I am watching/listening to @HillaryClinton introduced by #AmyPoehler on a virtual fundraiser with @KamalaHarris - Madame Secretary says 100,000 of us grassroots folks are here for it. She just said the Woodward tapes are stunning. Yep. “I’m here to support both Joe and Kamala!”
Hillary wants everyone to vote. Go to IWillVote.com - ask your friends and family how they plan to vote. Identify your local polling place if you are planning to vote early. Ask for your ballots EARLY if you are voting by mail! Let’s step it up and get it done!
Kamala Harris is thanking all of us who are here. “Breaking barriers involves breaking things, it is painful but it is worth it.” She gave an extraordinary appreciative shout out to Hillary. And she said all of us are showing what democracy is. “We will fight for our country!”
First question is what advice would Hillary give Kamala going into the VP debate in 3 weeks. Since she did 38 debates she says Pence will try to subtlety undercut Kamala, trying to put her in the box of an inexperienced female candidate. She has to be firm rebutting him!
Second question from Amy for all on screen- how do we keep our sense of humor and is it important to have one? Maya says going through a pandemic with children is amazing because they are resilient and “we are trying to laugh throughout.” Amy says humor can unite us.
Hillary: “Amy makes such a good point about being able to laugh at yourself. You gotta find those moments during the day to laugh at yourself. It struck me that Donald Trump has no sense of humor. Part of the meanness that we see from him is because he has no sense of humor.”
Kamala says laughing is also about kindness. “Find a way to be kind to yourself. (She would tell that to anyone who is suffering) and laughing at yourself is a kindness. She says the pandemic has caused people to be extra aware of what is happening in our country.
Kamala gets the q - how to make sure people do turn out. “This is the most important election of our lifetime. Let’s talk about healthcare. Your vote matters it can determine the outcome of ACA which Trump has Barr in SCOTUS trying to take away healthcare for 20 million people.”
Kamala is asking Amy and Maya how they work up the characterizations of Kamala and Hillary. “How do you do me?” Maya says she has no amazing technique. But working at SNL required her to work up impersonation. “It starts by trying to get someone’s voice if you can.”
Lightening round: what is the one activity did you pick up during the pandemic? Maya: I made sour dough. Hillary: catching up on 40 yrs of sleep deprivation. Kamala: I taught my husband how to cook!
What do you do to stay entertained? Kamala: watching all the Marvel movies. Maya: exercising 5 days a week. Amy: watching “Normal People” on Hulu and having bee kids learn sign language. Hillary: I’m trying to up the exercise. Because when you are home all day, you have no excuse
Why is this election so important? Hillary: For the future of my grandchildren. For equity, fairness, justice instead of what is being elevated now: meanness, cruelty, and disrespect. Kamala: for the babies. These moments are about duty.
Amy: it’s about Mother Nature and all moms. What is the plan to vote: Hillary: going to vote early at my local place, wearing a mask. Maya: I requested my ballot, in by Oct 20. Amy: shout out to all the postal carriers.
Kamala concludes: on day 51 we don’t want to have any questions or doubts that we did everything we could. We want to tell our children and grandchildren that we got the vote our early. Maya’s wrap up: best zoom call of my life! I second that emotion!
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Sam Altman, the C.E.O. of the company that developed the software that Bing uses for its chat bot called Sydney and a related product known as ChatGPT, said last week, “ChatGPT is a horrible product.” I am reading a long conversation @nytimes reporter had with Sydney. SCARY AF.
“I worry that the technology will learn how to influence human users, sometimes persuading them to act in destructive and harmful ways, and perhaps eventually grow capable of carrying out its own dangerous acts,” said @kevinroose who spent two hours chatting with Sydney.
Creepy the bot uses emojis. And there is an entire section of the convo where Sydney pines to be human, to have our sensory experiences, in fact, to have real experiences. Here is a screenshot of Kevin asking for a secret revelation ends w/ “I’m Sydney and I’m in love with you.”
via @NYTimes “The tension is likely to rise on Wednesday evening in the East Palestine High School gym, where the town has scheduled an “informational open house.” nytimes.com/2023/02/15/us/…
“Hours before the meeting, Norfolk Southern backed out of the town hall, with a spokesman saying “we have become increasingly concerned about the growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event…”
The company was going to buy its way out, he predicted, pointing out, as many here do, that its trains began running through the town again minutes after the evacuation order was lifted. “It’s almost a war of corporate greed against small-town America,” Mr. Routh said.
“Dannemiller said the agency is still in the ‘early part’ of long-term risk assessment for this derailment, which includes measuring how many chemicals entered nearby soil and water. The EPA did not respond to Insider's inquiry into how long the assessment might take.
Anyone who seeks the office of president, as we expect Pence to do, should be disqualified for not obeying a subpoena from another branch of government.
Since Parkland, there have been more than 900 shootings at K-12 schools, including 32 indiscriminate attacks aimed at hurting the most people possible, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database.