Pun Salad

I subscribed to Techdirt's RSS feed awhile back for its smart takes on the relationship between civil liberties and the Internet. But these days it posts way too many articles like this one, titled: Trump Declares Everyone Who Doesn’t Kiss His Ass Is A Terrorist.

And (worse) it's by Mike Masnick, who, at one point, I thought of as "the relatively sane one." It begins:

Mike links to the "National Security Presidential Memorandum", good for him, so you can read it yourself.

Goodness knows, I'm no Trump fan. He's a vindictive, narcissistic bullshitter, steering the country according to his dangerous, uninformed whims. I couldn't bring myself to vote for him (or anyone else) for President last year.

But Mike's (very lengthy) "analysis", designed to justify the preordained conclusion in his headline, seems strained and weak to me.

And (worse), as near as I can tell, there's not a scintilla of "tech" content in the Techdirt article.

So: maybe start a second tech-free site, Mike. Use an AI to direct tech-free articles there. MTRA: Make Techdirt readable again.

Also of note:

• Speaking of my non-fanhood… I was slightly encouraged but skeptical about Trump's recent Truth Social post on Ukraine. But Kevin D. Williamson unloads upon it, especially the tagline: ‘Good Luck To All!’.

  Back when Trump was just a Page Six grotesque and social climber, Spy magazine famously described him as a “short-fingered vulgarian.” It turns out that his fingers aren’t the problem, but his short little attention span—not his grip, but his grip on the issues and, from time to time, on reality.

  Trump has had enough of the Russia-Ukraine war. And so he says that the U.S. role will now be to sell weapons to NATO “to do what they want with them.” He added: “Good luck to all!”

  Trump being Trump, he is all over the map (the map upon which I suspect he could not identify Ukraine with one of those short fingers). Not long ago, he was sure that Ukraine couldn’t win—he also claimed that Ukraine had started the war—and that the Ukrainians needed to get to a negotiated settlement as soon as possible. Now he says he thinks the Ukrainians may be able to take back all of the territory occupied (and annexed in some cases) by Russia, a proposition that is, unhappily, at least as implausible as any other dumb thing that has come out of Trump’s mouth. He writes (on social media, of course) that he came to this conclusion “after getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation.” (As always, the illiterate capitalization is in the original.)

  Donald Trump has served a full term as president of these United States and then spent most of Joe Biden’s term getting ready to run for another term of his own, which he is now well into—and he’s just now “getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia” situation?

  Jeez, Kevin. Can't you give the guy some credit for improvement?

• Beware the superfluous adjectives. Paul Schwennesen spots one at (no surprise) NPR, which still exists, and lets us know: 'Surveillance Pricing' Is Just Pricing.

  National Public Radio recently aired a segment on the evils of “Surveillance Pricing” — the practice of employing customer data and AI to tailor prices for individual consumers. The coverage, predictably, is overwhelmingly negative: an interviewee warned that it would let corporations prey on people’s vulnerabilities, as the Federal Trade Commission frets about “privacy, competition, and consumer protection.”

  On air, NPR concluded with the dire prediction that feckless private companies will, if left unchecked, ultimately “decide what you will pay.”

  Considering the emotional charge of topics like privacy and commerce, congressional intervention was practically inevitable. And sure enough, Representative Greg Casar, leader of the Progressive Caucus, has introduced legislation that would ban the practice wholesale. “AI is a developing part of our lives” he says, “but we need to make sure that it’s used for good and not being exploited. We’re already starting to see that, and if we don’t intervene now and ban these sorts of price gouging and wage suppression right now, then I think it’s just going to spread all over the economy.”

  But the standard Econ-101 insight doesn't go away: a transaction won't happen unless both sides, buyer and seller, perceive they'll be better off. Win-win. Positive sum. Etc. AI (potentially) puts another set of tools into the hands of both sides. But it's the same game.

• We can't say this enough. Jeff Jacoby urges Uncle Stupid to Pull the plug on the FCC.

  LIKE 99.5 percent of American adults, I wasn't watching Jimmy Kimmel's show on ABC last week when he made his unfunny comment suggesting that the man charged with the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk was part of "the MAGA gang" now trying "desperately" to distance itself from the accused killer. It was a cheap shot, and Kimmel was rightly criticized for his tastelessness. Then again, tasteless jokes are hardly a rarity in late-night television. If every comic who crossed the line into mean-spiritedness or bad judgment were sent packing, there would be no one left on network TV after 11:30 p.m.

  Yet as disgraceful as Kimmel's crack was, what happened next was far worse. Within a day and a half, Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr was publicly urging licensed broadcasters to declare that "we're not going to run Kimmel anymore." He emphasized his demand with an unsubtle warning: "Broadcasters ... have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with an obligation to operate in the public interest. When we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." Nice TV operation you have here. Be a shame if something were to happen to it.

  Fun Fact: Brendan Carr wrote the chapter on the FCC for the famous (or infamous) "Project 2025" for the Heritage Foundation. Unfortunately, he didn't advocate simply "pulling the plug" on it.

• A good question. Asked by David Harsanyi: How Can We Expect Immigrants To Embrace American Values if We Don't?

  In addition to demonstrating a basic handling of speaking, reading and writing in English, federal immigration law requires prospective citizens to understand "the fundamentals of the history, and of the principles and form of government, of the United States."

  Do they? According to studies, over 40% of new immigrants aren't proficient in even the most basic English, and many can't speak it at all.

  For years, the citizenship exam consisted of 100 questions, given to the applicants in advance, most of which were extraordinarily basic. An immigrant is only required to answer six of 10 questions to pass. The test entails queries such as: "We elect a U.S. Representative for how many years?" "Who vetoes bills?" "There were 13 original states. Name three." "The words 'Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness' are in what founding document?"

  I didn't know that!

  David also reports a sad, not-at-all-fun fact: "only about 36% of Americans were able to pass a multiple-choice version of the naturalization exam" And (worse): "The younger you are, the less likely it is that you'd pass."

• We made the WSJ! I was unaware of the legislation that impresses Travis Fisher and Glen Lyons: New Hampshire Sparks a Revolution in Electricity Supply.

  The global race for artificial intelligence and the inability of the U.S. electricity sector to keep pace have state policymakers scratching their heads. Some respond by restricting data centers’ use of local grids; others put existing customers and taxpayers on the hook for investments to accommodate the new demand. The electricity sector is in a state of crisis.

  New Hampshire recently approved an elegant solution: Let anyone build. In August Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed HB 672, which minimizes red tape for electricity providers that don’t connect to the existing grid, thus bringing more competition, speed and innovation to the state. In the spirit of reducing bureaucracy, the bill itself fits neatly on one page.

  Well, I'll be darned.