Month: November 2018

One of those “I’m glad I’m old” moments

by digby

This is a world I’m glad I don’t have to navigate — privatized Big Brother:

When Jessie Battaglia started looking for a new babysitter for her 1-year-old son, she wanted more information than she could get from a criminal-background check, parent comments and a face-to-face interview.

So she turned to Predictim, an online service that uses “advanced artificial intelligence” to assess a babysitter’s personality, and aimed its scanners at one candidate’s thousands of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts.

The system offered an automated “risk rating” of the 24-year-old woman, saying she was at a “very low risk” of being a drug abuser. But it gave a slightly higher risk assessment — a 2 out of 5 — for bullying, harassment, being “disrespectful” and having a “bad attitude.”

The system didn’t explain why it had made that decision. But Battaglia, who had believed the sitter was trustworthy, suddenly felt pangs of doubt.

“Social media shows a person’s character,” said Battaglia, 29, who lives outside Los Angeles. “So why did she come in at a 2 and not a 1?”

Predictim is offering parents the same playbook that dozens of other tech firms are selling to employers around the world: artificial-intelligence systems that analyze a person’s speech, facial expressions and online history with promises of revealing the hidden aspects of their private lives.

The technology is reshaping how some companies approach recruiting, hiring and reviewing workers, offering employers an unrivaled look at job candidates through a new wave of invasive psychological assessment and surveillance.

The tech firm Fama says it uses AI to police workers’ social media for “toxic behavior” and alert their bosses. And the recruitment-technology firm HireVue, which works with companies such as Geico, Hilton and Unilever, offers a system that automatically analyzes applicants’ tone, word choice and facial movements during video interviews to predict their skill and demeanor on the job. (Candidates are encouraged to smile for best results.)

But critics say Predictim and similar systems present their own dangers by making automated and possibly life-altering decisions virtually unchecked.

The systems depend on black-box algorithms that give little detail about how they reduced the complexities of a person’s inner life into a calculation of virtue or harm. And even as Predictim’s technology influences parents’ thinking, it remains entirely unproven, largely unexplained and vulnerable to quiet biases over how an appropriate babysitter should share, look and speak.

There’s this “mad rush to seize the power of AI to make all kinds of decisions without ensuring it’s accountable to human beings,” said Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a tech advocacy group. “It’s like people have drunk the digital Kool-Aid and think this is an appropriate way to govern our lives.”

Human beings have developed highly sophisticated methods of evaluating other humans in person-to-person interactions that far outstrips anything a computer can do. Judgments about humans based on some AI reading of facial expressions is automatically inferior to human evaluation. How gross. Not to mention that there is a group of people who are very adept and fooling everyone including machines and even themselves: sociopaths.

If people are worried about how their employee interacts on social media they can look at it. It’s public. If they feel their behavior would reflect badly on the company or reveals some attitudes they don’t want around their kids, that’s fine. But to let some “program” determine what it means is ridiculous as is the absurd idea that social media reveals a person’s “character.” It might reveal their character on social media but social media is not real life. I would assume everyone has figured that out by now but apparently not.

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The CIA doesn’t have “feelings”

by digby

It used to be a rare thing to hear a Senator call the president a liar, but with Trump there’s really no choice:

The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday accused President Donald Trump of lying about the CIA’s report that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Trump said Thursday that the CIA “did not come to a conclusion” about the crown prince’s involvement in the murder.

“They have feelings certain ways, but they didn’t — I have the report,” Trump said.

When asked if the President was lying about the CIA’s conclusion, Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Jack Reed said, “Yes. The CIA concluded that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was directly involved in the assassination of Khashoggi.”

“They did it, as has been reported to the press, with high confidence, which is the highest level of accuracy that they will vouch for,” Reed said. “It’s based on facts, it’s based on the analysis. The notion that they didn’t reach a conclusion is just unsubstantiated. The CIA has made that clear.”

“High confidence” is the CIA’s way of saying that it happened. It’s as close as they get to saying it’s a fact.

The president doesn’t care if people are murdered. He is an amoral cretin, we know that. But suggesting that the CIA’s analysis is actually “feelings” is just bizarre. Once again he’s saying black is white and up is down. And that leaves people who live in reality no choice but to call him a liar.

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I buy, therefore I am
by Tom Sullivan

Black Friday sales could hit a record $23 billion, up nine percent from 2017. That is cause for celebration somewhere. Beyond department store displays, however, other blinking lights warn humans buying products are themselves slowly becoming products.

Look around wherever you are reading this. Unless you are sitting outdoors, virtually everything in your immediate space is the product of a modern corporation. If not a consumer end-product like the screen you see before you, an intermediate. It is hard to conceive that on an island in the Bay of Bengal, a small band of humans lives a near-Stone Age existence, defiantly apart, defending their way of life from colonization and missionaries and cell phones.

The consumer culture celebrated by the Thanksgiving to New Year’s season and day-to-day existence shapes not only the way we live our lives, but the way we see ourselves. Homo corporatus views the world through the eyes of accountancy. What is the bottom line? She/he is a consumer. Every human interaction is a transaction. Still an animal, base desires for food, sex, and power still control decision-making. But the way we order society is increasingly reducing us to data. Data to be aggregated. Data to be consumed. Data to sell us products. Data to control us. Data to validate our worth … as consumers. Humans who are not have none. The First People learned this the hard way.

The Department of Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen proposes a new rule set for deciding whether an immigrant to these shores is worthy of admittance. The metrics purport to measure whether or not supplicants at our borders are, within five years of entry, “likely at any time to become a public charge.” In legi-speak, that means anyone whose metrics predict they may at some time become eligible for public cash assistance. Among the deal-breaking benefits are “Supplemental Security Income (SSI), cash assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and state or local cash assistance program for income maintenance.” Enjoying the unearned non-cash benefits of the Land of the Free such as public roads and police protection are not yet disqualifying. (Public comments on the proposed rule are accepted until Dec. 10.)

Basically, DHS wants to know foreigners have backgrounds that “directly correlate to a newcomer’s economic assimilation into the United States.” This purports to ensure newcomers will be no financial burden to the consumer/taxpayer. What it come down to though — what homo corporatus really wants to know — is will immigrants throwing themselves at Lady Liberty’s sandals be able to buy stuff  here?

In a week in which former president Barack Obama drew a charge of “virtue signaling” by volunteering at a food bank on Thanksgiving, the sitting president signaled to the world that he was fine with dismembering journalists so long as the murderous potentate would be buying billions in U.S. armaments.

For confirmation of administration commitment to that ethic, look no further than the inclusion of FICO scores among DHS’s proposed new measures of human value. Josh Lauer at Slate finds this a misapplication of limited data. Although lacking a credit score would not necessarily count against an applicant, under the rule, DHS would consider a low credit score a “negative finding“:

Makes sense, right? People with low credit scores are loafers and can’t be trusted to take care of themselves. Unfortunately, this is not what traditional credit scores measure. They are specialized algorithms designed for one purpose: to predict future bill-paying delinquencies, for any reason. This includes late payments or defaults caused by insurmountable medical debts, job loss, and divorce—three leading causes of personal bankruptcy—as well as overspending and poor money management.

No matter, DHS wants to use FICO scores to help decide whether someone is worthy to become one of US.

The Chinese, Lauer adds, are using metrics to decide just that:

The current apotheosis of quantified reputation, however, is China’s social credit system. Described in the Western press as an Orwellian national credit score, the program ranks Chinese citizens according to their performance as borrowers, consumers, and fellow citizens. Those with poor rankings—public smokers, slow taxpayers, people who spend too much on video games, among other red-flagged behaviors—are deprived of access to jobs, travel, discounts, and other social perks. You can’t ride a train without being reminded of the system’s perpetual judgment.

Here's a dystopian vision of the future: A real announcement I recorded on the Beijing-Shanghai bullet train. (I've subtitled it so you can watch in silence.) pic.twitter.com/ZoRWtdcSMy— James O'Malley (@Psythor) October 29, 2018

Already the Chinese have blocked 11.14 million people from flights and 4.25 million from high-speed trains. They’re not trustworthy. Their scores say so.

What a piece of data is a man!

Nation’s Right-Wing Uncle: “I won the Thanksgiving conversations!”

By Spocko

“My sister begged me not to talk about politics at Thanksgiving,” said Uncle Dick Vespa, speaking from a recliner in his sister’s house in a Lincoln Nebraska suburb.

“She pleaded with me, ‘Talk about happy memories when we were kids.’ So I did. The happiest days of MY childhood were teasing her until she cried!”

While Uncle Dick sat in the living room waiting for his younger sister and niece to clean up, he explained why he had no choice but to attack, correct and educate his relatives during the annual holiday event.

“Look, it’s not my fault. From the second I arrived everyone attacked me! I came into the kitchen and my sister was ranting about how important government regulations were, blah blah blah. I didn’t catch it all because she started going off about the food I bought: a very expensive 17 pound honey-baked ham. I know I said I was going to bring a salad, since they’ve been vegan for years, but the stores removed all the romaine lettuce because of the caravan invasion. I couldn’t make my famous Caesar salad so I got a ham instead–which, by the way, was much more expensive. I figured she would be thankful for a break from all the rabbit food, but she wasn’t.”

“Over dinner I won the conversation with my snowflake niece about the economy. I explained the need to cut government regulations and taxes on corporations. She brought up the recent stock market crash, but I pointed out the facts. The stock market only crashed because in January the Dems will start imposing needless, job-killing regulations on corporations.”

“I owned the libs in my own family! Making my snowflake niece cry was the highlight of the day!” – Nation’s Right-Wing Uncle

While wrapping up the remaining 14 pounds of ham to take back to his bachelor apartment, Uncle Dick explained his one regret of the day–his inability to convince them that Brett Kavanaugh was innocent of the sexual assault accusations.

“The fact is that Christine Blasey Ford was a liar! She lied about the reason for her two front doors! One was for renters! Check the dates on the remodeling plans! She lied about her fear of flying! Her ex-boyfriend said she flew all the time! Also, nobody explained convincingly to me why she didn’t report this alleged assault when it happened. If something like that had happened to my sister or niece I’m sure they would have reported it!”

Asked if he had ever talked to either of them about sexual assault or their experiences with high school boys or college men who had been drinking he changed the subject to Brett Kavanaugh’s grades, his potential for a bright future and questioned why Ford couldn’t remember how she got to the house.

“Also, why would a guy who had everything going for him do something like that? Look at his calendar! This was a democrat hit job. Kavanaugh was falsely accused, just like Clarence Thomas was. Frankly I think Ford and her lawyers should be prosecuted for lying.”

When asked why his relatives were visibly unhappy at the end of the day. Dick speculated, “I think it’s because they lose all the conversations. If they could just provide evidence for their opinions maybe they could win a discussion.”

A vegan Thanksgiving meal

“I can’t figure out why they don’t want to have conversations with me more often. They’re fun. Deep down I suspect they know they can’t beat me in a conversation, so they just stop trying. I guess they are tired of being losers and don’t like hanging out with a winner like me.”

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Friday Night Soother

by digby

Baby Meerkat stolen —- and recovered:

The story is quite amazing:

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The Deplorables on the big grift

by digby

I’ll just leave this here for you:

BUILD THE WALL SONG!

Help Trump get the DAMN funds!

American border foundation has a 501c3 WHERE WE CAN CROWDFUND THE WALL!

Text “wall” to 444-999 OR visit https://t.co/U1oXWeLj5l

FULL SONG https://t.co/GehNXxW5Dn @LaraLeaTrump @parscale @FundThatWall #BuildTheWallNow pic.twitter.com/3ILRMcMxBT— The Deplorable Choir (@DeplorableChoir) November 20, 2018

Give them credit. This is a great scam. They understand their audience very, very well. There’s a wingnut sucker born every minute.

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Finally, unions have a voice in the White House! Sadly, it’s the right-wing border cop unions …

by digby

This story is astonishing, not just because it shows that the the president is now ignoring the WH counsel, Department of Homeland Security and Chief of staff and listening to the far right border cop unions and his psychopath immigration adviser. Then when the courts back the legal and practical advice of his cabinet, he will rail against them as partisan hacks who want to destroy the country.

President Donald Trump this week presided over an explosive meeting on a new Cabinet order granting the troops deployed at the southern border the right to use lethal force to defend border patrol agents.

Several White House aides and external advisers who have supported the president’s hawkish immigration agenda attended the Monday meeting, which devolved into a melee pitting two of Trump’s embattled aides, White House chief of staff John Kelly and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, against other attendees, according to three people briefed on the exchange.

Kelly and Nielsen initially argued against signing the declaration, which granted the military broad authority at the border, telling the president that the move was beyond his constitutional powers. They were vocally opposed by, among others, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller; Chris Crane, president of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council; and Brandon Judd, president of the border patrol union. Also present was Vice President Mike Pence, who did not take a stand on the issue, according to one of the people briefed on the debate.

Kelly and Nielsen eventually came around to the president’s position, and the bitter dispute ended Tuesday evening when Kelly, on Trump’s orders, signed a Cabinet declaration granting the military the disputed authority. The move ran afoul of the guidance offered by the White House counsel, Emmet Flood, who cautioned that it was likely to run into constitutional roadblocks, according to a second source familiar with the conversations.

The debate took place in the context of a discussion about how the White House could stem the rising number of apprehensions at the Southern border, a subject that has obsessed and enraged the president.

Nielsen and Kelly folded and went along with orders for the military to shoot people on the American border. And they did it because organizations representing uniformed cops at the border appealed directly to the President, who commonly treats them as his personal paramilitary force.

Think about that.

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The Problem Solvers are going to be a problem

by digby

9 Dems are choosing to hold the entire 220+ caucus hostage if we don’t accept their GOP-friendly rules that will hamstring healthcare efforts from the get-go.

People sent us here to get things done, not “negotiate” with an admin that jails children and guts people’s healthcare. https://t.co/ih8ygftjHo— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 23, 2018

These people are going to wield their power as the Blue Dogs and the new Dems used to do, all the while pretending to be “pragmatists” working across the aisle like Americans all say they want people to do.

The right flank of the Democratic Party has always been complicit in enabling Republicans who take them for exactly for the suckers they are.

The Problem Solvers Caucus is a bi-partisan group in the United States House of Representatives that includes approximately 48 members – equally divided between Democrats and Republicans – who seek to create bi-partisan cooperation on key policy issues. Created in January 2017, the group is currently co-chaired by Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Tom Reed (R-NY).[1]

Writing in the New York Times about the formation of the Caucus, Reed and Gottheimer said: “We all knew the partisanship in Washington had gotten out of control and felt the need to create a bipartisan group committed to getting to “yes” on important issues. We have agreed to vote together for any policy proposal that garners the support of 75 percent of the entire Problem Solvers Caucus, as well as 51 percent of both the Democrats and Republicans in the caucus.”

The Problem Solvers Caucus developed over time as an outgrowth of informal meetings organized by the political reform group No Labels. Past successes include the introduction of nine bipartisan bills to reduce government waste and inefficiency and the passage of the No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013.

The Caucus’ signature success to date occurred on July 31, 2017, when its members unified behind a bipartisan health care fix to shore up the nation’s struggling health insurance exchanges and to reduce premiums for individuals, families and small businesses. The Washington Post described the Caucus plan as “a viable bipartisan compromise focused on stabilizing health-care markets rather than enforcing one party’s will on the nation.”

Aside from its bipartisan health care plan, the House Problem Solvers Caucus has aligned several times on votes and on policy including:

Supported and voted into law a “clean” continuing resolution—free of any ideological riders—to avert a government shutdown

Released a comprehensive bipartisan proposal to rebuild American infrastructure (January 2018)
Released the first bipartisan immigration proposal in the House; pairing a long-term solution for The Dreamers with investments in border security (January 2018
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Supported the long-term budget deal that averted another government shutdown and could not have passed without the Problem Solvers’ bipartisan votes (February 2018)

The Caucus is also building a bipartisan bridge into the Senate. Its members have been attending regular bipartisan, bicameral meetings hosted by No Labels that feature No Labels’ honorary co-chairs Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and several of their Senate colleagues.

On July 25, the Problem Solvers Caucus released its Break the Gridlock reform package, featuring proposed rules changes the group said would “reward openness and transparency, encourage a willingness to reach across the aisle, create debate on divisive issues, and empower lawmakers to find real solutions concerning our nation’s most pressing matters.”

Right. In other words, enable Donald Trump and the batshit crazy Republicans.

We’ve been here before. It didn’t work out.

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Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t.

by digby

That’s what Trump says about PPrince Mohamed bin Salman’s alleged ordering of the killing of Jemal Khashoggi in Turkey.

The Daily Beast:

According to Turkish newspaper Hürriyet Daily News, the CIA has a recording in which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman can be heard giving the order to “silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible.” The claim has not yet been independently verified. Hürriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi, who broke the news of the first recording capturing Khashoggi’s death inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, reports that the CIA was listening in on the call between the crown prince and his brother, Khaled bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. “The crown prince gave an instruction to silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible and this instruction was captured during (a) CIA wiretapping,” the newspaper columnist claims. Selvi has also reported that CIA Director Gina Haspel “signaled” the existence of the tape during her trip to Ankara last month. Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement on the part of the crown prince, instead claiming Khashoggi’s killing was the result of a rogue operation. The Trump administration has slapped sanctions on 17 Saudi officials in connection with the murder but President Trump himself has vowed to uphold strong ties with the Saudi government even if Mohammed was behind the killing, suggesting earlier this week that economic ties should take priority over the death of someone deemed an “enemy of the state.” On Thursday, in response to a question on who should be held accountable for the crime, Trump refused to place any blame whatsoever. “Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place,” he told reporters.

Everyone will shrug because Trump lies like he breathes. But this is just … astonishing.

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GOP exploring reasons for gender disparity in new Congress

by digby

I wonder what it could be?

For congressional Republicans, this month’s elections ushered in the year of the woman — literally.

West Virginia’s Carol Miller will be the only Republican woman entering the 435-member House as a newcomer in January. She’ll join what may be the chamber’s smallest group of female GOP lawmakers since the early 1990s — as few as 13 of at least 199 Republicans. Democrats will have at least 89.

Numbers like those have Republicans searching for answers to the glaring gender disparity in their ranks — and fast. The concern is that Democrats’ lopsided edge among female voters could carry over to 2020, when President Donald Trump will be seeking a second term and House and Senate control will be in play. If the current trend continues, Republicans risk being branded the party of men.

There are a lot of reasons why women, many of them previously stalwart partisans,are leaving the GOP as fast as they can. But for 2020 they only have to look at one of them to see what deep, deep trouble they are in:

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