This is what really concerns me about the 2024 election, AI manipulation and distribution of misinformation. Such a large percentage of American voters already believe in MAGAt misinformation that it is not hard for me image an elective majority being created through intensive misinformation distribution. I think American democracy has never been at such a level of risk, and the only thing that is going to save it is a majority of voters, whatever their reservations, voting for Biden. If the Republican candidate wins, you can kiss America good bye. Trump is the cult leader, but it is a cult and they all have the same ideals.
A woman in Washington, D.C., views a manipulated video on January 24, 2019, that changes what is said by former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, illustrating how deepfake technology can deceive viewers. Credit: Rob Lever / AFP / Getty
As 2024 approaches and with it the next U.S. presidential election, experts and advocates are warning about the impact that the spread of artificial intelligence technology will have on the amount and sophistication of misinformation directed at voters.
While falsehoods and conspiracy theories have circulated ahead of previous elections, 2024 marks the first time that it will be easy for anyone to access AI technology that could create a believable deepfake video, photo, or audio clip in seconds, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
“I expect a tsunami of misinformation,” Oren Etzioni, n AI expert and University of Washington professor emeritus, told the AP. “I can’t prove that. I hope to be proven wrong. But the ingredients are there, and I am completely terrified.”
Subject matter experts told the AP that three factors made the 2024 election an especially perilous time for […]
Susan Milligan, Staff Writer - US News and Worlds Report
Stephan:
In my view the only hope for the future of America is women voters who think women should control their own bodies, and young voters who feel the same. Will they be enough? We’ll have to see.
Abortion rights activists march to the U.S. Supreme Court, June 24, 2023, in Washington, D.C. Credit: Sha Hanting / China News Service / Getty
Abortion rights are shaping up as a powerful motivator for young people as they decide their 2024 votes –and even where they choose to live – according to a new poll, suggesting that the issue remains politically potent a year and a half after the Supreme Court reversed the guaranteed right to an abortion.
The survey by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics found that 18- to 29-year-olds were twice as likely to describe themselves as “pro-choice” than as “pro-life.” And even as the poll showed a drop in the percentage of young people who plan to vote in the 2024 elections, well over half of registered young voters say they will “definitely” vote next year if an abortion-related referendum is on their state ballot.
And in a dramatic indication of the importance of the issue to the life choices of young people, the poll found that 69% of women aged 18-29 and 55% […]
As report after report makes clear the centers of a number of cities around the country are dying. What’s to be done? Cleveland, as this report spells out appears to hold the answer. This also agrees with what my 2060 project remote viewers describe.
Empty downtown office buildings pose a formidable challenge to cities such as San Francisco and D.C. It doesn’t help that construction costs have surged and that interest rates are at a two-decade high. Real estate investments are largely on hold as developers wait for prices to fall. But Cleveland offers hope — and a useful model.
Our year-long project studying how to revive downtowns has identified three keys to success: First, to focus on a few blocks at a time (what urban planners call a “node”). Second, to make it as easy as possible to convert old office towers for new uses, via tax incentives and expedited permitting. Third, to offer unique amenities for residents, workers and tourists. Cleveland did all three in the area around Public Square.
Former mayor Frank Jackson, who served from 2006 to 2022, says that when he entered office, “you could roll a bowling ball downtown after work and you wouldn’t hit anybody. It was a ghost town.” Cleveland epitomized the Rust Belt; businesses were leaving, […]
Maria Sole Campinoti, Holly Yan and Zenebou Sylla, Reporters - CNN
Stephan:
This is how sick and morally corrupt the Republican men in the Ohio legislature have become. This is a story about the abuse of a woman that should outrage every ethical person. I do not see how any woman can vote Republican, yet millions do.
Brittany Watts Credit: X/@NoLieWithBTC
An Ohio woman who had sought treatment at a hospital before suffering a miscarriage and passing her nonviable fetus in her bathroom now faces a criminal charge, her attorney told CNN.
Brittany Watts, 33, of Warren, has been charged with felony abuse of a corpse, Trumbull County court records show.
“Ms. Watts suffered a tragic and dangerous miscarriage that jeopardized her own life. Rather than focusing on healing physically and emotionally, she was arrested and charged with a felony,” her attorney, Traci Timko, told CNN in an email.
“Ms. Watts’ case is pending before the Trumbull County Grand Jury. I have advised her not to speak publicly until the criminal matter has resolved.”
Though a coroner’s office report said the fetus was not viable and had died in the womb, Watts’ case highlights the extent to which prosecutors can charge a woman whose pregnancy has ended – whether by abortion or miscarriage.
After last year’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the federal right to an abortion, a host of state trigger laws went into effect across the country that placed new […]
I think this is a much bigger deal than the media is making it. Trump is using his cultist thugs to threaten anyone who opposes him, and I think that is creating fear up to an including Supreme Court Justices. It is going to take real courage to rule against Trump, and with many judges and justices I am not sure that courage is there. This is straight out of the Hitler playbook and we are going to see its effects.
Criminal Trump banking on his cultists to threaten judges, prosecutors, and anyone else who opposes Trump Credit: Saul Loeb for AFP
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold stopped counting the death threats she’s received from Donald Trump supporters as her state successfully challenged his right to be on its 2024 presidential ballot, she said Wednesday in a new report.
“I’ve received hundreds if not thousands of threats at this point,” Griswold told the Huffington Post. “I’m extremely concerned.”
Griswold made this admission after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled to block Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment ban on insurrectionists, a decision the former president has vowed to take to the Supreme Court.
But Griswold says she’s been receiving terrifying messages since she first filed the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington lawsuit challenging Trump’s eligibility in September, the Huffington Post reports.
In the following three weeks, she received 64 death threats and more than 900 abuse threats, a staggering number considering Griswold had nothing to do with the actual case.
