Chris Willrich

Cascade of A.I. Fakes About War With Iran Causes Chaos Online (Gift Article) The technology has been used to create misleading fakes before. But never at this scale.

These examples of faked video look pretty un-subtle. But note to self to stay skeptical, especially right now.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I'm freshly staggered at how the administration is led by hyper-privileged brats who've always had other people sweep in to clean up their messes. On some deep unconscious level they must think if they break the whole damn world, someone else will fix it, especially if they yell loud enough.

My heart is with the Temple Israel congregation as we witness another horrifying attack on the Jewish community.

Antisemitic hate must have no place in our country. We must condemn it in the strongest terms.

bonus Discworld QOTD, from The Shepherd's Crown

"FOR I CAN SEE THE BALANCE AND YOU HAVE LEFT THE WORLD MUCH BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT, AND IF YOU ASK ME, said Death, NOBODY COULD DO ANY BETTER THAN THAT…"

My storyyyy! I drafted this in uni, nice rejection note from F&SF, -lost it- for 2+ decades & couldn't remember my ending, FOUND IT thanks to an old friend, (re)LEARNED HOW IT ENDED, light rewrite, submitted. 😁🚀

Yes, you can argue I wrote better as a 19-year-old & it's been downhill ever since. 😅

Democrats should reintroduce War Powers Resolution ASAP in Congress. Could at least force Republicans to explain why they're not open to putting any limitations at all on a megalomaniacal war leader.

Everyone needs to be talking about this.

Then they've rejected the Constitution and their own authority. They can rationalize, tell themselves a different story. But by any commonsense reading this is a war and thus it falls under Congress' Article 1, Section 8 powers. We're not done yet. Many see how wrong this is. But it's a bleak day.

The Constitution's meaningless unless each branch asserts its authority, much as a trial in our justice system is meaningless if either the prosecution or defense refuse to do their jobs. This is why a War Powers Resolution matters regardless of outcome and why I've been bugging my representative.

I subscribed to Talking Points Memo after years of occasional visits (and almost daily visits since Trump 2 began.) It's an essential stop. And there's enough realistic optimism at TPM, despite all the grim news, that I don't even count it as doomscrolling.

The story says, "... Americans lambasted the State Department on social media and in interviews, expressing frustration that there appeared to be little planning to help citizens ..."

I'm just one idiot on the web, but gosh, maybe the mass firings at State and other departments weren't a good idea?

Also, there's a great story by Roger Zelazny, "The Last Defender of Camelot," which shows Lancelot surviving into the present day (well, the 1970s.) It appeared in Zelazny's story collection of the same name.

Another +1 for the John Steinbeck and the T.H. White.

A.A. Attanasio has an interesting Arthurian series starting with _The Dragon and the Unicorn_ that heavily dials up the magical elements. I read book #3 out of sequence and always meant to go back and start from the beginning but haven't yet.

Read entire thread and prepare!

I second this "amazing editorial work." When he published a story of mine, I learned a lot about editing I continue to try to apply to this day. Also support @bcsmagazine.bsky.social and read Jason's story! :)

Republicans are facing death threats as the election for speaker gets mired in personal feuds An onslaught of pressure from the Republican Party base was intended to prod the GOP’s moderate and establishment members to support Rep. Jim Jordan for House speaker.

I'm a big fan of aggregation, connecting the dots, pointing out the pattern. I've only seen a handful of articles on how death threats impact our politics, including the willingness of people to run for office or take stands on the kind of things you get death threats for. 2023:

"It takes a strong commitment to democratic principles and civil liberties for all on the part of national leadership to resist taking advantage of such a pretext. Do we have such leadership in our nation today...?"
zurl.co/3zcDz

Re-posting now that the sun's up here.

Melt the ICE: Bay Area Against Detention Camps · It's Blue Turn Stand up against ICE detention centers on the National Day of Action! It’s time to mobilize coordinated action to end detention centers now! This is about all of us: will you defend your community an...

There's a protest today (Feb 28), 1pm-2:30pm PST, in the South SF Bay Area, at Mountain View's Gateway Plaza, corner of Castro & El Camino. It's focused on ICE detention camps, but the organizers say other topics (such as military actions) are welcome.
www.mobilize.us/itsblueturn/...

*eyes closed, squeezing the bridge of my nose with two fingers*:

“Hey Secretary Kegstand, have you thought about the ramifications of trying to destroy one of the primary AI companies propping up the entire US economy right now? No, went straight to the backhand for daring to talk back,eh? Cool.”

Congress prepares for war powers resolution vote to block U.S. strikes on Iran House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Friday a bipartisan coalition is working to force a vote as soon as next week on a war powers resolution that would attempt to prevent any U.S. action agai...

I wish this story was clearer on how it's the president who must proactively ask *Congress* for war authority, not Congress that should be chasing down a president before he can start a war. But anyway, I just wrote my rep opposing strikes without Congressional approval.

www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

I guess from looking at the story this is not official yet? Maybe they *can* still tell the government to take a hike!

Yeah. Scouting America should have told Hesgeth to take a hike. Our family's past its scouting days, but my sense of it was that all changes come organically from the grassroots. This kind of ideological micro-management from government ... isn't that exactly what "conservatives" claim to hate?

Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #452 – Science-Fantasy Month 8 Issue #452 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies online magazine, one of three special double-issues for BCS Science-Fantasy Month 8, featuring a novella by Jason Sanford and a short story by J.W. Halicks, behin...

The new science-fantasy issue of @bcsmagazine.bsky.social is available on @weightlessbooks.bsky.social. The issue contains my complete novella "Where the Dream Train Goes," a secondary world fantasy about living on the autistic spectrum and how people continually steal the dreams of others. 1/

Time for the States to Gear Up for Trump’s Fake Elections Exec Order The Post has an article today, an exclusive they say, about a...

Josh Marshall has a great phrase here, that Trump's circle seems to think the U.S. Constitution has a "hidden dictator clause" for emergencies real or fabricated. The authoritarian mindset at work! The Constitution's more a collection of *anti* dictator clauses. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/time-...

Call me crazy, but I thought the first duty of the U.S. government was to abide by the U.S. Constitution.

A quote: “A vivid, poignant, and compassionate story about our desperate search for meaning...whether on Earth or far beyond it.” —Veronica Roth A book cover: THE RAINSEEKERS by Matthew Kressel. A figure in silhouette on a purple Martian terrian. There are star trails in an iridescent sky. One of the stars, possibly Earth, is brighter than all the others. The overall color tone is purple and green.

My novella THE RAINSEEKERS is out today from Tordotcom! A group of adventurers hope to be the first to feel the rain on Mars.

“A vivid, poignant, and compassionate story about our desperate search for meaning...whether on Earth or far beyond it.” —Veronica Roth

Red and blue text: "Add your name: Protect birthright citizenship. ACLU." Photo of a hand holding up an American flag in the sky, with skyscrapers in the background.

President Trump can’t rewrite the Constitution with the stroke of a pen.

With the Supreme Court taking up his anti-birthright citizenship executive order, add your name to show your support for protecting this fundamental right at aclu.org/birthright-citizenship-petition-

Gen AI subs are a big waste of time at BCS too. A steady 10% of subs to BCS are wholly or partially gen AI. My sorting of incoming subs takes twice as long. (Writers: if AI submittors stealing my time that could go to your subs is important to you, you need to take a stand on gen AI use in fiction.)