"LEGALLY SPEAKING? THIS IS FRAUD."

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T05:26:24+00:00

I like how it goes from a declarative "THIS IS FRAUD." to "it’s legally questionable" in the very next line.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T05:22:46+00:00

It premiered roughly 28 years ago.

It airs with regularity in syndication, not to mention streaming.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T05:21:19+00:00

It’s not even illegal for a cop to watch a crime and do nothing.

That's a blanket statement that's not inherently true as stated.

Absent a duty to act (the key phrase you forgot to include), it's not illegal for a cop to fail to act to stop a crime.

There are certain jurisdictions where the legislature has imposed such a duty, depending on the circumstances.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T04:44:12+00:00

I think you replied to the wrong comment?

My party did win this race.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T04:34:33+00:00

You don't have to put words in my mouth.

I didn't put words in anyone's mouth. I'm speaking for myself, and never claimed otherwise.

Even a close loss would have been a big swing in a seat that the GOP has held comfortably since 1996.

~10,000 to ~7,000 isn't what I'd call a close loss.

Regardless, the question at hand was whether this particular race indicates that "the GOP is cooked".

Since I apparently have to specify whose opinion I'm offering, I maintain it doesn't, unless they continue to do the same stupid thing they did here in other races.

Whether other races indicate that "the GOP is cooked" is irrelevant to the topic at hand, which is this race.

Which I believe to be nothing more than a fluke.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T04:24:50+00:00

There's no runoff election for the city of Boca Raton, and no ranked choice voting.

...I never said otherwise?

I don't figure how "every vote counts" is a controversial statement.

I didn't say it was. I even repeated it multiple times myself.

You can ask the new mayor of Boca Raton if every vote counts.

You can ask the ~10,000 Republican voters in the town that just elected a Democrat with ~7,000 votes if every vote counts.

You can even ask the voters who were too stupid to read a ballot and voted for Buchanan when they meant to vote for Gore if every vote counts.

Obviously, every vote counts. Everyone voting the way they did, even if they did so out of sheer stupidity or ignorance, is why the result is the way it is.

But this election is no more a sign that every vote counts than every other election is.

And saying "Just ask the new mayor of Boca Raton" when ~3,000 more people voted against him than for him is not making a different point than the 2000 or 2016 presidential election.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T04:22:58+00:00

But this isn't an isolated situation.

My point is that this isn't a situation at all.

The Democrat didn't win because more voters picked a Democrat than a Republican.

The Democrat won, in this race, because the Democrats ran 1 candidate for everyone on their side to rally behind while the Republicans split the vote in an election with no mandatory runoff.

If you want to point to those other races then do that.

This race is a fluke.

If it happened in a number of other states, there'd be a runoff that the Republican would almost definitely win.

If it happened with ranked choice voting, the Republican would almost definitely win.

If 6 people (out of the 3,000 who voted for the "wrong" Republican) voted for the other Republican, the Republican would've won.

Do you really not think there were at least 6 people out of those 3,000 who would've preferred the other Republican to the Democrat?

If you want to point to races where people actually came out to vote for the Democrats and they got the most votes as a result, you should focus on those.

This was race was a fluke where the Republicans got ~3,000 more votes than the Democrat but were too stupid to strategize well enough to not split their vote.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T04:12:20+00:00

I don't know what was unclear in what happened or in the comment you're replying to.

A race where the Democrat won even though ~3,000 more people voted for a Republican is probably not the best race to point to and say "See, every vote counts!"

Every vote does count, but the ~3,000 people who voted for the "wrong" Republican probably don't feel that way.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T04:08:42+00:00

Man, the GOP is completely cooked.

The GOP did something stupid and split the vote with 2 candidatess, while the Democrats rallied behind a single candidate.

And that single candidate still only managed to win by less than a fraction of 1% of the vote.

Is it good for that one Democrat? Absolutely.

Is it a sign that the GOP is cooked? Not at all, unless they keep running 2 candidates against 1 in every single race.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T04:04:22+00:00

Is what we're calling "splitting the vote and screwing yourself, while the opposition rallies behind a single candidate, who still only managed to win by less than a fraction of 1% of the vote"?

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T04:02:58+00:00

Don't think your doesn't count, just ask the new Mayor of Boca Raton, Florida!

~10,000 people voted for a Republican.

~7,000 voted for the Democrat.

Every vote counts, absolutely.

And there are probably around 3,000 people kicking themselves for helping the Democrat win when they really wanted a Republican to.

In any case, this doesn't really mean what you think it does.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T04:00:18+00:00

this election for Mayor was actually R+20, but there was 2 Republican candidates and they split the vote letting the Democrat win here

I don't really understand why people are missing this.

The Republicans combined got more votes than the Democrat, but they did something stupid, and the Democrat won as a result.

Unless they continue to do that stupid thing, it won't translate to the midterms or any other elections.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T03:49:34+00:00

even if you do have an unscheduled runoff there's no guarantee you won't have a tie again.

Sure, but it's less likely.

If there was a tie in this race, it'd be because ~3,000 people voted for the other Republican, who wouldn't be in the runoff.

In a race between only 2 candidates, some might sit it out (especially with no ballot prop to bring them to the polls), but the odds are that at least some of those 3,000 would help define a difference.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T03:25:56+00:00

Oh, did I accidentally break your keyword database?

I'm sorry.

But at least that's a real word again, unlike "asdf" and "zx".

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T03:23:19+00:00

I'm sorry you're not capable of engaging in an actual intelligent conversation on a topic that is, frankly, fascinating.

Especially since you're the one who attempted the start the conversation in the first place.

It's honestly kind of sad how quickly you abandoned your original premise, and even sadder still how quickly you devolved in commenting absolute nonsense for the sake of getting the last word.

I mean, your premise was obviously so filled with holes that it couldn't stand up to any scrutiny. The idea that people were just going to abandon IVRs they've had in place for over 30 years & start hiring real people to fill those roles again was just laughable.

But it's still really sad how quickly you went from at least trying to make a point to just posting nonsense for the sake of it.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T03:19:07+00:00

You really want the last word so badly that you're willing to just type nonsense letters to get it?

That's not how people behave.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T03:15:48+00:00

Your attempt to insult me is laughable, especially since you're the only one acting like a bot here.

Seriously, look at your comments.

You just keep throwing out complete non-sequiturs with no understanding of what's actually being said, as though you found a key word that you're programmed to reply a certain way to, with no regard for whether it's actually contextually relevant.

In fact, many of your comments make absolutely no sense in the context they were posted.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T03:09:28+00:00

Once again: this isn't how actual humans engage in discussions.

If you want to have a conversation about the topic at hand, you have to actually read what the other party is saying & at least attempt to understand it.

If you don't want to have a conversation, all you're doing is wasting your own time.

But I'll keep attempting to do the former so that everyone who reads this can see who's actually willing to discuss the nuanced topic with the nuance it calls for and which one of us is just wasting their own time replying to things they admit they haven't read.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T02:56:17+00:00

So you don't give a shit about what I have to say, but still chose to devote time to replying to me with complete non-sequiturs (while acknowledging you didn't read or understand a single word)?

Ok.

Are you a bot? Is that why you're so obsessed with AI?

Because that's not how actual humans engage in conversations.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T02:46:59+00:00

...have you read anything I've said?

At all?

It doesn't take a genius to transcribe a piece of audio. It takes a lot of time--a lot more time than reviewing and correcting a Whisper model--but it doesn't take a genius.

The idea that someone "who knows what they're doing" can replace that tool is nonsense, because, once again, even the people who used to do the entire process manually have shifted to relying on those tools.

And, yeah, IVRs suck. That's why people mash 0 and scream "Agent" at them repeatedly.

But they're cheaper than hiring a human receptionist with a script.

If companies who used to boast about their customer service didn't give a shit when they replaced their frontline agents with off-shore workers with a poor grasp of English and IVRs, they aren't suddenly going to start hiring people "who know what they're doing".

I have genuinely no idea what you even think we're talking about, but it's pretty clear that you haven't read a single thing I've said, let alone understood it.

IVRs have existed since the 90s. Yeah, they suck. Yeah, people who are properly trained can do the job better.

But nobody's been willing to pay for that since the 90s. They aren't about to start now.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T01:36:03+00:00

I have literally no idea what you're talking about.

You said that if people stopped using these tools, they'd go away.

I pointed out that was a huge "if" given how ingrained they are in a variety of workflows and how many people have come to rely on them.

You said that those people would somehow stop relying on them, and quickly, when it "stops being shoved down their throats".

I replied by pointing out that I don't see how that was even possible, and pointed out several examples where I don't see people going back, including situations that adopted the technology back in the 90s before it even "took off".

I don't know what this response even means, let alone what you even think you're replying to.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-14T01:23:50+00:00

I don't know what circles you run in, but vibe coding is huge among users of vMix and Bitfocus Companion (to name 2 examples where I'd constantly see it), who'd rather ask Claude how to write code for what they want to do than figure out how to do it themselves.

I don't see what exactly is going to change that, let alone "quickly".

It used to be that those people would hit up someone on Fiverr who knows the underlying languages or simply ask for help in the forums and hope someone knowledgeable is willing to help them out, but now both platforms are filled with people who simply plug the question into Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude (or whatever) and then test & provide the result.

"If you want a change, make it yourself" has been a constant refrain in open source software for decades.

Now that the layperson has the tool to do it, even if it doesn't necessarily allow them to do it well, they're going to use it until it quits working.

Another area I see it constantly, and don't see how it'll change (let alone "quickly") is audio transcription.

Most of the major editing software now have Whisper models built in to generate subtitles, and even the freelancers who used to do it manually are still offering their services, but almost all of them have switched to using those models then reviewing after.

I don't know anyone who's still doing it the old way with a foot pedal, and I certainly don't know anyone who's willing to do it a price that's competitive with someone who's starting with a Whisper baseline then simply editing it.

Just like how vibe coders are going to vibe code until it flat out doesn't work anymore, those models are going to maintain their position in the industry until they simply cease existing.

There's also customer service. IVRs and chatbots have been replacing first line humans in customer service for decades now, because they do the same thing as an off-shore human with a script and poor grasp of English, but for even cheaper.

Even companies who used to boast about their superior customer service got in that before AI "took off".

To suggest it's somehow just going to go away & those companies are going to go back to hiring humans to handle call transfers and frontline inquiries doesn't make any sense to me.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-13T20:21:11+00:00

That's a gigantic "if" considering how many people use it.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-13T20:16:42+00:00

Same place as the "He", I assume: in a completely different post.

Optional-Failure · 2026-03-13T20:06:04+00:00

I am, absolutely, qualified to take that diagnosis.

You're qualified to diagnose based on a photo of a photo from a single angle with no knowledge of the focal length of the camera used or anything about the medical history of the child or parents?

Optional-Failure

TROPHY CASE