Extra, Extra
What’s Up, Doctrine? Our foreign policy seems to regularly change on a whim. Today, that whim is in a good direction. Trump says U.S. will resume sending weapons to Ukraine after pausing last week. From Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Who’s Running American Defense Policy? “In such a system, no one is really in charge except Trump—which means that on most days, and regarding many issues, no one is in charge.”
+ Marco Existence: “An impostor pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio contacted foreign ministers, a U.S. governor and a member of Congress by sending them voice and text messages that mimic Rubio’s voice and writing style using artificial intelligence-powered software.” WaPo: A Marco Rubio impostor is using AI voice to call high-level officials. (And it turns out the high-level officials prefer the imposter…)
+ A Right-Wing and a Prayer: Another hole has been poked in the increasing porous separation of church and state. “The I.R.S. said on Monday that churches and other houses of worship can endorse political candidates to their congregations, carving out an exemption in a decades-old ban on political activity by tax-exempt nonprofits.”
+ Shoe Removal Getting the Boot: “The rule came after Richard Reid tried — and failed — to ignite his homemade shoe explosives on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22, 2001.” TSA to end shoe removal policy at some airport security checkpoints.
+ Chemical Warfare: “In January 2021, after a nitrogen leak at a poultry plant in Georgia killed 6 workers and injured scores more, federal investigators arrived at the scene. The team, from a small federal agency called the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, traced the fatal leak to a freezer part that had been bent out of shape. A series of recommendations to improve safety followed.” Sounds good, right? Well, it is. In fact, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is so good that even the industry it covers is in favor of it. But you know what happens to good programs that everyone supports. NYT (Gift Article): Trump Wants to Kill a Chemical Safety Board. Chemical Makers Object.
+ Ask Backwards: Elon Musk announced an improved version of his AI Grok. The latest version criticizes Democrats and Hollywood’s ‘Jewish executives.’
+ In a Bad Spot: “When Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz spiked a slider in the dirt to begin the third inning of his most recent outing, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Ortiz has thrown more than 1,500 pitches this season, and a third of them have been balls out of the strike zone. There was no reason to think twice about one that slipped. But within the gambling industry, alarms were blaring. A betting integrity firm had identified unusual wagering activity on that specific pitch being a ball—a pitch Ortiz had just hurled so wildly that it couldn’t have been hit with a tree branch.” WSJ (GIft Article): The Scourge of ‘Spot-Fixing’ Is Coming for American Sports.
