Chaos Agent

I imagine rage-filled Trump will do something extra bad and stupid, soon.

Popularism!

At least chase the puck.

Americans are roughly split over whether the federal government should deport all undocumented immigrants living in the United States, but a growing share oppose expanded ICE operations -- and by a 2-to-1 margin, they oppose ICE's tactics.

The results come following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, by federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 -- just weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.

Half (50%) of Americans support the federal government deporting the about 14 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. and sending them back to their home countries while 48% oppose this.

This is basically an even split on DEPORTING UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS when of course the Trumpers are also (mostly) kidnapping, imprisoning, and deporting people who have permission to be in the country.

The Tariff King

Headlines say the Supremos took away his favorite toy, 6-3. No tariffs for him! Don't know if there are any nuances...

...no idea what this means for collected tariffs, but it does mean all the countries that slapped tariffs on US products in "deals" don't have to remove them, of course.

Ah, Well, Nevertheless

Two months ago:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that it’s been a “very strong” holiday shopping season so far and predicted that the U.S. economy would end the year on strong footing.

“The economy has been better than we thought. We’ve had 4% GDP growth in a couple of quarters,” he said in an interview on CBS News’ ‘Face the Nation.’ “We’re going to finish the year, despite the Schumer shutdown, with 3% real GDP growth.”

Actual: 1.4% 

Morning

Funky Friday.

The Best People

Can't stop being the worst for 5 minutes.

The husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been barred from the department’s headquarters after at least two female staff members told officials that he had sexually assaulted them, according to people familiar with the decision and a police report obtained by The New York Times.

One of my little theories is that these are all horrible people, who have surrounded themselve with horrible people, and they have no idea that not everyone lives like that .

Not just him!

The inspector general’s office is investigating a formal complaint that Ms. Chavez-DeRemer was having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate — a member of her security detail — and abusing her office by taking staff to strip clubs, drinking alcohol on the job and taking personal trips at taxpayer expense. Her lawyer has denied the allegations.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Egyptian Cotton

They spent a bunch of money on this crap and you are going to eat it even if it chokes you to death.

This month Accenture started to collect data on individual weekly log-ins to its AI tools for some senior employees.

“Use of our key tools will be a visible input to talent discussions” during this summer’s leadership-level promotion decisions, the email said. The New York-listed group says it has more than 550,000 people trained in generative AI.

The tools include AI Refinery, which Accenture said helped companies “turn raw AI technology into useful business solutions”, along with SynOps, an “innovative human-machine operating ‘engine’ that optimises the synergy of data, applied intelligence, digital technologies and talent to help organisations transform business operations”.

I have no idea what any of that means. Neither does the person who wrote it (Spicy Clippy wrote it, I know).

They Feed It Everything

A sign of an obvious problem years ago was when tech weirdos made clear that the important thing was feeding their Spicy Clippies as much language as possible - including reddit shitposts - instead of having any kind of quality control. I think (?) they thought if they fed it enough they would create God somehow, instead of just creating a bullshit machine.

It turns out changing the answers AI tools give other people can be as easy as writing a single, well-crafted blog post almost anywhere online. The trick exploits weaknesses in the systems built into chatbots, and it's harder to pull off in some cases, depending on the subject matter. But with a little effort, you can make the hack even more effective. I reviewed dozens of examples where AI tools are being coerced into promoting businesses and spreading misinformation. Data suggests it's happening on a massive scale.

Like every flaw with these things, it isn't "weaknesses," it's just design. This is what they are.

tired: SEO optimization for ads wired: AI optimization for propaganda

Brand Destruction Is Fast

I still find myself clicking over to the WaPo out of habit, then seeing cartoon Megan McArdle makes me realize I should close the tab right away.

Sure she has been there for awhile, but now it's as if the entire paper is Megan McArdle.

Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran

The "uniparty" isn't true of everything, but it is true of loving war, all war, and only the "crazies" in Congress will complain about bombing the shit out of Iran, aside from meek process arguments. You are supposed to get our permission first, Mr. President, sir!

The process matters, of course, but most Dem opposition is just theater.

What happens after we bomb the shit out of Iran? Everyone loses interest, as they always do.

Zone Of Interest

These fucking people.

Last month, the federal government bought a warehouse next to her cheerleading gym in Surprise, Ariz., which the administration plans to convert into a detention center for up to 1,500 immigrants.

Ms. Bradley, the co-owner of Woodlands Elite Cheer, said she worried that a detainee could escape, or that protests could break out. The children who train at her gym are as young as 3 and could see “people in shackles” next door, she said.

“That’s a scary thing for a little kid to process,” Ms. Bradley said.

His Name Was Prince

Happy birthday to Andy.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, BBC understands

You shouldn't imagine this is some sign of superior British justice. Andrew is a nuke and they have to contain the blast radius, somehow, and they decided this was the only way. Important people only face consequences if it is the only way to prevent other important people - in this case, most of them - from facing consequences.

Also British law on the press and criminal cases is such that once there is an arrest, no one  (the press - but with social media that means everybody) is supposed to talk about it until it goes to court. Arresting him is also a way to shut people up for awhile.

Morning

Theremin Thursday

Wednesday Evening

enjoy

Install Your Own Malware

This is a specific example, but I'd be shocked if all the standard Spicy Clippy implementations aren't vacuuming up all kinds of information that is supposed to be - and legally required to be - private.

In a report shared with WIRED, the Valere researchers added that users have to “accept that the bot can be tricked.” For instance, if OpenClaw is set up to summarize a user’s email, a hacker could send a malicious email to the person instructing the AI to share copies of files on the person’s computer.

But Pistone is confident that safeguards can be put in place to make OpenClaw more secure. He has given a team at Valere 60 days to investigate. “If we don’t think we can do it in a reasonable time, we’ll forgo it,” he says. “Whoever figures out how to make it secure for businesses is definitely going to have a winner.”

yah ok.

...and after I first drafted this: M

icrosoft says Office bug exposed customers’ confidential emails to Copilot AI

Microsoft has confirmed that a bug allowed its Copilot AI to summarize customers’ confidential emails for weeks without permission.

The bug, first reported by Bleeping Computer, allowed Copilot Chat to read and outline the contents of emails since January, even if customers had data loss prevention policies to prevent ingesting their sensitive information into Microsoft’s large language model.

Drugged Out Of Their Minds

Who and on what precisely can be answered, but that most of the Trumpers are zonked on pharamceuticals most of the time is certain.

What Are The Best Jobs For Wannabe Serial Killers

Sadly, certain top positions in government and supposed humanitarian organizations.

Shhh Don't Raise The Salience

Americans love masked unaccountable thugs kidnapping people. Do not defund the gestapo!

WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - U.S. public approval of Donald Trump's immigration policies fell to the lowest level since his return to the White House, amid signs he is losing support among American men on the issue, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Some Light In The Horrors

Hopefully not temporary.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia cannot be re-detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, dealing the Trump administration another blow in its effort to keep him locked up while it attempts to deport him again.

He has said he will go to Costa Rica, but they won't let him do that because they want to punish him for making them look bad.