

This is a perfect example of what I was saying about this being a very complex issue with a lot of different perspectives and angles.

In order to make sense of and come to terms with this issue we each need to find the right balance between upholding our own values and respecting the values of others. That's bound to be a tricky process because we're each coming from a different region, with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives on the world.

Each of us will have a different degree of empathy and alignment toward one or more of the various stakeholders in the situation as well, based on our own experiences, interests and values.

In other words, it's complicated.

It is true that for some people, hearing so many white Westerners say that a Chinese man half a world away 'needs to be educated' on any topic might legitimately feel distasteful and wrong. There is this Western conceit that our values and way of life are superior and obviously correct, and that other nations are just 'behind us' in heading toward the same goals*.

*Although the same is also true going East to West.

It would be totally understandable if some people were to reject the Westerners' characterization of this issue and say that the choices that led to blackface being used in this film are not our choices to make. After all, the filmmakers are telling a Chinese story to a Chinese audience, and they know best how to go about that.

Fair enough. But...

Speaking of colonialism

While we're on the topic of colonialism shouldn't we also be talking about China and its role as a neocolonial power in Africa? As I said in my previous post, it's not really fair for us to look at things solely from our own perspective and in the context of the cultural environment we are in rather than considering the cultural environment this film was made in.

Have you heard of the Belt and Road Initiative? Actually you don't need to answer that question, because almost every turtle has definitely heard of it. GG sang a beautiful song in celebration of that initiative not that long ago, complete with a video highlighting some of the major projects involved.

I didn't post that video on my blog, but you can watch it here. All the bridges, trains and other infrastructure you can see in the video are projects from the Belt and Road Initiative; China investing across Asia, Africa and other regions to improve transport and trade (and to build on China's power globally).

I'm no @potteresque-ire, so I'm not going to break it all down in a meticulous, intelligent, well-cited masterpiece, but you can learn a bit more about it here. There are also countless online articles, papers, analyses, critiques, accolades, etc. from every possible angle out there if you want to dig deeper.

Some of the core strategy of the initiative involves proposing massive infrastructure projects in poor regions, loaning them the money to make the projects happen (loans in the billions), and stipulating that the contracts must be completed by Chinese companies. Resulting in countries with shiny new railways and hospitals built and paid for by the Chinese government and Chinese corporations, with these countries massively in debt to China for many decades to come and with deep trade ties to China.

Depending on who you ask, Belt and Road is either an exploitative, environmentally disastrous neocolonialist power/resource grab, or it's an innovative unifying effort to improve the lives and trade of its member nations.

I personally feel its a bit of both.

Whichever it is, it does have a very dark side. There have been many stories coming out of these regions, telling about slave-like working conditions and horrific abuse from the Chinese contractors toward their African workers. I made the mistake of researching this and let me just say that what I've seen cannot be unseen. There is a reason people make snide jokes about the "belt" in Belt and Road.

And that's just the Belt and Road Initiative. There are a lot of other Chinese individuals and companies going into regions across Africa to take advantage of the people and resources for their own monetary gain. I posted about one such example the other day.

So in considering imperialistic attitudes it's only fair to reflect on what it might mean for a Chinese person to wear an African ethnicity like a costume, in a country that is frequently racist toward Africans and which is thought by many to be exploiting African nations with a form of neocolonialist debt slavery.

Particularly when said costume leads to a massive increase in the amount of racist posts on Chinese social media, and with a tone of raucous mockery and disdain.

We should consider the impact of this film on Chinese attitudes toward Africa and Africans. Based on what I've seen on Weibo, in various articles and on international social media it seems like there is a strong colonialist 'white savior' narrative coming out of this film; glorifying China as swooping in and saving these helpless Africans.

Taken alongside the horrible racism of Chinese audience reactions to the blackface, I don't think looking at it through 'the other lens' gives us a prettier picture.

If the primary category of people who are not offended by this tends to be audiences who are reacting with racist mockery, then a deeper reflection needs to happen.

All that aside, DD isn't working in a vacuum. He has been actively cultivating an international audience and working closely with international brands. He doesn't have the luxury of ignoring Western values if he wants to continue down that path.

And let's not forget that the culture he's so enamoured of is black American culture. If he loves Western hip hop culture so much it would behoove him to better understand and support the people at the root of that culture. The people who literally made it possible for him to find and enjoy that culture.

DD is a good person at heart. I feel that participation in cultural harm is beneath his dignity, and not something he'd consciously choose to do if he had a better understanding of the impacts.

When it comes to culture clash and differences in values it's also important to remember that while everyone is free to make their own choices about what they say and do, so too is everyone else free to make their own choices about how to respond to what that person says and does.

DD is a massive star, so his behavior and choices go far beyond his own cultural environment. It's inevitable that some people are going to have different takes on it all.

And I don't feel like people are telling DD what to do, so much as they're talking about what he needs to do in order to maintain their support. They're drawing out the boundaries of what they deem acceptable as fans. From there everyone has their own choices to make, including DD.

My own position

Here's the thing: I've come under loud, vehement fire from black fans for not taking a strong enough stand on this issue, while some other fans feel I'm being too hard on DD. Now you're saying I should consider the colonialist angle and reflect on whether it's even appropriate for me to think DD has anything to learn.

I can only ever be myself, and speak and act from my own values. I will always think for myself and take my own positions, no matter how unpopular they are and no matter how harshly people attack me for it (and they have).

I am capable of holding multiple conflicting perspectives in my heart and feeling compassion for them all.

I empathize with black people who ***for fuck's sake!!*** have been so thoroughly fucked over on every level and in every possible way by people around them who just don't get it about racism. Who just don't get how deep and broad and far-reaching it is and about how soul-destroying it is to live in a world where this shit is normalized.

I can't even begin to imagine how hard it must be to be a black fan who loves DD and then see him in blackface, and then watch all the fans try to gloss over it as though it doesn't matter.

I empathize with Chinese fans who are in most cases probably not at all ill-intended, whose reactions came honestly even if they were jarring to Western fans, and who have mostly found this story and its telling both exciting and moving.

I empathize with diaspora fans who are having to deal with a whole bunch of sanctimonious lectures about who DD should be and what he should think, say and do.

I empathize with the filmmakers, who after all were probably just trying to give an accurate retelling of something that actually happened in real life.

I empathize with DD, who was likely doing what was requested of him and probably didn't realize that it would turn out to be so controversial or negatively impact so many people.

Anyone who can say with a straight face that they think DD would ever intentionally or knowingly do something that would be this controversial or that would be hurtful to so many of his fans can KMA. That's not the kind of person DD is at all.

Blackface is a huge deal here in the West, and even people in this region are constantly getting it wrong. How can we expect people in regions where it's not traditionally been a big deal to do better than people here who are steeped in awareness*?

*And before anyone says that cultural relativism is such that only people in the West really think blackface is wrong, why not try talking to some of the African fans who've been deeply upset by this?

This is what it is to live in the world. Life is complex, and people are messy. Like I said before; nothing is black and white. Everything is a million shades and hues. As much as people will try to oversimplify the issue and try to intimidate us into taking 'their side', or try to punish and attack us for not doing so, we can only ever live by our own conscience.

No matter how much pressure I come under to condemn one of the individuals or groups I listed above, I will refuse to do so. My conscience tells me to be compassionate and understanding to all of them, and that everyone is always doing their best.

I hope and believe that our differing opinions can coexist. We can disagree and still be friends, as long as we remain open to accepting one another, and as long as we respect each other's right to our own conscience and values.

Merci pour cet échange d'idées intéressant. 💛.

#your political disengagement is a weapon against you #ggdd controversies #ask

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misfitwashere · 3 months ago

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January 13, 2025

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 14

The incoming Trump administration is working to put its agenda into place.

In what appears to be a rebuke to media outlets that are cozying up to Trump, The Contrarian’s credo is “Not Owned by Anybody.”

—

#heather cox richardson #letters from an american

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millerflintstone · 9 months ago

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I'm le tired.

Another brain dump for moving will be forthcoming, so just ignore this post if it's boring to you I guess.

In Georgia, you need to both have a termite bond in place meaning that you have protection set for your property to not get consumed by termites. I got that scheduled early in July. Ours expired in 2019 and the treatments last 10 years apparently. But we also need a termite letter stating that the property has been inspected and blah blah blah NO BAD BUGZ. That's a separate cost of $150 though. They're scheduled on Monday because the letter only lasts for 30 days. So if these people back out and we have to go through this whole process again, it will be another $150 in the future

I really hate packing fragile things. I guess we'll see how good my packing is once our crap gets to New Mexico

Since Unfriendly is heading out first he's getting his stuff together and it feels like he's moving out, which I mean I guess he is but he's not leaving me lol. It's just weird seeing his suitcase out. I guess it's not much different than him having seen my suitcase out for all the times I've had to travel for work, but it's just weird

My boss is excited for me, which is nice. I don't know how long it will take me to adjust to that. It's a vast improvement from my last boss who laughed when I mentioned I had some work related PTSD. He did stop laughing when he realized I wasn't laughing and tried to cover with an "I'm sorry that happened to you" line but my expectations for having a decent boss are non existent at this point

The buyers have a VA loan and it's been an educational process. That's all I can say about that so far.

#moving to nm

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moontyger · 23 days ago

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to begin drastically unwinding the Department of Education. The order directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process of shrinking the department and transferring educational authority back to the states.

Completely eliminating the department, however, requires congressional approval, which the administration likely doesn't have.

The order aimed to significantly reduce the agency's scope and only retain "essential functions" such as managing student loans, enforcing civil rights legislation, and overseeing Pell grants. It also fulfills Trump's campaign vow and aligns with long-standing conservative calls to eliminate the agency.

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) sounded the alarm at the action, warning that the U.S. has seen what education looks like without the Department of Education — it resulted in segregation.

"They know they're discriminating, and now they can discriminate," Scott told Raw Story. "If the Department of Education is eliminated, then the civil rights of students — the right of students to get an education — will be dependent on each and every state, and we know how that worked. If you leave it up to the states, you could still have racial segregation in schools, students with disabilities would not be getting much education at all.”

Scott called the latest MAGA endeavor akin to when the Voting Rights Act was "shot down."

"You started seeing these states in the South particularly kind of revert back to some of their old ways," he said. "When Section V — pre-clearance — was essentially eliminated, officials in at least two states pronounced that it was good, and now they can pass voting rights laws that would make no sense if they could have been pre-cleared."

He pointed to Title I and the Civil Rights Act as evidence of what happens when civil rights are left up to the states.

"It didn't work, right?" Scott said.

While he conceded he doesn't know what the political implications will be, he said the education implications are clear.

"Those for whom the Education Department was there, they will be at a serious disadvantage," warned Scott. "Those who were segregated into inferior schools, those with English as a second language, students with disabilities were not getting an education until there was a federal mandate. Low-income students, people in rural and low-income areas were not getting an equal educational opportunity. That's why the Department of Education was there."

Furthermore, equitable access to college may suffer.

"Then access to college and student loans, so students can get into college. That's why the Department of Education was there, so that people would have an equal opportunity with education, and we know what it looked like before then, we know how many students were getting into college without Pell Grants and student loans. We know what the opportunity looked like and, under segregation, what is left up to the states. We know students with disabilities were not getting an education until there's a federal mandate."

#US politics #US coup #current events #education #US history #segregation #disability rights

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hobie-enthusiast · 2 years ago

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this post is more serious than my others and talks about the current strike, as well as why people should stop complaining about BTSV most likely being delayed (+ help links for the strikes at the end)

lets start with the first and obvious point on why you should stop complaining;

WRITERS AND ACTORS ARE ON STRIKE

what does this mean? it means that actors and writers apart of their respective unions (WGA - SAG-AFTRA) are halting all production and promotions of their movies to strike for fair living wages. they have been underpaid for far too long, and deserve to make a livable wage.

why is this important? because they are not being paid the fair wages that they deserve. a TON of company CEOS are making 400 TIMES what their lowest paid worker makes. That isn’t acceptable and this strike is exactly what hollywood needs. its a wakeup call. capitalism greed has ruined hollywood.

the amount of times ive seen “oh no (insert movie) is getting delayed why did they have to go on strike :(“ is fucking ridiculous. you should instead point your blame and anger towards these major production companies who are screwing over their workers.

another point;

both ITSV and ATSV were very thought out movies. they took years of production and and animation work, as well as research and tests to try and perfect the movie. and they did! both movies are easily the top animated movies of our time. so, to get the same product for BTSV, they need time.

if they speed production after the strike to get this movie done, it’s going to suck. im sorry but its true. true art and craft takes time and energy. it takes effort and thought from the entire crew. it takes a whole team to bring it together. rushing to make the deadline would not work in anyone’s favour.

my next point;

it has been said by va’s and animators that no work for the next movie besides whatever they explored before it was split is done. absolutely nothing. sure, they have a plot idea. they absolutely have an ending in mind, a plot too. thats why it was split.

but like previously stated, animation work takes time. its such an incredible art and process that is time consuming. putting pressure on anyone to finish it will only result in a poor movie.

i love both movies, so incredibly much, and i truly cannot wait for BTSV. but i would rather wait the same 5 years between the first two between these ones if it means we get something even better than ATSV.

i stand with the writers and actors. im willing to wait for the next movie. im willing to support the movies and production team for their hard work when they take their time and push the release date back.

and you should too.

below are links to support the strikes and those who are not being paid fairly. please take time to sign and donate if u can. it’s important.

— https://secure2.convio.net/afa/site/Donation2?df_id=8117&8117.donation=form1&mfc_pref=T - donation fund for actors currently on strike

— https://entertainmentcommunity.org/how-get-help-and-give-help-during-work-stoppage - information on how to help and support SAG - AFTRA

— https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/stand-with-us - pledge your support for SAG - AFTRA

— https://www.wgacontract2023.org/take-action/stand-with-writers - pledge your support with WGA

— https://www.wgacontract2023.org/take-action/social-media-toolkit - strike toolkit on how to help and support WGA

— https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/social-toolkit - strike toolkit on how to help and support SAG - AFTRA

— https://www.wga.org/members/finances/good-welfare-emergency-assistance-loans - emergency fund for WGA writers

any support and boost on this post is always appreciated. make sure people know how to help.

#LATEST FROM || OWNER !!#spider man: across the spider verse #writers strike #support the wga #support sag aftra #wga #sag aftra #support the strikes #atsv

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valoaneducator · 2 months ago

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olippolyp · 2 months ago

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rant:

i work in water/wastewater as an environmental engineer. my company consults for municipalities and private companies on designing and maintaining their water treatment quality & infrastructure. with that, i’ve gotten to work on a lot of really cool, gross, and important projects even as a very entry level person, having only graduated in 2023. while i know that i’m capable and that i have great mentors that are reviewing most everything i do, i’m frequently taken aback at just how much they trust me with with such limited practical experience.

i’m highly respected because of my job title, and that’s reflected in my pay. despite having graduated with crippling credit card debt and a mix of student, personal, and auto loans, my new steady income that allowed me to work overtime meant i could stop ubering and reexplore old hobbies. my mental health began to recover. but im still only beginning to get out of the red month to month. if i didnt live with my partner, i would be living paycheck to paycheck, and i would have to find a roommate.

my oldest brother works in the same industry as a treatment plant operator. he never went to college, despite being one of the brightest people i know. traditional schooling didn’t understand how to teach him. when we start talking about water treatment, his knowledge far surpasses mine. he knows what will happen if you add too much alum to a certain process at the wrong point in treatment without jar testing, whether a pump is or isnt appropriate for the application without modeling software, and what sounds good in theory but shits the bed in practice.

yet, because operator positions don’t require a college degree, he is paid a fraction of my salary. he’s been taking classes to advance as an operator since he started this particular job 2-3 years ago and does well. but because he doesn’t have a college degree, that is reflected in his pay.

he’s starting his third job this week and supports 4 kids. he’s one of the most determined and hard working people i know, but is filing for bankruptcy and is in danger of losing their housing. he feels like a failure and jokes about suicide.

if i make a mistake, it is extremely likely to be caught through several iterations of review by myself and others. if my brother makes a mistake, entire populations, ecosystems, and economies could be easily affected.

just look at what happened in richmond, va this past january after a snow storm that interrupted the water treatment plant’s power for a couple of hours caused the entire city to lose water for nearly a week, as well as critically affecting and/or taking out the water systems of connected surrounding counties. all because the plant was under-maintained and mismanaged. experts in my field weighed in around the country calling it the worst water crisis in us history next to flint, mi. it didnt make national news, however, because it was the same week that the la wildfires dominated airwaves.

we must pay our workers living thriving wages. your job, at the bare minimum, should compensate you well enough that when you leave work, you can rest, relax, and live a fulfilling life. your job should compensate you well enough that working a second job is an absurd red flag, not a necessity. your job should compensate you well enough to ensure that when you are there, you are able to be FULLY THERE.

the value of a person’s labor should not be determined by whether or not they have a degree, or how valuable our capitalist society deems their role. every person is entitled to an income that can sustain a happy, healthy life, whatever that means to them. i don’t give a fuck if the person working at wendy’s makes as much as me because i’m an egotistical ass that needs to feel superior to those around me. i want to know that the person across the counter from me is happy and healthy; not working themselves to the bone just to survive. i want to know that the operators at my local water treatment plant are well cared for and well rested, lest they make a preventable error that can have disastrous effects, or leave the industry after a few years, taking all of their knowledge and skills with them. i want to know that the people in my community are not exploited. that they pursue their passions rather than a paycheck.

if you are of the mindset that some jobs aren’t skilled enough to “deserve” a thriving wage, then you have never worked an “unskilled” job and NEEDED it. you may have bussed tables in school, but was your parents’ safety net there to catch you when you needed to give up a shift to study for a test? was it there when you got in a wreck driving home from class and totaled your car? was it there when you were in middle school and being introduced to the expectations for college scholarships? did you know at 12 that the only way you’d ever afford college would be by being perfect in school?

it is unacceptable that in 2025, it requires 4-5 incomes to keep a family above water. our people are worn down, burning out, and isolated. that’s how the system has been designed so that workers believe they are powerless within it. the reality is the system is powerless without them.

raising the minimum wage and taxes on the ultra-wealthy are the bare minimum. universal healthcare and the complete restructuring of the healthcare economic system is next. continue those regulations until the corporations’ price gouging and predatory tactics are eradicated in every industry. pull the united states military out of goddamn everything, and cut all their ties to local police organizations. cut their budgets and redirect it to improving national infrastructure, as well as the infrastructure and livelihoods of those countries and peoples we plundered. eradicate ice and use the budget to set up universal basic housing and income, available to all persons residing in the us, documented and undocumented. reinforce the fuck out of social security. build up our communities and the people that make them up rather than imposing restrictions meant to make them ‘prove’ their worth.

stop taking fucking advantage of each other.

#chappell roan #grammys #anti capitalism #socialism #bootlickers smell #immigration #abolish ice #free palestine

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propimortgage · 6 months ago

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yourreddancer · 3 months ago

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Heather Cox Richardson

January 13, 2025

Jan 14

The incoming Trump administration is working to put its agenda into place.

(NOTE: THIS IS A VIOLATION OF THE HATCH ACT - THOSE GRILLED BY TRUMP'S TEAM SHOULD FILE A CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST THEM!!)

Although he has complained bitterly about spending under Biden, Trump has demanded that Congress either raise or abandon the debt ceiling because the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the tax cuts he wants to extend will add $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next ten years, and cost estimates for his deportation plans range from $88 billion to $315 billion a year.

In what appears to be a rebuke to media outlets that are cozying up to Trump, The Contrarian’s credo is “Not Owned by Anybody.”

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