Trump and the Violence Next Time
Trump and the Violence Next Time
Plus, Here Are the Kinds of Jobs Chat AI Is Likeliest to Affect
Recently in The Bulwark:
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NICHOLAS GROSSMAN: Trump and the Violence Next Time.
In anticipation of charges against him—expected from the investigation arising from his hush money payments to adult actress Stormy Daniels, or one of several other ongoing investigations—former President Donald Trump has denounced law enforcement, called for protests, and issued darkly foreboding warnings. The echoes of January 6th are unmistakable. As Tom Nichols notes in the Atlantic, Trump’s rhetoric appears aimed at inciting anger and drastic action. Violent threats online have reportedly spiked.
On March 23, Trump posted an all-caps message on his social media platform saying that Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who may bring charges, is “JUST CARRYING OUT THE PLANS OF THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS. OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!” As “they”—the radical left—“tell us to be peaceful.” It’s giving permission for violence, if not calling for it outright.
JILL LAWRENCE: New Opera Gives Voice to the Pain of Urban Gun Violence.
There’s a moment in a new opera when a man sings, “I shot him one time. Watch y’alls’ selves. Cause. It’s hard to be human again.”
He’s just returned from prison after serving time for killing a man. He was 17 when it happened. He didn’t hate the man. He didn’t mean to kill him. It was all about money.
The Walkers, the most urgent segment of a trilogy called Proximity, opened at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on Friday, and it’s not the usual fare. Like many operas, it is tragic, but not because of doomed heroes or heroines like Don Giovanni or Madame Butterfly. It’s not even about mass shootings that make headlines. It’s about urban neighborhoods plagued by gangs and gun violence, and the gritty work of turning around one life at a time.
Down in Waco, Trump was on double duty: Blowing up the DeSantis’ campaign on the launch pad, and clearing up any ambiguity about who he really is. Will Saletan is back with Charlie Sykes for Charlie and Will Monday.
A year ago, Republican voters thought Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine were badasses. Now…Zelenskyy is just as bad as Putin. Tom Nichols, Professor Emeritus at the Naval War College and staff writer at The Atlantic, joins Sarah to listen to the voters’ foreign policy takes. Tom is not impressed with the voters.
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BRENT ORRELL: Here Are the Kinds of Jobs Chat AI Is Likeliest to Affect.
Researchers at OpenAI—the company behind ChatGPT—and the University of Pennsylvania came out last week with a first look at the potential labor market impact of chat technology. If these initial “guesstimates” hold up, we might be looking at an inversion of the recent history of automation. In the past, it has been occupations marked by high levels of repetitive, manual tasks that have been on the block. ChatGPT and its progeny, at least at this point, seem to be a bigger threat to higher-end, office, and administrative forms of labor.
The first thing to note is just how much chat tech has improved in the past few months. This chart shows the change between ChatGPT3 (released on November 30, 2022) and ChatGPT4 (released on March 14, 2023) in terms of proficiency in taking a wide range of standardized tests.
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
Happy Monday! As March Madness comes to a close, keep an eye out to see if you’re a top finisher or last place in our Overtime bracket challenge. Winners and losers will be announced in this space.
Weekend watches… Thanks to irregular sleep hours due to sick children, I have some Netflix suggestions to share: The Night Agent and The Pentaverate.
In local news… Many D.C. area denizens were asking: what’s that smell? I thought it was a controlled brushfire, but the timing didn’t match. Apparently winds brought smokey smells from the Carolinas.
Headline of the day award… Goes to the very Grosse Pointe Blankian story at Metro UK.
Reducing extremism in the U.S… A worthwhile pair of pods from our friends at Connors Forum.
RIP Texas Observer… It’s always sad when a good publication goes into that good night without good reason.
The Jock/Creep Theory of Fascism… John Ganz writes: “It’s real, and it works.”
Midjourney fools Twitter… It won’t be the last time the truth has to catch up to something false going viral. But really, the thing is magic. I’ve been having too much fun.
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