Politics

[Saul]

Other than knowing where Newsome's skeletons are buried, Harris doesn't stand a chance. Much as I despise Newsome, he's formidable and would crush Harris. It wouldn't be much of a fight.

You are correct, but the fight could mortally wound Newsome with a certain segment of the Democratic base heading into the general.

 

[Altitude sickness]

I wonder if Kamela would call Newsome a racist as she did Biden during the debates.

 

[skydiver386]

I wonder if Kamela would call Newsome a racist as she did Biden during the debates.

BOOM!

 

[PARA45]

I thought I read somewhere on this thread, that the Pres & V-Pres couldn't be from the same state. So, Newsome is out since Kamala is from Kalifornia.

 

[Saul]

How can Biden save America from Trump's return to the White House? Drop out of the race.

President Joe Biden can voluntarily remove himself from the presidential race for the good of the nation and the party.

www.usatoday.com

NYT journalist Ezra Klein made a similar argument a couple of months ago, and apparently it rattled the WH’s confidence and led to a significant reshuffling of staff.

I also agree with the article that Josh Shapiro would be a superb replacement for Biden, and would very likely beat Trump by a sizable margin.

It is a real shame that both parties seem intent on putting forth the weakest, most unpopular candidates.

 

[wesheltonj]

I thought I read somewhere on this thread, that the Pres & V-Pres couldn't be from the same state. So, Newsome is out since Kamala is from Kalifornia.

Kamala would be gone at that point. Newsome is not going to take the #2 position to Kamala even if they were from different states.

 

[DieJager]

https://www.history.com/news/can-the-president-and-vice-president-be-from-the-same-state

 

[Red Leg]

Were I a democrat strategist, I would find this simple chart devastating.

 

[Red Leg]

Pretty fascinating if interested in this form of warfare.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1cwf9ty

 

[Saul]

Were I a democrat strategist, I would find this simple chart devastating.

View attachment 606949

I wonder how much of the rapid increase under Trump was due to the COVID stimulus money sent out at the end of his presidency. This would also account for the sudden drop after about a year with Biden.

I suspect that the numbers would look a lot worse for Biden if the data were disaggregated by income bracket or race. COVID hit low income households particularly hard, and I would guess that many of these people also fall into the nearly 40% of Americans with no investments. Therefore, they have been unable to recover lost net worth even with the stock market booming. This would go a long way in at least partly explaining Biden’s hemorrhaging of support amongst black and brown voters.

 

[WAB]

Pretty fascinating if interested in this form of warfare.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1cwf9ty

Fascinating!

 

[Pheroze]

Pretty fascinating if interested in this form of warfare.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1cwf9ty

Sniper v. 2.0

 

[bowjijohn]

Battlefield has changed for ever

As has your average soldier, sailor and airman

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Pretty fascinating if interested in this form of warfare.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1cwf9ty

Soon they will be autonomous.

 

[mdwest]

Soon they will be autonomous.

That capability is already developed... they can be "taught" to identify certain targets (friend or foe), make decisions on target prioritization, etc..

Im just not sure the Ukrainians have that capability yet.. or whether or not they want it (there is a reason you ultimately want a human making those sort of decisions and that the US for example hasnt fully fielded that sort of capability (yet)..

Adding the AI and autonomy factors adds in significant cost as well.. and Im also not sure that helps Ukraine right now... they need to very carefully decide where every dollar they spend goes, when it goes, etc at the moment..

My guess is they are in a position where they would rather have a larger pile of less expensive munitions than a smaller pile of more expensive munitions.. and if that means additional risk to human life, thats just the position they are in right now..

 

[Saul]

Do the “suicide” drones being used by Russia and Ukraine right now have autonomous capacity? Is that something that could be integrated once the AI tech improves or would it require a new platform?

 

[mdwest]

Do the “suicide” drones being used by Russia and Ukraine right now have autonomous capacity? Is that something that could be integrated once the AI tech improves or would it require a new platform?

I honestly dont know... but I'd guess "no" as that is a pretty expensive upgrade... and I think they'd be much better served with a lot of man operated drones than a handful of self operating..

even with autonomous capacity, there are human vulnerabilities.. someone has to man a launch site.. someone has to warehouse them.. someone has to move them to launch sites, etc.. someone has to manufacture them (a huge number of Ukraines drones are being made in country by a civilian workforce), etc..

all youre really doing is removing the human pilot from the equation once the drone is launched and freeing that person up to do something else...

there would be some benefit to having a fleet of drones that could loiter over an area for a prolonged period of time and just wait/look for targets of opportunity.. or to having the ability to launch drones to a specific area that you know the enemy is located in and once they are airborne being able to leave the launch area and mitigate an enemy counter attack risk..

but I think those benefits are outweighed by cost and complexity in the current ukraine situation.. (my personal opinion)...

FWIW an old army buddy, now long since retired on now doing work for another govt agency, is one of the US's premier drone "experts" as they relate to geospatial intelligence gathering and their ability to "shape" a battlefield.. he obviously cant tell me a whole lot about what his "day job" looks like these days or specifically the who/what/where/why/when of ours (or anyone elses) drone capability... BUT..

I do know he is spending a whole lot of time watching Ukraine very closely.. and doing a lot of work related to the analysis of both Ukraine and Russian drone TTPs, effectiveness, etc..

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Do the “suicide” drones being used by Russia and Ukraine right now have autonomous capacity? Is that something that could be integrated once the AI tech improves or would it require a new platform?

Based on the video that @Red Leg posted, I'd say the answer to that question is no. I would have to imagine that the idea of sending a drone into combat that is under its own "thinking" is something that would be unsettling to any commander. To simply send one of these off with the goal of kill/destroy anything deemed to be enemy is a bit broad.

In the video Ukraine it was stated that they will build one million drones this year. That number may be accurate, but I can guarantee that it is constrained by a budget. So with any deployed weapon, one wants to get as much "bang for the buck" as possible. I'm not sure at this moment that AI technology has progressed to this point.

The main use I see in AI for these drones is to find targets that are not stationary. If they're stationary all you need is any accurate guidance system that already exists. It's when that target is moving that you need a brain on the control side that determines if you've found a target worthy of the cost incurred when the drone is ultimately sacrificed in destroying that target.

In order to know that an AI based autonomous drone is capable of such things would require testing. How does one setup such a test that proves the viability of such technology. That I think would be very challenging.

 

[Newboomer]

Based on the video that @Red Leg posted, I'd say the answer to that question is no. I would have to imagine that the idea of sending a drone into combat that is under its own "thinking" is something that would be unsettling to any commander. To simply send one of these off with the goal of kill/destroy anything deemed to be enemy is a bit broad.

In the video Ukraine it was stated that they will build one million drones this year. That number may be accurate, but I can guarantee that it is constrained by a budget. So with any deployed weapon, one wants to get as much "bang for the buck" as possible. I'm not sure at this moment that AI technology has progressed to this point.

The main use I see in AI for these drones is to find targets that are not stationary. If they're stationary all you need is any accurate guidance system that already exists. It's when that target is moving that you need a brain on the control side that determines if you've found a target worthy of the cost incurred when the drone is ultimately sacrificed in destroying that target.

In order to know that an AI based autonomous drone is capable of such things would require testing. How does one setup such a test that proves the viability of such technology. That I think would be very challenging.

They would also have to install a mechanism to distinguish friend from foe. If that drone is out free hunting it could end up back in friendly territory with bad results.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

They would also have to install a mechanism to distinguish friend from foe. If that drone is out free hunting it could end up back in friendly territory with bad results.

Yes, definitely what I would call a potential fail mode that would require risk mitigation. And a complex one at that I'd think.