Cody McDevitt

This is something a NYC Uber driver could do. Take pictures of what you see that stands out and upload it to ChatGPT. Or just make a mental note and give it. Then tell it to write a column with all those thoughts or images like Jimmy Breslin or another iconic columnist. That’ll give color.

I’ve been brainstorming some approaches to journalism. It would be cool if someone decided to use ChatGPT or other AI to write gossip columns like Walter Winchell. If you tell it the rumored romance and tell it to write like him, it’ll pump out entertaining content.

Or, for instance, if you wanted to develop a rhetoric patterned after Margaret Sanger, you could simply prompt ChatGPT or other services to write your message modeled after how she spoke and wrote. It's still your thoughts. It's just expressed in the style of an American feminist icon.

It's easy to add rhetorical flourishes to your speeches using ChatGPT or other writing AI tools. It can emulate the speaking and writing styles of great American writers and speakers. You can write things instantly in the FDR style. Just tell it the key points you want to convey.

And the best way for a journalist to gauge whether someone is authentic is to go by their record, not their promises. What have they done in the past? What do financial records tell us about how they spend money? Do they have conflicts of interest? Have they said one thing and done another?

Authenticity is a buzzword I hear thrown around, often by people driven by optics and posturing. There's a paradox: people who are calculating whether something will give them influence then harp on being yourself and being authentic. Most of us sense a facade, regardless of race or gender.

Furthermore, many men and women yearn for a time in which appearances weren't as important in judging people's character or value. They want to go back to a place where a connection happens on an emotional level, not simply to whether a person is photogenic.

We also have to understand that Democrats are at their best when they inspire and galvanize young voters. Does that happen with obsessive-compulsive social media use? Many Gen Z people are burned out on that and want more fulfilling lives. They want meaning. Political rhetoric can give them that.

There is nothing wrong with adding a literary touch to political speeches. One of FDR's speechwriters was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and historian. Obama's speeches had a rhetorical flourish, too. JFK read hundreds of books a year. Digital savvy isn't synonymous with illiteracy.

When Public Records Stop Being Public Residency requirements are quietly restricting abortion scholarship, accountability, and democratic oversight after Dobbs.

Residency requirements for public records aren’t neutral. After Dobbs, they’re quietly restricting abortion scholarship, accountability, and democratic oversight.

Transparency shouldn’t stop at state lines.
🔗 reprorights.substack.com/p/when-publi...

One thing I'm hearing from others who sometimes get irritated with Bluesky is the tendency to scold people from other users. It's very unbecoming of people who do that, and it's often for things that aren't transgressions or are minor ones. So lighten up a little.

Abortion Was Never Equal for Asian and Pacific Islander Women Christina Baal-Owens of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum outlines how structural barriers have long restricted abortion access for Asian and Pacific Islander women.

Abortion access was never equal for Asian and Pacific Islander women. Long before Roe fell, language barriers, immigration fear, stigma, and healthcare deserts shaped who could actually get care. The post-Roe era has only deepened those harms.
🔗 reprorights.substack.com/p/abortion-w...

I’ve spent time around a lot of teachers, superintendents and principals. If you want to be a or the leader, you can’t be afraid of associating with or acknowledging people the cool kids don’t want you to. That’s part of growing up. And who is cool is always a matter of perspective. True for adults.

I’m not embarrassed I drive Uber. It’s honest work and you earn your keep instead of having it handed to you. I’ve learned a lot about the world, but I’m waiting on leaders to step up and make sure I get the shots I worked for. If anyone is embarrassed, it’s people who don’t maximize potential.

If my leaders would help with any of the things that I've written, and help me get out of driving Uber for a living, then I can spend my time exploring gun control. I can visit repositories and interview people. And then produce a comprehensive history that would be useful in our arguments.

Rosedale Banishment - Wikipedia

Finally got around to getting a Wikipedia page for this. Details the Rosedale Banishment and all the aftermath and things we did on the 100th commemoration. Still hoping to stage a play and film it so we can put it in schools. Spent 12 years working on this.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosedal...

Three days after the snowstorm, the road conditions in Duquesne, Wilkinsburg, and other poor neighborhoods are abysmal. It's dangerous for riders and Uber drivers. Most of my fares are in poor black neighborhoods that get neglected when it comes time to remove snow.

Snow cleanup around Pittsburgh will take 'longer than a typical storm’ as frigid temps prevent melting Pittsburgh continued to rely on emergency resources Tuesday as crews worked around the clock to clear snow that will likely linger for days amid prolonged...

I'm gonna be frank with some of you. I don't appreciate the snowplow fleet funding being gutted as an Uber driver, so we can allocate money to community programs with no financial oversight. Uber drivers depend on good road conditions, and so do their riders.
www.post-gazette.com/news/weather...

A lot of people don't realize how much poor snow removal affects Uber drivers. Just because you can get to your destination without trouble doesn't mean we can get our passengers to theirs with ease. We go through all the side streets as guided by the GPS. So if they're icy, we're screwed.

I would also explore how poorer communities are suffering more now because they rely on Uber and the drivers aren’t able to drive because of the poor road conditions.

When plows are busy clearing snow on the first pass on side roads, they can’t get back to another road to resalt it after it’s been cleared the first time. That leads to icing, accidents and injuries. So this is a huge story and the biggest one of the year here. How did our snow removal fail?

I would explore how this institutional failure affected Uber delivery drivers and restaurants relying on delivery sales. There’s an economic harm caused by possible misappropriation of taxpayer money. It also imperils public safety because many of the roads don’t get hit with salt on second passes.

This is a huge story. I’m not saying it’s quite a Hurricane Katrina level fuck-up. But when half your snowplow fleet fails in a city known for snowfall, then it’s when tough questions start getting asked of people who hold or held office. How did this happen?

This is one of the moments where a gifted journalist would distinguish themselves by asking more detailed follow-ups to official explanations. They say repairs to the snow plows were deferred. Don’t stop there. Why were they deferred? What priority took its place in getting funding?

You don’t realize how connected white supremacy is to the second amendment crowd. All of those militias formed in the 90s because they feared the gun grabbers as they put it. They became havens for white supremacy. Fears over gun confiscation are at the center of the Turner Diaries.

I’m not pointing fingers here. But how did our snow removal fleet fall into such a state of disrepair? Where were the tax dollars going?

Would anyone our age really want to trade their childhood, teenage, and college years for the ones they have now? Socially isolated. You meet lovers by swiping directions on a phone instead of exchanging glances. No one plays in the woods. No imagination is used because of too much screen time.

I spent more time reading great books by Victor Hugo, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Bukowski, and Vonnegut in my youth than I did being fixated on Instagram or TikTok. I'm not saying that's morally better, but if you're asking me whose company I'd prefer, I'd want the reader.

Some of us spent our youth searching for adventure. I'm happy I didn't spend the first 20 years of my adulthood obsessed with getting a social media following. As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, I don't want to regain my youth. I just want the opportunity to lose it again. And lost it in the right way.

When you get past 40, you're less focused on whether your cultural sell-by date has passed and more concerned with whether what you're doing will stand the test of time. Will it have the same appeal 20, 50, and 100 years from now? True cool and style are timeless.