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#1

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by The Minsky Moment - Today at 04:25:01 PM

To be fair, AI hallucinated case law can be difficult to detect these days.  For example, a few days ago I was reading what I was sure was hallucinated case law.  The opinions contained long strings of nonsense and the citations were bizarre.

Upon careful examination, however, it turned out to be the actual case reports from the most recent Supreme Court term.

#2

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by The Minsky Moment - Today at 02:53:07 PM

Just focusing on the known public conduct by Bove in the last six months, he masterminded and implemented a felony extortion conspiracy targeting Eric Adams, perjured himself before the district judge in the inquiry on the matter, purged the SDNY of ethical prosecutors who refused to participate in his felonies, organized a scheme to obstruct justice in the deportation flight incident, and then committed criminal contempt of court, by personally directing DHS to let the flights go in violation of a district court order.

His only contact with a federal circuit court should be filing his doomed appeal of his multiple federal criminal convictions.

#3

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Legbiter - Today at 02:40:46 PM

I am looking forward to Musk accidentally falling out of a window soon.

The Venn diagram between lolbertarians and please-shoot-grandma-to-save-on-Social Security is somewhere between zilch and 0.1% 

#4

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Oexmelin - Today at 02:25:39 PM

In theory someone like that could be impeached, right?

It's just that it takes a lot of effort and political capital?

None of these things are liable to happen as long as the Republican Party has abdicated its role in Favour of autocracy.

Which is why all the "game commentary" about fake suspense is so infuriating

#5

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Oexmelin - Today at 02:24:53 PM

The sheer amount of projection that is happening is quite remarkable.

#6

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by grumbler - Today at 02:18:15 PM

His nomination hearings were a lesson in contempt.

Just like the nomination itself.

Remember when Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC and not running again) squelched the nomination of Ed Martin because Tillis vowed to prevent the nomination of anyone who expressed any support for the Jan 6 insurrection?  Now he's decided that the fact that Bove merely firing every DoJ staffer involved in any of the Jan 6 prosecutions is not a disqualifier. Why be consistent, eh?

#7

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Legbiter - Today at 02:14:28 PM

Tomorrow he'll remember his whole Biden-Ukraine hang up and change tunes again

Yeah not so much change his tune as just do...nothing. Once the Biden aid runs out there will be no further overt military assistance from the US. Trump is certainly not one to spend political capital on cobbling together a new assistance package unless he perceives a major industrial advantage for the US.

He and many Republicans perceive Ukraine as a Democrat ally who was responsible for the 1st impeachment attempt.

Meanwhile the Europeans have lost about 15 years on rearmament, nuclear power, digitization, supply chains, AI, you name it.

#8

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Jacob - Today at 01:42:24 PM

In theory someone like that could be impeached, right?

It's just that it takes a lot of effort and political capital?

#9

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Josquius - Today at 01:28:17 PM

This isn't being reported at all amidst the minor boats stuff.
But good news today

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/jul/10/keir-starmer-emmanuel-macron-tories-migration-france-kemi-badenoch-uk-politics-live-news?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-686fd4df8f08a1ce6226f8c0#block-686fd4df8f08a1ce6226f8c0

CEST
Rayner to scrap first-past-the-post for mayoral and PCC elections in England, reverting to supplementary vote
Labour is going to bring back the supplementary vote (SV) for mayoral and police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections in England.

The provision is included in the English devolution and community empowerment bill, which has been published today. It is clause 59 of the bill.

Extract from bill
View image in fullscreen
Extract from bill Photograph: Parliament.uk
These elections always used to be held under the supplementary vote system, which gives voters the chance to select a first preference and a second preference and means that, if no candidate gets more than 50% when first preference votes are counted, the top two candidates go into a run-off, with the second preference votes for candidates who are eliminated being taken into account.

But in 2022 the last government changed the voting system for mayoral and PCC elections to first past the post (FPTP) – the system used in UK parliamentary elections.

The Tories argued that FPTP is easier to understand. But the move was widely seen as an attempt to boost the chances of Conservative candidates, and a Constitution Unit analysis of how the system operated in 2024 confirmed this. It said that, although none of the mayoral election results that year were affected by the switch to FPTP, at least four, and potentially up to 12, PCC election results were affected. It went on:

Because the left in British politics is currently more fragmented than the right, the switch from SV to FPTP favoured the Conservatives over Labour and other left or centre-left parties. By changing the voting system, the Conservatives significantly reduced their losses.

Many Labour figures believe that a switch from FTPT to SV will help their party beat Reform UK in mayoral contests.

Curiously, Angela Rayner, the deputy PM and housing secretary, has not mentioned this aspect of the bill in her press release about it.


Why government says it is getting rid of FPTP for mayoral and PCC elections in England
Here is an extract from a briefing note being circulated within government explaining why FTPT is being abandoned for mayoral and PCC elections. (See 4.16pm.)

Mayors serve many millions of people and manage multi-million pound budgets yet can be elected by just a fraction of the vote, under recent changes by the previous government. This is despite the supplementary vote system working effectively for over a decade previously, providing a strong, personal mandate for regional mayors.

While FPTP is a simple voting system, on a vast geographic scale it can lead to individuals being elected with only a small proportion of the total votes cast. Given the large population that regional mayors and PCCs represent - far exceeding that of parliamentarians - the government believes that they should be elected with a greater consensus among their electors. The bill will therefore change the voting system for these types of elections to the supplementary vote system.

Rollback the naked tory fix.

#10

Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread

Last post by Syt - Today at 12:50:23 PM

Season 2 of the sandman.  I admire the creativity of this show ( or is it just the creativity of the source material).  The song in the underworld, and the head afterwards was highlight of the first half for me.

Was originally looking forward to it as Sandman is possibly my favorite comic.

However, the allegations against Gaiman have since soured me significantly on it.

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.vulture.com/article/neil-gaiman-allegations-controversy-amanda-palmer-sandman-madoc.html