I suppose your question is rhetorical, but the obvious answer is "Since Congress became incapable of making any 'meaningful' laws." Insofar as the legislature is supposed to regulate and control the executive branch, you could even describe it as a form of regulatory capture.

But it's worse for the judiciary these years. If you look at the history of nominations and confirmations, that transition has been shockingly rapid. There are still two living (but retired) nonpartisan Justices who were confirmed by a majority of the Senators from both parties, which used to be the norm, but on the actual Court there are no nonpartisan Justices. So my hilarious solution approach would be to boost the value of nonpartisan Justices with a funny little recusal rule: "A nonpartisan Justice may compel two junior partisan Justices to recuse themselves." (I can even imagine how the change could be pushed. The key step is to get one or more nonpartisan Justices onto the Court...)

Mostly the ACK, but thanks for clarifying. If I understand correctly, your original joke was based on the word "metaphors", not "phosphors" or something else. I didn't understand the linkage between your secondary joke and the joke your were replying to.

If you like SF, then I recommend Ancillary Justice fairly strongly. I don't read that much SF these years, but it seemed to be one of the best I've read, with many atmospheric elements that reminded me of the great Iain Banks. Another recent one with some interesting AI themes was Waste Tide by Qiufan Chen, but the story wasn't engaging.

As regards the sig fork, I concur with the duration of the national disease. With the latest proposal for the online live execution it has reached the stage of national disgrace, and if that webcast actually happens, I think it should be taken as a terminal symptom. I knew the country was headed in a bad direction decades ago, but I had no idea how bad it could get, how far it would go, nor how fast.

Right. The "massive" ballot fraud MAGA keeps harping about but can never show any proof. The "fraud" that is so prevelant, even Republican states can't show it.

People won't forget how utterly delusional Republicans are. After all, they elected and are defending a pedophile.

I'm unclear on the reference. Only thing that comes to mind as a possible candidate in this JPEG context is phosphors, but that was a long time ago.

Probably shouldn't add that I tangentially like the sig, though perhaps it could be a "car stolen for parts"? My related metaphorical thought on international relations is that America used to be like the older brother who mostly protected you, but has mutated into the wicked old stepsister. I guess that metaphor then calls for regarding the super-rich owners of America as wicked stepmothers? (From What is Thought? I seem to be hung up on metaphors now.)

(Hmm... But if I was a real writer of comedy then I'd figure out some way to do a callback on your joke with "metaphors" as the source of "phors"? Does the Evil Witch of the West Meta have a browser for a meta-joke? (As things stand now, it mostly feels like I'm just a reader of tragedies... Let me check my database for the latest... Have to skip back 7 to Profiles in Courage and Abundance since the later stuff was happy space operas and some pleasant Japanese stuff. However the hero of Ancillary Justice was finally revealed to be an AI of some sort...))

Life has existed and indeed thrived greatly in warmer climates than this.

Depends on your definition of a warmer climate. It's not always that way.

Maybe the real end of the world, if Trump reacts badly enough.

He's already scheming with his election deniers he's installed to thwart the midterm election by seizing ballots.

And by disaster, they mean a blue wave sweeping across the country and driving out Republicans.

I ran this through the translator. "Having a dedicated home with Prime Video allows us to build on that legacy with unprecedented global reach and a broader commitment to the Television Academy and our mission throughout the year."

It came out "Jeff offered more money."

After all, women go for more decidely female-related professions such as female doctor, female surgeon, female attorney, or female director.

Of course the AI versions would get paid less.

I don't think that makes the document any less your own than having a human copy editor conduct a similar review which has been done since forever.

Which is what I've been saying as well. If all you're doing is asking for suggestions to something you have already written, using AI is no different than using a human editor. It's your work. It's been written. You're just looking for advice on how to improve it.

This is completely different than people who tell AI what they want and it does all the work.

Mod parent derivative funny, but I wish the thread had continued with the other funny comment about Sam Altman leading the way as recipient of the bad things.

The joke I was actually looking for would involve the conflict of interest more directly, but it's still early and maybe something will show up. I wish I could help, but my capacity to write jokes is limited.

Hmm... Would it count as a bad thing happening if I asked the AIs for help in writing jokes for Slashdot? Some of the things they say are pretty funny, but usually unintentionally.

(Just had another funny-not-funny encounter with the google's AI today. This one involved a special case of traveling salesman problems. I had noticed that the google was having difficulties and that many of the answers were terrible, but yesterday I, the lowly human, managed to find a better solution for one of main routing bottlenecks. This must mean something about how the google is approaching the problem incorrectly... All I can guess so far is that there's an arbitrary limit in the AI's planning that is blocking it from finding this path. Or maybe the bus companies have their own AIs that are at war with the google's AI?)

This is all about getting us to have warm fuzzy feelings for our Flock protectors. Probably so we are willing to report the vile criminals who vandalize them to steal the valuable metals and precious SSD, HDD and memory components inside.

Mod parent funny but the low-hanging joke I was looking for was "It couldn't happen to a more deserving and persistently vicious moronotron." He's earned more than the sudden need for a new phone number.

I wonder how often the YOB's own phone number leaks? Credible reports say that it's widely known. (More likely that a certain phone number is widely known but that the phone number just reaches some sycophants who get lots of taxpayer money to carry that phone around on shifts.)

No funny here, but the Subject is the low-hanging fruit I was looking for.

What Flock does is mass surveillance of the most massive sort. However, I can imagine one way to provide legitimate probably cause. Link the cameras to speed detectors and only take pictures of license plates when speeding has actually been detected. But that approach would obviously harm shareholder value, so...

How about Stupor-Intelligence? I think it rolls off the tongue more easily. But it could end well if it somehow persuaded the YOB to read Bostrum's book? At least he might know who the bad machine is...

Other parts of the discussion were more focused on the story as one of bad military leadership. So the joke along those lines would involve a certain infamous corporal who became commander-in-chief of a big military. But these days the Americans couldn't even reach a consensus on whether that ended badly... "If only he'd waited another year before attacking Stupid Joe..."