I suppose your question is rhetorical, but the obvious answer is "Since Congress became incapable of making any 'meaningful' laws." Insofar as the legislature is supposed to regulate and control the executive branch, you could even describe it as a form of regulatory capture.

But it's worse for the judiciary these years. If you look at the history of nominations and confirmations, that transition has been shockingly rapid. There are still two living (but retired) nonpartisan Justices who were confirmed by a majority of the Senators from both parties, which used to be the norm, but on the actual Court there are no nonpartisan Justices. So my hilarious solution approach would be to boost the value of nonpartisan Justices with a funny little recusal rule: "A nonpartisan Justice may compel two junior partisan Justices to recuse themselves." (I can even imagine how the change could be pushed. The key step is to get one or more nonpartisan Justices onto the Court...)

Mostly the ACK, but thanks for clarifying. If I understand correctly, your original joke was based on the word "metaphors", not "phosphors" or something else. I didn't understand the linkage between your secondary joke and the joke your were replying to.

If you like SF, then I recommend Ancillary Justice fairly strongly. I don't read that much SF these years, but it seemed to be one of the best I've read, with many atmospheric elements that reminded me of the great Iain Banks. Another recent one with some interesting AI themes was Waste Tide by Qiufan Chen, but the story wasn't engaging.

As regards the sig fork, I concur with the duration of the national disease. With the latest proposal for the online live execution it has reached the stage of national disgrace, and if that webcast actually happens, I think it should be taken as a terminal symptom. I knew the country was headed in a bad direction decades ago, but I had no idea how bad it could get, how far it would go, nor how fast.

I'm unclear on the reference. Only thing that comes to mind as a possible candidate in this JPEG context is phosphors, but that was a long time ago.

Probably shouldn't add that I tangentially like the sig, though perhaps it could be a "car stolen for parts"? My related metaphorical thought on international relations is that America used to be like the older brother who mostly protected you, but has mutated into the wicked old stepsister. I guess that metaphor then calls for regarding the super-rich owners of America as wicked stepmothers? (From What is Thought? I seem to be hung up on metaphors now.)

(Hmm... But if I was a real writer of comedy then I'd figure out some way to do a callback on your joke with "metaphors" as the source of "phors"? Does the Evil Witch of the West Meta have a browser for a meta-joke? (As things stand now, it mostly feels like I'm just a reader of tragedies... Let me check my database for the latest... Have to skip back 7 to Profiles in Courage and Abundance since the later stuff was happy space operas and some pleasant Japanese stuff. However the hero of Ancillary Justice was finally revealed to be an AI of some sort...))

Mod parent derivative funny, but I wish the thread had continued with the other funny comment about Sam Altman leading the way as recipient of the bad things.

The joke I was actually looking for would involve the conflict of interest more directly, but it's still early and maybe something will show up. I wish I could help, but my capacity to write jokes is limited.

Hmm... Would it count as a bad thing happening if I asked the AIs for help in writing jokes for Slashdot? Some of the things they say are pretty funny, but usually unintentionally.

(Just had another funny-not-funny encounter with the google's AI today. This one involved a special case of traveling salesman problems. I had noticed that the google was having difficulties and that many of the answers were terrible, but yesterday I, the lowly human, managed to find a better solution for one of main routing bottlenecks. This must mean something about how the google is approaching the problem incorrectly... All I can guess so far is that there's an arbitrary limit in the AI's planning that is blocking it from finding this path. Or maybe the bus companies have their own AIs that are at war with the google's AI?)

Mod parent funny but the low-hanging joke I was looking for was "It couldn't happen to a more deserving and persistently vicious moronotron." He's earned more than the sudden need for a new phone number.

I wonder how often the YOB's own phone number leaks? Credible reports say that it's widely known. (More likely that a certain phone number is widely known but that the phone number just reaches some sycophants who get lots of taxpayer money to carry that phone around on shifts.)

No funny here, but the Subject is the low-hanging fruit I was looking for.

What Flock does is mass surveillance of the most massive sort. However, I can imagine one way to provide legitimate probably cause. Link the cameras to speed detectors and only take pictures of license plates when speeding has actually been detected. But that approach would obviously harm shareholder value, so...

How about Stupor-Intelligence? I think it rolls off the tongue more easily. But it could end well if it somehow persuaded the YOB to read Bostrum's book? At least he might know who the bad machine is...

Other parts of the discussion were more focused on the story as one of bad military leadership. So the joke along those lines would involve a certain infamous corporal who became commander-in-chief of a big military. But these days the Americans couldn't even reach a consensus on whether that ended badly... "If only he'd waited another year before attacking Stupid Joe..."

I can't tell if you're going for funny or you don't know much about how good young children are at seeking their own destruction. It's really hard to keep 'em alive and it takes a whole lot of love. Even for the kids that turn out badly, perhaps because of unlucky genetic draws.

Doesn't seem like you want to discuss genetic counseling and reproductive rights in the context of possible solutions. And it's not like Slashdot is the most suitable venue for such discussions. I strongly suspect this crowd is below average for the numbers of children produced.

Nice FP, though yet to be modded Funny and I wish you'd had the leisure to add some more humorous examples beyond the vague "this". However in the context the reference is clear enough to establish the recursive humor. Yet it was basically an obvious and low-hanging joke.

The other one would be the anti-social media thing, but it's still early in the discussion and perhaps someone will do a good version. Getting harder and harder to remember the "good old days" when Slashdot was some sort of social media...

However I still persist in asking such silly questions as "Why?" and "Isn't there anything we can do to make the situation better?"

So for the why part, my basic answer is "bad economic models". I can't decide whether to blame free radio and TV broadcasts that led to an illusory Golden Age of idealistic public-service journalism without worrying about profits or the fools who created the weak and uncompetitive profit-driven versions of journalism. That's mostly "60 Minutes" and CNN, but there are so many flavors, none of which can compete.

Making the situation better? I used to think solution-oriented journalism might be an angle. Basically a charity approach, trying to dodge the pressure of the big money. However my expectations have been reduced, mostly by time. Apparently my last residual purpose in life is to do my tiny bit to boost the life expectancy statistics? So have a nice day.

Mod parent funny-not-really-funny.

But the SCOTUS disagreed with you by creating absolute presidential immunity out of nothing.

I know it's silly to contemplate solutions in the context of Slashdot, whatever it has devolved into, but I keep thinking about that new recusal thing: "A nonpartisan Justice may compel two junior partisan Justices to recuse themselves." I think that could create the incentive to go upstream in fixing the problem, whereas every other solution proposal I've seen simply accepts the underlying problem as incurable.

Clarifications in response to polite requests, though I'd actually prefer to see a better solution approach that has a better chance of being implemented. (I think the most likely path to the recusal rule would basically require an escalation of political threats... I'm not saying "That trick never works", but it's always a dangerous path.)

c/it's writing/it's worth writing/

I suppose my main point about AI would be that people want oracles and AI is just the latest version of that. I'm saying (or trying and failing to say) that's a bad idea, but don't feel like it's writing another summary of my latest experiment with Pearl Harbor and Midway... However, the AIs are changing so rapidly and one of the main objectives is to make them appear to be better oracles.

On slashdot.jp I could sort of read most of it, especially since it was largely echoing this website, but I can't write decently in Japanese so I lost interest without the interactivity.

Brings back the memories, both for the store and my old memories of tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables.

I think you'd be better off to write more briefly and with tighter focus. I put some effort into trying to figure it out, but decided some of it doesn't make sense and some of it is just talking about evolutionary modules. Just now halfway through What is Thought? where he is taking the position that much of human intelligence is encoded in DNA in the form of modules that worked for certain kinds of evolutionary challenges.

You're so cute when you're naive and blathering. And your grammar wears funny army boots, too.