AI Now Does the Talking for Idaho Politicians

Turn out the lights; the party’s over.  Some people in politics can’t leave the stage!  There was a guy who kept threatening to sue me during the primary season. He crawled out of the shallow end of the gene pool and screamed “defamation” after I wouldn’t endorse his candidate. I remember sharing the threat with the Twin Falls County Prosecutor. He laughed and said it’s not defamation if it’s true! I imagine the fellow making the threats is either stupid or a bully, and likely both. Primary Day passed, and the slate of candidates he backed got the excrement kicked out of them. It was worse than the beatdown thrown to the Packers.

I had one vote last May. I’ll have one in November. I suspect even more of these God Squad candidates will be repudiated. Then they’ll play the victim and look for others to blame. It’s their modus operandi. It just can’t be that a majority of voters believe you’re nuts, a screaming banshee, and a jackass! I think the only thing that can get them by is new voters. People who’ve moved to the Valley recently don’t know the candidates and will vote party line. Interesting, because the Gang of Nate doesn’t seem to like transplants. New folks expand the gene pool, you know?

AI is Now Speaking for the People We Elect

A few years ago, my company asked that we use a spellcheck program for all correspondence and posts to our station websites. It’s pretty good, but doesn’t catch everything. I downloaded it at home as well, because I do about a quarter of my workday from my desk there. That’s about the closest I’ve ever been to AI, which is to say that I don’t use it because I worry it won’t translate my true thoughts. I mention this because a lot of people who can barely string two sentences together are using it and then slapping their names on the work. James Taranto is an editor at the Wall Street Journal. He surmises that most politicians are using AI as insurance against foot-in-mouth disease. I’ll note that Jim Risch told the news media he’s never used the contraption, and I’m proud of the man.

AI is a Crutch for the God Squad

A member of the Gang of Nate emerged from exile a few weeks ago and began writing again. Or AI is doing the work. State Senator Glenneda Zuiderveld issued a column on Substack, and AI either makes accusations or it dances around accusations. You can read the machine’s work at this link. From what I gather, a political activist supported her opponent, and he’s connected to former politicians. He may also have some friends in politics and business. In other words, he’s not a hermit, has personal relationships, and supported a candidate not named Glenneda! We better be careful; people are going to start exercising liberty all over the place if this continues.

The losers are still playing the victim card. Here’s the score: more people voted for the other fellow than you. Nobody put a gun to voters’ heads. When someone from local government approaches a legislator with questions about legislation, don’t tell them to speak to your “concierge”. If that’s how a politician conducts business, word gets around. One of my old history professors used to remind us that governments are founded by special interests. It’s no different than people forming a labor union, cooperative, or lodge. Each one of those units represents a bloc of voters exercising the right to assembly.

A similar version of this essay appeared on Substack.