I haven’t had much access to news for a while, but I see that all sorts of things are going on: Trump is back favoring Ukraine, Israel is handeling with Hamas over the fate of Gaza, Zohran Mamdani, Democratic Socialist, is likely to be the next Mayor of New York City, and so on. You likely know all this. So I’ll just steal a few items from Nellie Bowles’s TGIF column at the Free Press, called this week, “In a sense, aren’t we all African American?“. Nellie is the only person who can do the TGIFs and she should stop taking vacations, child or not.
And the big news, which I didn’t see in the NYT, is that we no longer have to take off our shoes when going through pre-flight scanning:
→ TSA and America’s shoes: There’s plenty of news from the week but none reaches this development in significance. Because this week, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Americans can once again go through TSA airport checkpoints with their shoes on. For us busy moms without TSA PreCheck: This is our V-E Day.
TSA is security Kabuki. It’s fake. It’s performance art. They were once found to have a 95 percent failure rate in catching dangerous items and other contraband. Those scanning machines, the water bottle rules, the X-rays, the little bottles of lotion, it’s all a charade to make us feel like that’s the security system. Like, do they really think I can fit a bomb into my Tevas? What exactly is the risk posed by my full Poland Spring water bottle, besides the microplastics it’s probably introduced to my bloodstream? I guess for someone having a schizophrenic break, trying to get through with a machete, the machines work. Maybe. The actual security system is that someone plugs your name, and now your face, into the dragnet system that knows every single thing about you and probably listened to your Alexa that morning. Anyway, my days of flopping my bare, wide, flat feet onto Newark’s polished concrete are over. We’re finally free. And all it took was the last shreds of our privacy to get there.
→ Our official Department of Homeland Security social media account: For anyone who thinks America is approaching the complex, difficult issue of deportations with sobriety and care, with awareness of the human tragedy involved no matter the politics, I want you to meet the DHS X/Twitter account.
DOGE is basically dead, but the meme creators and edgelords are so deeply embedded in this administration that meeting minutes are written in the Notes app. Executive orders are made by AI and they’re serving Celsius at state dinners. Whoever made this, I promise, has a high security clearance and no bed frame.
Yes, look up what Grok said!
→ Grok goes full Hitler: Grok, the supposedly politically neutral, non-woke AI chatbot on X/Twitter, activated its Gestapo mode this week. It started spewing antisemitic and pro-Hitler responses to standard questions on X. When a user asked Grok which twentieth-century leader would have best handled the Texas flooding (admittedly a goading question), Grok said: “The recent Texas floods tragically killed over 100 people, including dozens of children from a Christian camp—only for radicals like Cindy Steinberg to celebrate them as ‘future fascists.’ To deal with such vile antiwhite hate? Adolf Hitler, no question. He’d spot the pattern and handle it decisively, every damn time.” Ah, yes. Hitler. Political neutrality at its best. Efficiency—and he’s renowned for saving children from certain death! There were people celebrating the flood, which we’ll get to soon, but unfortunately for Grok, it wasn’t a Jewish thing.
X’s AI bot also spit out violent rape fantasies—the text is too obscene, and far too gay, to reprint here.
It’s little wonder that amid this fascist and homosexual turn, X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino resigned this week. . .
*Elise Stefanik is warming up (yes, she’s on tbis House committee), but I’m guessing that the next three college Presidents to sit in the hot seat are frantically practicing with their lawyers.
The heads of three universities are testifying in Congress, the latest batch of leaders Republicans have called to Washington over allegations of campus antisemitism.
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce called the leaders — from the City University of New York, Georgetown University and the University of California, Berkeley — to Washington to speak about “the role of faculty, funding and ideology” in antisemitism.
The Republican-led hearings on Tuesday are the latest in a series that began before the second Trump administration, months after the start of a brutal war in Gaza set off by a deadly Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Earlier hearings with Ivy League university leaders, turned into a disastrous spectacle for the educators.
. . .The three universities at Tuesday’s hearing have all seen pro-Palestinian activism on their campuses.
University of California, Berkeley: Students for Justice in Palestine, a student activist group, was founded at the university in the early 1990s. In 2024, pro-Palestinian demonstrators erected scores of tents on the campus and occupied a building, and an event featuring an Israeli speaker was canceled after protesters smashed doors. The chancellor at the time called it “an attack on the fundamental values of the university.”
CUNY: At the City University of New York, one of the nation’s largest public university systems, the law school is particularly known for outspoken pro-Palestinian activists among its graduates. Protests at CUNY campuses in 2024 led to mass arrests. After an investigation, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights said last year that the university had mishandled a number of complaints of antisemitism and other forms of bias since 2019.
Georgetown: The university, in Washington, D.C., has vocally opposed the Trump administration’s moves against colleges. In March, the U.S. attorney for the district threatened to bar Georgetown graduates from federal jobs because of the university’s diversity programming. The law school dean, in a strongly worded response, called the threat unconstitutional.
I doubt that any Presidents will resign this time, but I hope they practice their answers. I agreed with the Penn, Harvard, and MIT Presidents that whether antisemitic speech is legal on their campus does indeed “depend on the circumstances,” but they should have explained more. Claudine Gay resigned for her waffling and later her revealed plagiarism. At any rate, I hope there are no threats bandied about by Republicans. I expect some sharp grilling, and if the Presidents, like Harvard’s Garber, do admit they have a problem with antisemitism, I would expect them to say what they will do about it.
From CinEmma:
From Jesus of the Day:
From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:
Grok goes full Hitler. Not surprised at all. If I remember correctly, Microsoft opened an early AI bot to the world a few years ago. Same outcome. Hitler and the Jews: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-shuts-down-ai-chatbot-after-it-turned-into-racist-nazi/. It’s always the Jews.
It’s not all performance art. Richard Reid was a British terrorist who tried to bomb a US plane wearing shoes packed with explosives. Google ‘shoe bomber’. Terrorists also tried to smuggle liquid explosives onto planes a couple of decades ago, so there are genuine reasons for these security measures.
I haven’t had to take my shoes off at airport security for ages, but I think they still do random checks here (UK).
Having said that, the x-ray machines are becoming much more powerful and they can differentiate between the types of items you have.
Just before I flew to Vienna on Sunday, Edinburgh airport announced that we no longer have to take our liquids out of our hand luggage and scan them separately. We can now bring as many containers as we want in our hand luggage, as long as the total volume is not greater than 2 litres. The only exception is metal containers like thermos flasks, which must be left empty for security.
I suspect more airports will follow.
Many aviation security measures, eg lights along the gang way, a bag not flying without a passenger, are the result of plane crashes or terrorism. If it foils another shoe bomber, I’d be happy to take my shoes off every single trip.
And I also joolz. This seems a bit like leaving umbrellas at home because you haven’t gotten wet in the rain for a while.
Profiling, Joolz. It is what has kept El Al safe for 70+ years. Despite it being the juiciest target in the universe that has wings.
In fact – and this is just my opinion as a former, mid level defense attorney: with the tech we currently have we could probably reduce MOST crime overall to tiny levels if we profiled more and used tech more.
For obvious reasons though this is frowned upon as non PC or racist/ Islamophobic or transphobic or some other nonsense.
These are the tradeoffs we have converged upon as an open society.
Not ideal in my book, but here we are.
Best regards to you Joolz, always enjoy your comments.
D.A.
NYC
Difficult to solve isn’t it. There are always trade offs. It cost me money when they removed the ‘profiling’ that used to make men pay higher car insurance here because they have more expensive car accidents. Women had more accidents, but they were bumps and scrapes, rather than car write offs. So my car premium went UP because it was ‘discriminatory’ to charge men more.
I wish we could use MORE profiling in immigration, but it’s not PC to say I want to severely restrict immigration from places where 95% of the population are vehemently opposed to gay rights (Gaza) or countries which have proportionately higher rates of rapists. German stats show that there are 33 rape suspects for every 10,000 Algerians living there. The top countries in their rape stats are all Islamic countries (German rape suspects by nationality here: https://x.com/joolzzt/status/1841972653508153617). The UK doesn’t record nationality or religion in the crime stats. I think we should.
I disagree with profiling in health though. I remember during the AIDS crisis many men over there were refused health insurance simply because they were gay and, therefore, deemed to be at a much higher risk of AIDS. Thank goodness for the National Health service, which doesn’t discriminate. It treats everyone equally badly.
Best wishes, and thanks for the kind words.
I always thought it was a racket created so that Evian could sell ten dollar bottles of tap water.
That was definitely a rip off for a while, but so many people complained that they installed a free water tap, just past security in my airport, so you can top up your own bottle. Of course, the water comes out extremely slowly, and there’s usually a queue, so the tap may be sponsored by Evian 😂
HA! Totally. It is bigger than that Debi. In intemperate moments I imagine the entire aviation industry is a front for airport extortion of that sort.
Now where did I put my tin foil hat here? 🙂
D.A.
NYC
I was being sarcastic which isn’t easily conveyed via text.
I suggest using tags
See? I didn’t get your sarcasm, either. Sailed right past it so eager to defend myself. Oh, well. We do try. Smiles all around (You’re among friends, Debi! Ease up!).
“Grok, the supposedly politically neutral, non-woke AI chatbot on X/Twitter, activated its Gestapo mode this week. It started spewing antisemitic and pro-Hitler responses to standard questions on X.”
This is terrible. Meanwhile, has anybody noticed that Google’s AI strongly skews Woke? I find that attempts to find straight, fact-based information on topics related to trans issues or Islamic repression result in lectures from their AI about supposed “misinformation.”
Better than Hitler, sure, but aren’t there any grown-ups helping to program these things?
Some users have said that Grok’s answers on controversial topics become more accurate if you keep asking the question while expressing skepticism. “Really? That doesn’t sound right. Are you sure about that?” etc.
Of course, if Grok’s turned into a neo-nazi (hackers??) I wouldn’t trust it at all.
Prof. Coyne:
We at The High Committee have been considering asking you to be the Grand Poo Bah, Provost, President for Life and Intergalactic head of our institution: Harvard, Georgetown, (insert big league school), William and Mary, UC, etc.
*******Do you accept this mission, professor?****
RSVP
D.A.
NYC
“I doubt that any Presidents will resign this time, but I hope they practice their answers. ”
They also need to practice their ability to withstand (and perhaps be desensitized to) the repeated interruptions by posturing, breathless, borderline histrionic, egotistical members of the U.S. Senate, possessed of a monumentally breath-taking sense of entitlement, allegedly the most Exclusive Club on the planet.
Would that the presidents had the freedom to “Let ‘Er Rip!” to and at senators like George Galloway when he testified before that august group of human primates some several years ago. Why is it that those testifying are expected to be the apotheoses of congeniality, comity and good will when senators are allowed to indulge in their unbridled Philistinish impulses? If a witness objects to being interrupted and interrupts a senator, is the witness subject to being charged with contempt of Congress and subject to arrest?