The GOP is So Far Gone
The new extremist Speaker hates gays, non-Christians and women's rights
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WE DO NOT HAVE THE CORRECT WORDS to describe the modern Republican party. If the last month has taught us anything, it’s that the word “moderate” as a descriptor before a given Republican’s name basically means that they don’t think the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that’s about it. The word has lost all meaning on the right.
Enter new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson (R-LA). The man who is now third in line to the presidency:
Authored a friend-of-the-court brief, signed on to by 125 other members of the House, in support of Donald Trump’s Supreme Court challenge of the 2020 election results.
Voted to overturn the 2020 election.
Introduced a bill to federalize a version of Florida’s “don’t say ‘gay’” bill.
Has repeatedly spewed homophobic views, including calling homosexuality “dangerous” and “sinful” and “destructive.”
Is married to a woman who runs a counseling service that compares being gay to bestiality and incest (like Clarence and Ginni Thomas, the Johnsons have long intertwined their political, business and personal lives).
Received 220 of a possible 220 Republican votes in the vote to make him Speaker.
Ugh.
This is what the Republican party is. It’s a party that will unanimously elect a Speaker who does not believe in the truth as a general concept, and has shown outright contempt for the foundations of our country’s system of government, and done so quite recently. In fact, he does it all the time. He’s a big government conservative who sees the administrative state as a bludgeon-in-waiting to use at his whim against the LGTBQ+ community, non-Christians, women trying to exercise agency over their own bodies, and so many more.
I want to use this space to remind everyone how Presidential elections work in this country, and what it would mean to vote for a third-party candidate in 2024.
Nearly half of all Americans aged 18-49 would like to see more options in terms of political parties. It was so informative when, during the height of the GOP’s most recent Speaker debacle, the greater political class literally laughed at the idea of a bi-partisan coalition government of sorts in the House to break the logjam. Consider finding some sort of functional way to actually legislate from a place of compromise? We’d never!
The only takeaway that matters here isn’t really even a takeaway at all — the 2024 election will be a choice between Joe Biden, probably Donald Trump, and no one else. A vote for any other candidate, and especially a vote for a certain anti-vaxxer with a legacy last name, is a vote for, probably, Donald Trump. He’s bad enough. He’s so bad that his lawyers are taking plea deals for trying to tamper with the 2020 election results in Georgia.
The reality is that we will have a choice between two people, one of whom incited a mob to storm the Capitol and is under indictment in several districts around the country.
“I can vote for any candidate I want to vote for,” is a strong defense. Indeed, we can vote for anyone. We also have to live with the consequences of our vote not just for our own livelihoods, but for those of every other person in this country. As we saw with Ralph Nader in 2000, his candidacy was a critical factor in George W. Bush's Electoral College victory over Al Gore.
In this specific case, Republicans have a slim majority in the House that seems dead set on following Trump’s lead, a new Speaker who wouldn’t mind giving anti-sodomy laws another chance, and a cadre of extremists who have already shown their ability to absolutely shut things down on a whim.
These are our choices. For me, the choice is easy. I understand the responsibility I have as a voter to reject an agenda that relies on violence, attempted coups and hate.
I hope you do, too.
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DIGIMENTORS TECH TIP: AI Takes Baby Steps into Children’s Playtime with the Miko Mini
By Robert S. Anthony
Each week, veteran tech journalist Bob Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him @newyorkbob.
It’s inescapable: Artificial intelligence is all around us managing train schedules, serving up answers on customer-support lines and otherwise affecting our lives. But now AI may be facing its toughest challenge: children.
At the recent Toy Fair in New York there were many AI-enhanced electronic toys and learning devices which seemed to trigger the same concerns: What data is being collected, where is it being stored and who has access to it?
Fortunately, many toymakers seemed to have heard the concerns and are following the same path with AI: Tread carefully and make sure parents are always in control.
For example, Miko Mini, a small, friendly looking robot that can sit on the tabletop or floor, uses AI to tailor its interactions with different children. The voice-controlled robot, which is outfitted with a camera, microphones and a speaker, can identify users through facial recognition and uses AI to adjust its responses based on the feedback it gets.
The three-wheeled robot moves, spins and uses expressive cartoon faces on its video screen as it listens to questions and responds. Children can ask the robot questions, request bedtime stories or they can use one of unit’s learning adventures, which cover areas such as reading, writing, communication and critical thinking.
The Miko Mini, which the company describes as an “AI powered playful learning coach,” engages children in full conversations, suggesting topics along the way. A companion mobile app lets adults monitor a child’s use of the robot and track their progress through the learning adventures.
In a chat at Toy Fair, Sneh Vaswani, CEO and co-founder of Miko, said the company had spent years slowly developing the AI used in the robot and creating a proprietary, closed data ecosystem that provides a deep database of knowledge for children while insulating them from inappropriate content.
In a demonstration, he posed a difficult question to the Miko Mini, which thought for a moment and then gave a gently worded response and suggested that the user have a conversation with an adult. Vaswani noted that while some data is sent to the cloud, it does not contain any private information about the user, nothing is ever shared, and the child never has access to the Internet.
🤖 New AI workshop in NYC and REMOTE! Join us for my workshop and an all-star panel (Aimee Rinehart, Mikhael Simmonds and more) about all things AI. Thursday, Nov 9, 6-8 pm ET in Manhattan and online. If you can't attend in person, you can purchase an online ticket and watch online. Both tickets offer a recording you can watch later. Here’s a code for 25% off! Use code “newsletter” and tell your friends… bit.ly/sreeainov9
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Absolutely spot on, Sree.
Great example of one reason that a third party in the Congress wouldn't work. Sometimes a parliamentary system, such as the one in Britain, is great. Other times we see the elected members do really dumb things to amass enough support to form a majority. While I believe that there aren't always only two alternatives, at this point for us in the USA, three parties would lead to more of a standstill than we have now. Or to bad deals that would take us in a direction that nobody really wants.