Notices by Matt Hodges (matthodges@mastodon.social)

@johnlray my money’s on the incumbent presiding over basement unemployment, record job growth, rising real wages, and under zero felony indictments.

Seems good!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/01/07/congress-budget-deal/

"Then as usual, he left the dirty work to others. He retreated to the White House. As America was attacked from within, Donald Trump watched on TV in the private small dining room off the oval office. The entire nation watched in horror, the whole world watched in disbelief, and Trump did nothing [...] It was among the worst derelictions of duty by a president in American history."

Seems good!

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cardiovascular-disease-death-rate-who-mdb?country=RUS~HUN~BRA~USA~JPN~ESP~GBR~FRA~DNK~KOR~CAN

One of the worst features in American culture is geographic hatred of other parts of America.

All my group chats are angry about some woman digging a hole and I realized that a year on mastodon and I don’t know how to participate in internet outrage anymore best I can do is put content warnings on pie

I think my most unpopular opinion of 2023 is I'm glad that, when a handful of banks over-leveraged themselves and were facing existential runs, the federal government exercised one of the most lefty-progressive powers it has — it swooped in, seized the banks, fired the executives, drove the stock to zero, insured all the deposits, and prevented multi-industry layoffs and a global credit crisis. And then it did it more times but no one cared anymore because internet villains weren't involved.

If you're looking to make a last-minute political donation in 2023, I recommend giving at http://FlipThe.House — donations go to the general election Democrats (as in, whoever ends up nominated) in 9 winnable districts that can take control of the House of Representatives. Better yet: set up a recurring donation through November 2024!

The final story of 2023’s no recession is still no recession.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/26/business/economy/christmas-holiday-spending-retail.html

"Regardless of how it goes a year from now, it's gonna be a really tough year. And therefore, I want us all to make ourselves as resilient as we can [...] It means making up with your estranged family members. It means getting to know your neighbors. It means if you have very serious concerns about politics, it means working in a political campaign. It means having something to do with the civic life of where you are so that you are not alone [...] we need to be up to it"
https://overcast.fm/+uOFvgC1GE

"This year also saw official confirmation that the pandemic era represented the largest wealth increase in modern American history and a rare decrease in wealth inequality, thanks in large part to the booming value of residential real estate. Stock and business ownership became significantly more widespread, and rent-inclusive debt payment burdens eased to the lowest levels in 30 years."

https://www.apricitas.io/p/2023-economic-year-in-review

"One year later, growth has instead massively exceeded expectations, with GDP rising 2.3% through Q3 alone and the US adding 2.8M jobs since last November. Meanwhile, inflation has cooled to some of the lowest levels since the initial price surges of 2021, with core PCE inflation already coming in below the Fed’s late-2022 projections. 2023 was a year about defying expectations—turning what was once a bleak outlook into a story of remarkable recovery."

https://www.apricitas.io/p/2023-economic-year-in-review

"I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., do hereby grant a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to all current United States citizens and lawful permanent residents who, on or before the date of this proclamation, committed or were convicted of the offense of simple possession of marijuana, attempted simple possession of marijuana, or use of marijuana, regardless of whether they have been charged with or prosecuted for these offenses on or before the date of this proclamation"

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/12/22/a-proclamation-on-granting-pardon-for-the-offense-of-simple-possession-of-marijuana-attempted-simple-possession-of-marijuana-or-use-of-marijuana/

Seems good!

https://www.axios.com/2023/12/21/misery-index-economy

"If you think Malarkey is a red flag, if your Roman Empire is the fight to protect Democracy, or you realize that this sentence is, itself, proof that we need help here, we want to talk to you." — the Biden campaign is hiring a Director of Social Communications

https://jobs.lever.co/BFP/a5cd53fc-8689-4329-84d9-6af62155c426

@heidilifeldman Thank you for the insights! So it sounds like you're saying that SCOTUS doesn't necessarily have to consider 14th A Sec. 3, even though Colorado used it for its justification; am I understanding that correctly?

#LawFedi is it even possible for SCOTUS to uphold Colorado without disqualifying absolutely?

Why do all the AI images look like claymation now? They were indistinguishable from photos like 8 months ago. Did someone turn up the "safety" knob or is everything just already collapsing?

... One of my concerns lies in the temptation to inject them into our synchronous voter communications. It’s not just about deception or hallucinations. We’re seeing campaigns experiment with things like chatbots and AI-robocallers. But we have to remember the slogan of Democratic campaigning is to “meet voters where they are.” Relegating voters to talking only to a machine is not “meeting them where they are,” even when we disclose that it’s AI ...

#PoliticalTech #aiEthics #MachineLearning

I remain quite bullish on the roles Generative AI and other Machine Learning tools can play in political campaigns. We already see strong, positive, use cases for things like internal operations and asynchronous voter communication. The tools are incredibly useful at tasks like helping us draft and edit content, or acting as a co-pilot in data analysis. But...

#PoliticalTech #aiEthics #MachineLearning