Claiming fake is real, and real is fake

California raised the minimum wage for some fast-food workers to $20 an hour. Aldous Pennyfarthing of the DailyKos community discussed it. There is the predictable outrage from corporate America and the newspapers that support their view.

Naturally, any public policy change of this scope is going to have ripple effects, and, indeed, if you do a quick Google News search on California’s new law, you’ll see one hand-wringing article after another that focuses on potential price increases, lost jobs, and pared-back hours. In other words, if you buy into the usual pro-corporate, anti-minimum wage arguments, you’re inclined to believe this new law will actually hurt the workers it purports to help.

What those articles leave out is the greed of the corporate bosses, who have made out quite well in the last 50 years while workers haven’t. Those articles also don’t say:

In a recent commentary for Cal Matters, the economists argue that minimum wage hikes can actually help fast-food restaurants by making it easier for them to retain their workforce creating more experienced, productive staff, lowering recruitment and retention costs.

This is all part of Biden’s effort to refute the Reagan era trickle-down economics.

Bidenomics, according to Biden himself, is about growing the economy “from the middle out and the bottom up.”

I had written the nasty guy posted a bond to cover $175 million of his legal judgment to allow him to file an appeal. I also wrote there seemed to be some shaky things about that bond. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reports New York state wants more information about the bond. Things like: Is the issuing company sound and can they pay the amount of the bond? Is there sufficient collateral in identifiable assets? Biden went off to Baltimore to inspect the damage of the bridge collapse. He reaffirmed his commitment that the federal government will pay 100% of the cost of rebuilding the bridge because it is so essential to regional economy and national supply chain. Joan McCarter of Kos wrote that before Biden formally submitted the funding request to Congress the Freedom Caucus has already issued its ransom note. They say they’ll support it only if the money comes from other federal programs. This isn’t the first time the FC has tried to block disaster relief funding. They did so for Hurricane Katrina relief in 2005, Hurricane Sandy relief in 2018 and wildfire relief in Puerto Rico in 2019. Others pointed out when the disaster relief is needed in red states the FC is quite willing to vote for it. And Maryland is a blue state. At the end of March Princess Kate recorded a video announcing she has cancer. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that minutes after it was released social media swarmed with claims that it was an AI deep fake. The suspicion is somewhat understandable because Kate had released a family photo that was obviously manipulated. Kate had admitted as much. The BBC tried to assure the public that the video was fake because they filmed it. The rumors persisted.

For years, when people warned against the threat of AI tools generating audio, images, and video, the biggest concern was that these tools might be used to generate convincing fakes of public figures in compromising positions. But the flip side of that possibility may be an even greater issue. Just the existence of these tools is threatening to deplatform reality.

AI is getting good enough that distinguishing real from fake is getting hard and AI will only get better. It will be harder to dismiss an AI image as fake. It will also be easier to claim a real image was generated by AI.

But even before the flood of fakes arrives, we’re having to deal with what may be the more debilitating effect of this improving suite of tools—a profound doubt about the statements, images, and videos that are not fake.

That has serious implications for both Princess Kate and elections in any democracy. Kellyanne Conway was a spokesperson for the nasty guy and is now a Fox News contributor. Walter Einenkel of Kos wrote of the latest line she is using against Democrats. They aren’t saying “thoughts and prayers” enough and therefore are at war with religion. Sheesh! She seems to think that’s what the Bible commands us to do, rather than doing important things such as banning guns to reduce killings, making sure the poor have enough money to feed and house themselves and perhaps get adequate education to get a better job (or any job), and offering support for the immigrant. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted some late night commentary.

"Trans Visibility Day had no effect on your Easter. Nobody was at church like, 'Well, we were gonna celebrate the resurrection, but instead everyone line up for your gender reassignment surgery.' … And for what it's worth, there's a false premise to this entire controversy, which is that there's even a conflict between trans people and Christianity to begin with—there isn't! In fact, the Bible doesn’t say anything about trans people. It does, however, say to love thy neighbor, and to not judge other people, and perhaps the most famous of bible verses: Please do not sell me for $59.95 to pay off your rape fines." —The Daily Show guest host Desi Lydic, on the MAGA freak-out because Easter coincided with the Day of Transgender Visibility “According to a new report from the real estate website Zillow, the worst time to purchase a home is in the fall or winter. And the best time is in 1958.” —Seth Meyers.

Kos user exlrrp posted a meme in the comments of a pundit roundup. It shows the nasty guy sitting in a church pew with wife and children. The text says, “The same people who think Obama is a Muslim think Trump is a Christian.” In another pundit roundup Chitown Kev of Kos quoted Paul Kane of the Washington Post who wrote about senior Congressional staffers, the workers who actually get stuff done. I’ve written about House members who have the bickering and are leaving or have left, soon giving Republicans only a one vote margin. Staff people are leaving too.

Most congressional aides have gone to college and studied public policy or political science, and maybe have an advanced degree in law or some key issue area. They largely come to Washington to try to shape things toward their party’s ideological vision of things. But now, too often, newer members of Congress show up without much concern about policy and instead focus on their communications staff and getting attention on social media and cable news. [...] Their collective ire also goes toward the representatives and senators themselves, who have amped up their bombast so much that it makes it harder for aides to secure the goodwill needed to do their jobs effectively. Almost half of senior aides strongly agreed that the tone taken by lawmakers “inhibits the ability of staffers to collaborate across party lines.”

In the comments is a cartoon by Weyant and posted by Chunterkap that shows a guy with a red cap holding the sign saying, “Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?” And Biden replies, “And they think I have a bad memory!”