FRIDAY 'ROUND-THE-HORN: GOOD FOR WHAT AI'S YA EDITION.

These guys are local!

This week has been, as is now customary under Tubby II, a cavalcade of horrors, and perhaps the more illustrative horror was the “MAHA Summit” at which the dangerous lunatic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. denigrated medical science and pimped potions and -- as is now de rigueur for con artists -- AI:

Mr. Kennedy said OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, told him during a recent visit to his office that it would be “malpractice for a doctor to make a diagnosis or to make a prescription without at least checking A.I.” Mr. Kennedy apparently agreed...

“If somebody tells you, ‘Masks work, trust the experts,’ A.I. may tell you otherwise,” [Kennedy] added. “If somebody tells you, ‘Social distancing works, trust the experts,’ A.I. may correct that. And if somebody tells you that a vaccine will prevent transmission and infection, or you need to take it to protect your grandmother, A.I. may say it actually doesn’t do that.”

AI will agree with you, in other words, that germs don’t exist, and that your illnesses would be better treated by MAHA-accredited hucksters than doctors. As with less figurative total eclipses, this is better viewed through the smoked glass of satire, so our first Roy Edroso Breaks It Down freebie treats the Summit as it deserves. 

Our other REBID freebie is related to all the fresh evidence that Trump’s brain is in an advanced state of deterioration. When we talk about his “policies” we’re mainly talking about the evil, corrupt, and often illegal machinations that operatives like Vought and Miller get him to sign off on by telling him how great he is and how they’ll make his enemies suffer. This week we once again saw Tubby yammering moronically in interviews and at the podium and it becomes clearer by the day that he’s non compos mentis.

In my post I go over what’s left rattling around Tubby’s brainpan (mostly stuff that was turning him on in the 1980s). But I also talk about the fact -- and let us never forget it -- that the entire Republican Party and conservative movement are wholly sworn to his repulsive reign, and even on the cusp of a midterms wipeout continue to stand with him. A few try to pretend they only happen to be standing near him -- don’t let them get away with it. Because when Grandpa hits the bricks, whoever they replace him with may do less senile rambling and sleeping in meetings, but he'll still be kidnapping immigrants and sending them to “third countries,” immiserating minorities, siphoning billions from the Treasury for their donors, tearing out the bottoms of such safety nets as we have, etc. He'll probably make racist creep Christopher Rufo U.S. Attorney General and Ezra Klein will applaud the appointment as the dawn of a new era of bipartisan cooperation shortly before he’s spirited away to Eswatini. 

Oh, let me add: My buddy Martin Downs has published a magnificent fantasy novel called The Favorite, on sale now. It’s got dystopia, ancient gods, sea battles, sex, and snappy dialogue, and plenty of each. Go get!