OpenAI suspends bot developer for Congressman Dean Phillips- The Washington Post

 Microsoft-backed OpenAI has banned the developer of a bot mimicking Democratic presidential hopeful Congressman Dean Phillips, the first action the ChatGPT maker has taken in response to what it sees as a misuse of its artificial intelligence (AI) tools in a political campaign, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment.

Dean.Bot, powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT was created by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Matt Krisiloff and Jed Somers, who started a super PAC named We Deserve Better supporting Phillips, ahead of the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, the report added.

The PAC has received $1 million from billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who called it "by far the largest investment I have ever made in someone running for office" in a post on social media platform X.

The super PAC, had contracted with AI start-up Delphi to build the bot. OpenAI suspended Delphi's account late on Friday, noting that OpenAI's rules ban the use of its technology in political campaigns. Delphi took down Dean.Bot after the account suspension, the report added.

We Deserve Better did not immediately respond to a request for comment while Delphi could not be immediately reached for comment.

Dean.Bot, which had a disclaimer explaining that it was an AI tool, could converse with voters in real-time through a website, in an early use of an emerging technology that researchers have said could cause significant harm to elections, the Post reported.

Earlier this month, OpenAI emphasized that its policies prohibit its technology from being used in ways it has identified as potentially abusive, such as creating chatbots pretending to be real people, or discouraging voting.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/MICROSOFT-CORPORATION-4835/news/OpenAI-suspends-bot-developer-for-Congressman-Dean-Phillips-The-Washington-Post-45780940/

Watch: Joy Reid Argues That Books With Rape And Pedophilia Should Be In Schools

 by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

In a remarkable exchange, MSNBC host Joy Reid took a break from her race obsessed ranting to advocate for books containing rape, pedophilia and incest to be made available for school kids as young as six.

Reid brought on Moms for Liberty Founder Tiffany Justice and asked her what makes her an authority to say that such material shouldn’t be allowed in schools, while the chyron on the screen claimed Justice is pushing to “ban books”.

Reid, still sporting a ridiculous blonde wig, defended the book “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” which contains descriptions of incest, anal rape, and strap-on dildos, among other things. The host claimed that some passages from the book that have been read out be outraged parents at school board meeting have been taken “out of context.”

“In what context is a strap-on dildo acceptable for public school?” Justice asked Reid, adding  “Tell me the context around the strap-on dildo or the rape of a minor child by a teacher?”

Reid charged that Justice is not an “expert” on the material.

Justice shot back, “I don’t need to be an expert to know that dildos aren’t appropriate content for public school.”

“Maybe we could just put all the books with all the graphic sexual content, the dildos, the rape, the incest– let’s do a backroom,” Justice continued, adding “Let’s put a curtain up in the library like they used to do at video stores.”

Reid continued to argue in favour of the material in schools, asking “Why is it your right, or a Mom’s for Liberty activist’s right, to say that a parent who wants their child to have access to this book which gives a personal experience of this author… Why doesn’t a liberal parent, for instance or a parents of an LGBTQ kid, why don’t they have a right for their child to just have access to this book? Why is it your right to say they can’t?”

Justice again responded that the book describes rape and pedophilia in graphic detail, yet Reid argued that parents have a right to “decide what is appropriate for their child to read.”

The full exchange is below:

After the interview, Reid brought on her friends to slate Justice, with Ali Velshi sardonically stating “I took notes. I’ve never taken a note of an interview in my life, but there was so much to keep up with there.”

He further remarked, “She liked to say the word ‘dildo.’ Said that a lot.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-joy-reid-argues-books-rape-and-pedophilia-should-be-schools

Biden’s weakness fuels the Houthi threat

 President Joe Biden belatedly responded last week to Houthi attacks on international shipping. But weakly limited military strikes by the United States and the United Kingdom unsurprisingly failed to deter these Iranian-backed terrorists.

They can see that Biden is terrified of escalation and lacks the stomach to confront the threat they pose seriously. As the Washington Examiner first reported on Dec. 19, Britain was ready to conduct the strikes a month before Washington gave the go-ahead. A timid White House dithered because it feared provoking Iran, as though that tyranny and global menace would be quiescent unless goaded.

Timidity has defined the Biden administration’s approach to Iran and its proxies since the start of the current Middle East crisis. Instead of a robust response to Iranian-led escalations, Biden has broadcast his hesitation for all to see. Iran is governed by pathological anti-Americans who view weakness as an invitation for aggression, so our president’s mostly impotent hand-wringing has done nothing but encourage Tehran’s escalation. It is astonishing, for example, that it took until Jan. 17 for the White House to relist the Houthis as terrorists. The Trump administration did so, but Biden had removed them early in his presidency in the hope of sucking up to Iran and reviving the squalid and useless nuclear weapon deal then-President Barack Obama struck in 2015.

The Houthis still have the strategic initiative. They have continued to fire missiles in recent days at ships in the Red Sea. They struck a Greek-flagged vessel on Tuesday after hitting a U.S.-owned vessel the day before. Absurdly, the White House said it’s too early to tell whether last week’s military strikes were sufficient to cripple the Houthis. Houthi missiles have answered that question decisively. A critical artery of international trade remains stanched with the enemies not just of the U.S. but of the entire civilized world. Cargo vessels are having to sail around Africa, adding thousands of miles, at least an extra week at sea, and huge costs to their journeys. Shipping and insurance costs of journeys to and from Europe are surging. Industry is suffering. Unless they are restrained, the Houthis’ attacks will increasingly damage the global economy.

Our necessary response should be clear. First, Biden must authorize broader and more aggressive strikes against the Houthis. He should hit not only their long-range missiles but also their command centers in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a and the Port of Hodeidah. The Houthi organization must understand that its attacks will be met with occasional, limited, and defensive strikes but with sustained offensive action that will eliminate its military power.

This way, the U.S. and its allies would impose military costs on the Houthis sufficient to threaten their domestic power in Yemen. The Houthis would find that the cost of their attacks on international shipping suddenly far outweighed their gains. The Houthis do not benefit from the attacks beyond earning favor from their Iranian patrons. A new cost-benefit calculus must be imposed.

Iran must also be taught a lesson of American resolve. Its reliance on proxies after Hamas’s Oct. 7 pogroms in Israel shows that Tehran is reluctant to unleash Hezbollah in Lebanon and is wary of open escalation. The U.S. should exploit that fear. To do so will require sustained military action with air strikes and missiles beyond what has already been tried. It will also require clearsighted resolve from Biden, which has so far been absent.

This is necessary not only because of what’s happening in the Red Sea. China, which claims most of the international waters of the South China Sea, is watching. It is militarizing those waters to extort loyalty from Pacific nations and others that rely on access to those waters for trade.

China’s activities, like that of the Houthis, flagrantly challenge a basic tenet of international order and prosperity. If Biden keeps proving that rebels in Yemen can destroy that tenet with impunity, Beijing will understand that its own far stronger military can impose its will in the South China Sea.

Considering that this threat bears directly on the Philippines, which the U.S. is committed by treaty to defend, Biden’s weakness is fueling a very dangerous fire. The stakes reach far beyond the Red Sea. They also risk encouraging Russian President Vladimir Putin to escalate Russia’s aggression in Eastern Europe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s bellicosity toward South Korea and Japan.

Biden must wrench the Houthis’ strategic calculus back toward seeing America as a superpower willing to use its immense power or risk seeing this nation’s enemies gaining ground.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2801531/bidens-weakness-fuels-the-houthi-threat/

'If you can, pick a GOP ballot in New Hampshire — and use it to stop Donald Trump': Boston Globe

 The storied New Hampshire presidential primary arrives on Tuesday, with far less drama than usual on the Democratic side — and one of the most important votes in the primary’s long history on the Republican side.

For independent voters, who can cast a ballot in either party’s primary, this ought to be the easiest call in a generation: Your vote is going to matter a lot more in the Republican race and you have an opportunity to help save the country from the alarming prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency.

Trump is seeking the party’s nomination again and pummeled his opponents in last week’s Iowa caucuses on the basis of his strength with evangelical voters. New Hampshire, though, is a different sort of contest: It’s a primary, not a low-turnout caucus, and voters have often bucked expectations and defied pre-election polls — in part because of the pivotal role of independents.

Not that plenty of dyed-in-the-wool Republicans aren’t dismayed by Trump, too. Some because of the way the twice-impeached president debased the office between 2017 and 2021, others because he’s already lost to Joe Biden once and they’re not optimistic he’d do any better in a rematch.

If Trump wins in New Hampshire, the odds are good he’ll then run away with the nomination. But if the combined votes of independents and Trump-skeptical Republicans beat him in New Hampshire, the party has at least a fighting chance to stop him in later contests and put the Trump era in its rear-view mirror.

The only candidate in a practical position to beat Trump in New Hampshire, though, appears to be Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor, who has a strong operation in the state and the endorsement of Governor Chris Sununu. Almost by default, if you want to stop Trump, that means voting for Haley. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is also still in the race, but he appears to have given up on New Hampshire.

Haley’s not this editorial board’s cup of tea. But she is a mainstream, traditional conservative who would not put the country through constant scandals or take a torch to basic principles of democratic government like accepting election results.

Registered Democrats can’t participate in the GOP primary, and their own is shaping up to be a waste of time. President Biden’s name does not even appear on the Democratic ballot (some of his supporters have launched a write-in campaign, however). For Democrats, writing in Biden’s name makes sense. For independents, though, there’s not much point in taking a Democratic ballot.

States that allow independents to vote in either primary, like New Hampshire and Massachusetts, have that policy for a reason. There’s nothing sneaky or inappropriate about any independent choosing a Republican ballot, even voters who don’t ordinarily support GOP candidates.

If his record in office wasn’t enough, Trump also hasn’t done much to earn New Hampshire’s support. He’s barely deigned to campaign, much less make the rounds of the states’ breakfast spots. Partisans of the New Hampshire primary like to say it forces candidates to engage in the rigors of retail campaigning, but Trump hasn’t done anything like that. If he wins anyway, it will certainly add to the growing skepticism that the state’s primary voters are really the gantlet of demanding, serious-minded voters that the primary’s defenders claim they are

At this point, we’re not going to attempt to change anyone’s mind about Donald Trump. You like him or you don’t. But New Hampshire voters who do perceive him as a threat — to the Republican Party, to the country, to democracy, or to all of the above — have a rare opportunity on Tuesday to do something about it. It’s not a chance they should miss.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/01/21/opinion/haley-trump-new-hampshire-republican-gop-primary/

E-Bikes Caused Record Fires, Injuries, & Deaths Last Year In NYC

 In total, e-bikes caused 267 fires, causing 18 deaths and 150 injuries in the city, the New York Fire Department (FDNY) told Fox News, which notes that the figures represent the highest levels of each statistic - with deaths jumping 200% and fires increasing 21% over last year.

"As we rely more and more on micromobility vehicles to earn a living in our daily lives, we increase the risk of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries. And as mentioned, we had over 100 deaths in this city alone on these batteries," said Mayor Eric Adams (D) during an e-bike safety event last year.

"And one of the problems that we've noticed, when you look at those taped-up batteries, you see that they are refurbished," he continued. "These shops are going inside attempting to refurbish the batteries and do it their own way. This is a safety issue."

Amid the uptick in e-bike fires and deaths, New York City leaders led by Adams and FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh — who said last year that e-bikes are "incredibly dangerous devices" and called for additional regulation — have spearheaded a public education campaign about the dangers of the device and pushed policies to ensure safety.

In March 2023, Adams unveiled the city's Charge Safe, Ride Safe plan to prevent further harmful e-bike incidents. Then, months later, he announced the city had been awarded $25 million in federal funding to install 173 outdoor e-bike charging stations. In December, Adams said his administration would soon launch a battery-charging pilot program for delivery workers. -Fox News

"We know these fires can cause serious injury, and even death. We are grateful to our partners in city government for their out-of-the-box thinking on how we can embrace this new technology while also protecting lives," said Kavanaugh.

Meanwhile, NYC has passed several laws to regulate lithium-ion batteries sold within city limits, and has implemented a policy to expedite investigations into the dangers. Last June, NY AG Letitia James warned of "significant risks" associated with e-bikes.

Earlier this month, an e-bike battery exploded in a Queens bike store, resulting in a two-alarm fire. The incident came just days after another e-bike battery fire caused an explosion in a public housing complex in the Bronx, resulting in one death and injuring six others.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/e-bikes-caused-record-fires-injuries-and-deaths-last-year-nyc

Biden’s two-state ‘solution’ would be a disaster for Israel

 Say this for the Biden administration: It never runs out of bad ideas or the energy to pursue them. 

Take its tone-deaf badgering of Israel to accept the creation of a Palestinian state.

Coming after the savage Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7, the taking of hostages and the continuing war in Gaza, the idea understandably has near zero support in the Jewish state. 

In addition to rewarding terrorism, a self-governing Palestinian nation, even with international help, would likely throw Egypt, Jordan and the entire region into turmoil and be a nightmare for Israeli security. 

Yet the idea lives on as a “Kumbaya” solution because nothing else has worked.

But there’s a reason why peace is elusive: Palestinian rejectionism of Israel. 

Starting with the United Nations partition plan in 1948 and including several Israeli governments, there were repeated offers of a separate Arab state, and all were rejected by Palestinians. 

That hasn’t changed, with Hamas saying again last week it doesn’t want a two-state solution.

Its leaders demand a one-state solution, with Israel eliminated. 

But undeterred by facts, Secretary of State Tony Blinken took the administration’s loopy fixation to Davos, where he declared that Israel can never achieve “genuine security” without a pathway to a Palestinian state.

He would have been closer to the truth if he had also admitted Israel wouldn’t have “genuine security” with a Palestinian state. 

Trying to strengthen his weak argument, Blinken added the silly claim that the move could isolate Iran. 

He doesn’t say how a Palestinian state would isolate Iran for the simple reason that it wouldn’t. In addition to Hamas, Iran uses its other proxies, especially Hezbollah and the Houthis, to carry out its fiendish aim of destroying Israel. 

Nonetheless, President Biden, whose record of being wrong on the global stage for five decades remains unblemished, keeps pushing a two-state plan with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Their Friday talk was the first in nearly a month, with the last call coming to a sudden, tense end when Netanyahu rejected Biden’s demand for a Palestinian state. 

The Biden call last week came after Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel must maintain security control “over all the territory west of the Jordan,” referring to Gaza and the West Bank. 

Asked about American pressure, Netanyahu told reporters: “The prime minister needs to be able to say no, even to our best friends.” 

Palestinian statecraft 

That statement apparently sparked the Friday Biden call and infuriated other usual suspects.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief said a Palestinian state might need to “be imposed from the outside,” with Israel cut out of the decision. 

Josep Borrell said that without intervention, the “spiral of hate will continue generation after generation,” and that “the international community will have to impose” a Palestinian state. 

In fact, imposing a Palestinian state would exacerbate the spiral of hate if Hamas or another terrorist group gained control.

And if not Israel, who would stop that from happening? 

Certainly not the United Nations, which has fomented hatred of Israel among Palestinians for seven decades.

And there is no domestic support for putting American boots on dangerous ground, nor could Europe be trusted with the job. 

Besides, there is a Palestinian state — Gaza. How did that work out? 

Hamas had total control for nearly two decades, but didn’t give a fig about civil government, which it left to the UN.

The leaders spent their time and hundreds of millions of foreign aid dollars, much of it American, on building tunnels, buying and making weapons and plotting the elimination of Israel. 

And let’s dispose of the fiction that Palestinian civilians want peace.

Polls taken after the October massacre show up to 80% support in Gaza and the West Bank for what Hamas did. 

So most Arab civilians, including many in Europe and America, are in sync with Hamas, whose leaders reject any deal with Israel. 

Khaled Mashal, a senior Hamas official living in Qatar, dismissed a two-state solution last week as an international gift to Israel. 

As reported by the Islamic Republic News Agency and other outlets friendly to Hamas and Iran, Mashal said the proposal would mean “we have a promised state and we should recognize the other side, which is the Israeli regime, as a legitimate entity, but this issue is definitely rejected.” 

He said even going back to Israel’s pre-1967 borders was not acceptable because that would concede 20% of the landmass to Israel.

All of the land, he emphasized, belongs to Arabs. 

His remarks echo the outburst of another Hamas official, Ghazi Hamad, who said in November that “We will repeat the October 7 attack time and again until Israel is annihilated.” 

Appearing on Lebanese television, Hamad said “Israel is a country that has no place on our land,” and “we must remove that country.” 

Against that backdrop, the White House push for a two-state resolution is another example of its bended-knee approach to foreign policy.

Because of Biden’s feckless withdrawal from Afghanistan and his minimalist military support for Ukraine, the axis of evil doesn’t take seriously the threat of American firepower. 

Our adversaries watched as Biden lifted sanctions on Iran without getting major concessions, and saw the mullahs use the new riches to fund their aggressions without American pushback.

Joe’s Saudi blunder 

The president also misplayed the relationship with Saudi Arabia.

He began by aiming to make it a pariah nation, and is now reduced to considering its demand for our nuclear technology as part of any normalization pact with Israel. 

In contrast, the Trump administration forged the historic Abraham Accords by stressing the economic advantages to the region of peace, trade, tourism and security cooperation.

Four Muslim countries — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco — recognized Israel and Saudi Arabia would have joined had Trump been re-elected. 

Importantly, the creation of a Palestinian state was not something the Saudis insisted on then. 

But now Biden says the Saudis will normalize relations with Israel only if a Palestinian state is part of the deal.

Some Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, have fallen into the trap and support a two-state solution, believing it will protect the Saudi monarchy from domestic and regional Islamists. 

None of this is meant to suggest a Palestinian state is permanently off-limits.

But current conditions offer no reason to believe creating one will bring about a magical peace.

More likely it would become an enormous staging ground for nonstop attacks on ­Israel. 

A mainstay of bipartisan American policy since 1948, when President Harry Truman recognized Israel just 11 minutes after its birth, has been support for the Jewish nation’s survival and independence.

There have been many perilous moments since then and this is certainly one of them. 

A big difference now is that the primary problem is not neighboring Arab armies, but Iran.

To keep faith with history and our closest ally, Biden must end his pressure campaign against Israel and finally get tough with Iran. 

https://nypost.com/2024/01/20/opinion/a-two-state-solution-would-be-a-disaster-for-the-biden-administration/

How The Government Constructs Positive Economic Data

 Via SchiffGold.com,

A startling disconnect as we edge closer to the 2024 general election: On one hand, so-called “experts” parade optimistic economic reports, but for the average American, the story is starkly different.

 In heated debates, economists squabble over whether the public is hoodwinking pollsters or if mysterious forces are at play.

Our guest columnist explains how the government is playing a smoke-and mirrors-game with the economy.

 It’s more subtle than making up numbers.

They’re pumping up GDP and job figures through hefty spending and hiring. Unlike the struggling private sector, the government can spend tax dollars and create deficit-financed jobs without having to prove their worth:

The following article was originally published by the Mises Wire. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.

As the 2024 general election gets closer, Democrats and proestablishment pundits are growing frustrated with the American public for not feeling as good about the economy as the so-called experts say they should. The elitism of this view aside, it is true that traditional economic indicators are pretty good and that, at the same time, people aren’t feeling good about the economy.

Center-left economists have been locked in a debate over whether people are lying to pollsters about experiencing hardship in what is actually an excellent economy or are struggling due to mysterious noneconomic factors.

Others, like Paul Krugman, have decided to blame Donald Trump and his supporters—framing the widespread economic pessimism as a MAGA ploy to win back the White House—a theory Jonathan Newman showed is disproven by the very data Krugman cites.

So, what’s really going on here?

Daniel Lacalle laid the truth out well in his recent appearance on Radio Rothbard. In short, the government is making the economy look a lot better than it is.

Those who argue the economy is doing great usually cite economic growth as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) and various measures of the employment rate.

And while on the surface it seems to make sense to use these indicators to get an idea of how the economy is faring overall, there’s one big problem.

None make any serious distinction between private economic activity and government spending.

But there is a big difference between the two.

Government, unlike any other entity in the economy, can simply take money and resources from others to spend on things and hire people. Whether or not the spending brings people value is irrelevant.

It’s the private sector that’s responsible for producing goods and services that actually meet people’s needs and wants. So, the private components of the economy have the most significant effect on people’s economic well-being.

And according to Lacalle, the private sector of the US economy is already experiencing a recession. However, the high levels of government spending are artificially boosting the GDP above the technical recession threshold. Similarly, government hires have featured disproportionally in the recent seemingly positive jobs reports.

That’s why we’re seeing a divergence between the positive economic data in the headlines and the more negative sentiments of the American people. It’s not a mystery, and it’s not fake news or partisanship. It’s the government.

But don’t expect any politicians, center-left economists, or proestablishment pundits to admit it. All insist the government can boost economic growth and employment—especially during times of war. Take, for instance, the myth that World War II brought an end to the Great Depression. What happened back then is similar to what we’re dealing with now, albeit on a much larger scale. The government spent and hired enough not only to hide the destructiveness of the war, but also to make it appear like a good thing for the economy.

That is the same trick at play today. Because the government printed trillions of dollars to hide the economic damage of the covid lockdowns, a tremendous amount of malinvestment has locked in a major market correction. Now, as the economy begins to falter, the government is again spending and hiring on a massive scale to keep up the illusion of a strong economy.

But most Americans can tell something’s off. And they’re right.

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/how-government-constructs-positive-economic-data