Common sense? More like a lack of common decency as Trump stoops to new low

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
~Elie Wiesel

Yashar Ali  just shared sad news

Marion Wiesel, Elie Wiesel’s wife, has passed away. She was 94. Wiesel, a Jewish refugee from Austria, is survived by her daughter Jennifer and son Elisha. Marion Wiesel married Elie Wiesel in 1969, before they met she was a dedicated civil rights activist in her own right.

Marion Wiesel, Translator, Strategist and Wife of Elie Wiesel, Dies at 94

The impotence of language in the face of visceral horror should not be underestimated; words evade the tremulous pen. Authors revealing the sordid depths plumbed by mankind are wordsmiths of singular talent, who stare with unfaltering courage into the abyss.

Night: Elie Wiesel's memoir and how it preserved the Jewish identity

Curious aspects to the proposed shake-up of accounting and audit rulemaking

Transparency is key to the Albanese government’s proposal to revamp accounting and audit rules. Here’s a deep dive into the concept.

 

Trump Gutted Key Aviation Safety Committee Before D.C. Plane Crash

The New Trump Republic: “Last week, just days after his inauguration, Donald Trump eliminated the membership of a key committee that handles aviation security. And on Wednesday night,  a passenger plane collided with a military helicopter in the Washington, D.C., area.  

On Tuesday, January 22, the Aviation Security Advisory Committee’s members received a memo from the Trump administration saying that the Department of Homeland Security was getting rid of the membership of all advisory committees in a “commitment to eliminating the misuse of resources and ensuring that DHS activities prioritize our national security.” 

At the same time, Trump also fired the heads of the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard. Congress mandated the aviation committee in 1988, after the PanAm Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. 

After Trump’s move, the committee technically continues to exist but has no members to examine safety issues in airlines and airports. Its membership consisted of key groups in the aviation industry, from major unions to representatives from major airlines, as well as a group associated with victims of the PanAm bombing.  Throughout its existence, the committee’s recommendations were adopted into air travel procedure. It was out of commission for more than a week until Wednesday’s disaster. 

No survivors were reported in the crash between American Eagle Flight 5342 heading to D.C. from Wichita, Kansas, and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter.  The D.C. fire chief has said that recovery is now underway, as bodies are pulled out of the Potomac River. With many of Trump’s executive orders and policy memos disrupting the normal function of government, could this disaster have been prevented by a competent administration?”

Trump Doesn’t Want to Make Government Better—He Wants to Dismantle It

Washington: It’s easy, probably inevitable, to become inured to Donald Trump’s meandering and often outrageous verbiage. He speaks so much, with such little regard for customs or social norms, that one can’t help but shrug a lot of it off. There he goes again.

But when the president of the United States hijacks a tragedy – not just a plane crash, but America’s worst in nearly 25 years – to push his political agenda, traduce his enemies and demonise minorities, it’s important to stop and remember this is not normal. Nor is it OK.

Common sense? More like a lack of common decency as Trump stoops to new low

Passion vs. paycheck: Why public servants are searching for something more

With purpose emerging as the number one driver for government workers, it’s the mission-critical retention (and attraction) strategy for government 

Overview: We argue that many current AI systems have learned how to deceive humans. From agents that play strategic games to language models that are prompted to accomplish a goal, these AI systems systematically produce false beliefs in others to achieve their goals. 

[Original paper by Peter S. Park, Simon Goldstein, Aidan O’Gara, Michael Chen, and Dan Hendrycks]

AI Deception: A Survey of Examples, Risks, and Potential Solutions

 Wikenigma is a unique wiki-based resource specifically dedicated to documenting fundamental gaps in human knowledge. Listing scientific and academic questions to which no-one, anywhere, has yet been able to provide a definitive answer. [ 1139 so far ] That’s to say, a compendium of so-called ‘Known Unknowns’. All articles are open for registered users to contribute and edit.

Trump firings tee up broader legal clash over congressional power

Roll Call: “President Donald Trump’s firing of inspectors general and independent agency board members in the last week sets up another major legal clash over Congress’ power to put limits on the removal of federal officials, experts said. 

Since Friday, Trump removed more than a dozen inspectors general and Democratic members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and National Labor Relations Board, which Democrats and experts have criticized as violating legal protections on their removal. Andrea Katz, an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in administrative agencies, said the firings appear to be “deliberately violating the law to provide a test case” to see if the Supreme Court will side with his efforts to control the executive branch. 

“This is a very precarious moment for the legislative power, with the courts potentially kneecapping Congress’ ability to legislate what the executive branch can do,” Katz said. Trump appears to be betting that the Supreme Court, currently controlled 6-3 by Republican appointees, will continue along a line of reasoning in prior cases where they expressed skepticism on limits Congress placed on the president’s control of the executive branch.

Washington Post – “President Donald Trump is laying the groundwork for a landmark confrontation over his authority to strike federal spending and regulation, as the White House looks to reconfigure vast swaths of the U.S. government even without approval from Congress. Only days into his second term, Trump’s extraordinary steps have challenged a fundamental principle of the Constitution: control over the power of the purse, which the president has looked to partly wrest away from lawmakers so that he can shape the federal budget as he wishes. 

Already, Trump’s actions have triggered significant legal clashes. In one case, lawyers with the Justice Department on Thursday defended Trump’s ability to “lawfully direct agencies to implement the president’s agenda,” describing a pause in the disbursement of federal funds as “commonplace.”