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The tea party that Skocpol was referring to no longer formally exists as a faction in Congress, its erstwhile allies having been subsumed into the far-right Freedom Caucus or into the generic America First wing of the GOP. But according to Skocpol, the history of the tea party remains essential to understanding the forces that ultimately led to McCarthys political demise.

It represents the culmination of [the tea party movement], said Skocpol. All the research that I and other political scientists have done on the movement shows that by the 2010s just before Donald Trump emerges the tea party had taken the shape of a just-say-no, blow-it-all-up, dont-cooperate, do-politics-on-Twitter faction and this is the perfect expression of it. This is where it leads.

In some respects, Skocpols argument is counterintuitive. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, McCarthy and the other Young Guns rose to power by harnessing the grassroots power of the tea party movement, promising to slash government spending, constrain federal power and foil the Obama administrations policy goals. But though McCarthy and the other Young Guns rose to prominence by allying themselves with the tea party movement, Skocpol said, their banishment from the GOP doesnt mark a break with the movements legacy. Instead, it shows that the Young Guns never really understood the forces that they helped unleash.

The fact that McCarthy and the other Young Guns were once called tea party people because they dallied with the movement, Skocpol said, does not mean that the tiger wasnt going to consume them in the end.

The following has been edited for clarity and concision.

Ian Ward: Youve written extensively about the history of the tea party movement and its aftereffects for the Republican Party. How does the vote to oust Speaker McCarthy fit into that history?

Theda Skocpol: Shortly into Barack Obamas presidency, we saw this explosion of tea party demonstrations and a remarkable degree of grassroots organizing a couple thousand local tea parties, according to our research. There was a lot of writing at the time claiming that this organization was motivated by the same thing that people now claim drives the Republican Party when they shut down the government cutting the deficit. But it was never about cutting the deficit. The popular side of the tea party was about anger and fear of a changing country in which a guy with Hussein as his middle name and black skin could be elected president. The tea party especially at the grassroots was trying to pressure the Republican Party and its elected leaders not to compromise with a changing country or with Democratic Party politicians in Washington.

Ward: How did the Young Guns fit into that mobilization?

Skocpol: The tea party mobilization made a big difference electorally in 2010 in installing a Republican Congress, and probably even more importantly in installing Republican-dominated state legislatures. But it was especially potent after that in undoing any effort at compromise over immigration. Our research shows that polarization over immigration between the two major parties has played out recently and piled on top of the polarization over the civil rights revolution of the 1960s. By the time you get to the period at the end of Barack Obamas presidency, hes trying to find a way to incorporate long-present immigrants from Mexico and Central America and give them a path to citizenship and that effort falls apart in 2013 and 2014. Remember that election in which David Brat in central Virginia shockingly felled Eric Cantor, who at that time was seen as the kind of rising golden boy on the Republican right? It was anger over the potential of immigration reform that played a big role in that.

And then you have Paul Ryan, who inherited a Congress where the Republican caucus was increasingly riven by the rise of this angry, just-say-no style that the tea party always favored. They wanted to make sure that people were angry about changes in the country and wanted to make sure Republicans were not compromising about those. Paul Ryan was [from] Mr. Kochs network. I think that House Republicans thought that by making him their leader, they would cement their right-wing Republican credentials and it did with the elites around the Republican Party at the time. But among the populist right who make up more than half of Republican base voters and the most loyal primary voters they never liked what he had to offer. So he was gone before long.

And now finally, we get to Kevin McCarthy, who is just an example of the final transmogrification of the tea party anger, which was given a national focus and much more potency by Donald Trump. Donald Trump didnt create all this. Hes just been very good, ever since 2015, at giving it permission and focus.

Ward: McCarthy and the other Young Guns who rose to power during that tea party moment in the late 2000s and early 2010s gave voice to one interpretation of the tea party movement that you mentioned, which is that it was all about fiscal conservatism and small government. Why do you think they so dramatically misunderstood the energies behind the movement?

Skocpol: We have to understand the radicalization of the Republican Party as a process that has been underway since 2000. Act 1 of that radicalization was the rise of the Koch network, which was itself motivated by displeasure with what the Republicans under Bush junior and senior had been doing for example, passing Medicare expenditures. The Koch network outflanked the Republican Party, and they put a lot of pressure on candidates and officeholders to hew the line on cutting taxes, cutting regulations and disabling public sector unions. These Young Guns were initially in tune with that and why wouldnt they be? They thought thats where the money came from and where the business community had gone.

But that wasnt satisfactory to a lot of base voters around the Republican Party, who were much angrier about social changes in the country and much more upset about immigration.

So I think the Republican Party was first hollowed out at the top, and then the tea party crystallized when Barack Obama was elected president and then it ended up being given further expression during the immigration reform battles and the rise of Donald Trump. I call it the bottom-up radicalization of the Republican Party, and I think it caught a lot of these Koch network darlings, including all three of these Young Guns, by surprise although in McCarthys case, I think he has done his best to ride the tiger. Hes tried to have it both ways.

Ward: Why do you think McCarthy was able to ride that tiger for longer than the other two?

Skocpol: Hes a shapeshifter, and thats given him staying power up until the moment he had Democratic votes to keep the government open and then went on TV over the weekend and trashed the Democrats.

The shape shifting is both a strength and a weakness. Its a strength in that, a little bit more effectively than Paul Ryan before him, hes been able to have it both ways to condemn Donald Trump and then embrace him, to say hes about cutting the deficit and hes about cracking down on the border. If the Republican Party really had wings and I dont think it does at this point he might have been able to bridge them. But by the end, he got to the point where nobody trusted him. I dont think anybody in the Republican Party trusted his word, and Democrats definitely couldnt.

Ward: Given the fact that McCarthy rose to power during the tea party moment, is there any sense in which his ouster represents a repudiation of the tea party legacy?

Skocpol: No it represents the culmination of it. I think most people in the in the media thought the tea party was about cutting the federal budget deficit because thats what a few elite spokesmen on TV said it was about. But our research always showed that at the grassroots, it was about popular anger over a changing country and fury at a Republican Party that was not responding to that desire. All the research that I and other political scientists have done on the movement shows that by the 2010s, just before Donald Trump emerges, the tea party had taken the shape of a just-say-no, blow-it-all-up, dont-cooperate, do-politics-on-Twitter faction and this is the perfect expression of it. This is where it leads. The fact that McCarthy and the other Young Guns were once called tea party people because they dallied with the movement does not mean that the tiger wasnt going to consume them in the end.

Ward: The conflict between the tea party and the Obama-era Republican Party reflected some real ideological differences between those two factions, especially on issues like immigration. Do you think the conflict between the far-right, anti-McCarthy wing of the party and McCarthys backers reflects a similarly robust ideological fissure? Or does it just boil down to rank obstructionism?

Skocpol: I think its post-ideological. One of the things that Trumps presidency accomplished was to give national expression to populist ethno-nationalism and anger at business as usual in Washington, D.C, and you get to a certain point where there arent many moderates at all in the Republican House caucus. There certainly are some people who are cross pressured because they come from Biden districts, but most of them have been enthusiastic supporters of the same kinds of issues that Matt Gaetz is speaking to. This is a disagreement over whether you should ever settle for less than 100 percent of what you want, even when youre in a position where you dont control more than one chamber.

Ward: So if the conflict is essentially about tactics and the real energies behind the far right are cultural, why do people like Gaetz still lean so heavily on the language of fiscal conservatism? After all, this most recent incident was partly set off by McCarthys unwillingness or inability to slash spending levels.

Skocpol: Youre not going to like the answer Im going to give you.

Ward: Try me.

Skocpol: It sells with the Washington press corps. Why anybody believes this is beyond me. Did you see what Donald Trump did when he was office? Did you see what Republicans did when they controlled the entire Congress? They dont cut anything, except taxes. And that keeps a certain number of billionaires and even Charles Koch himself happy.

There are two strands that have played out in the Republican Party during recent years. One of them I call McConnellism. McConnellism is clever. Its about using every lever of power to make sure Republicans get the federal judiciary full of judges who are going to disempower Democratic initiatives, and its about doing everything you can to shape the electorate, both by encouraging your own voters and discouraging the other guys voters. Its at the edge of whats legally and constitutionally legitimate. Then theres Trumpism, which at this point has gone from bullying and threatening to actual calls for violence. One of them is very powerful in the House, and the other is very powerful in the Senate.

But its a tactical difference. Its not as if theres a huge difference of policy. I think there might be some differences in policy over immigration, but those dont really come up because nobodys talking about legislating on immigration.

Ward: So what does all this mean for the future of the Republican Party? What are the ramifications of the argument that youre making that theres a fundamental continuity between the tea party movement and the MAGA movement?

Skocpol: Well, everything depends on whether Donald Trump is reelected president, and I dont think thats impossible. I really dont. As for the House of Representatives, I really do not know how theyre going to find a new Kevin McCarthy who can promise enough because the promises that are being demanded are impossible to fulfill.

Ward: Based on the traditional tea party playbook, though, what do you think the endgame here is for the far-right faction in the House?

Skocpol: Well, I think Matt Gaetz himself wants to get on TV, raise a lot of money and run for another office. Thats true of a number of the people who make up this very small group of people who were in a position to pull the hook on the grenade. But I dont think we know how this is going to come out. If youve got people in power who are backed by a large number of voters who are angry, fearful, limited in the information they get about whats going on and thinking that it would be better to blow America up than to save it I think youre in uncharted territory. We are in uncharted territory.

Read more here:
Kevin McCarthy's Downfall Is the Culmination of the Tea Party - POLITICO

The community is invited to put the fun into fundraising at the Frocktober Tea Party at Childers Art Space as part of Seniors Month.

Community members are invited to serve up some looks alongside the cake and sandwiches at the Frocktober Tea Party at Childers Art Space on 12 October.

Now in its second year, Frocktober celebrates Seniors Month by encouraging visitors to enjoy a morning of friendship and fashion while helping to raise much needed funds for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation.

The event will take place in the gallery space and verandah overlooking historic Childers and tickets include a delicious morning tea as well as lucky door prizes, with raffle tickets also on sale.

All funds raised will be donated directly to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation.

Councils Arts, Culture and Events portfolio spokesperson Cr John Learmonth said the event was a great way for the community to connect while also raising awareness.

Frocktober was a great success last year and we are excited to be hosting it again as part of our Seniors Month line up, Cr Learmonth said.

This initiative serves as a wonderful way for residents to get out and have some fun while also supporting an important cause that affects so many women including those in our own community.

The third annual Queensland Seniors Month is currently underway, encouraging older residents to engage in social activities under the theme Connect Fest.

Alongside Council on the Ageing (COTA) Queensland, Bundaberg Regional Council has brought together a variety of activities to encourage community connectedness and honour the contributions made by senior residents.

For more information on the Seniors Month calendar, click here.

Frocktober Tea Party

When: 12 October, 10 am 12 pm

Where: Childers Art Space

Cost: $10, tickets available here.

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Dress to impress at Frocktober Tea Party - Bundaberg Now

John A. Boehner lasted five years as House speaker before he ran out of patience with his party's hard-line Freedom Caucus.

"Legislative terrorists," the Ohio Republican called its members after he quit in 2015. "They can't tell you what they're for. They can tell you everything they're against. They're anarchists. They want total chaos."

Next came Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., who lasted three years. "The House is broken," he griped on his way out.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., lasted all of nine months.

"They are not conservatives," he said of the Freedom Caucus after they led the drive to oust him as speaker last week. "They don't get to say they're conservative because they're angry and they're chaotic."

See a pattern?

Ever since the tea party movement of 2010 elected a wave of anti-establishment conservatives, House Republicans have not merely been divided, but downright dysfunctional.

Freedom

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Opinion: Republicans plan to choose a new speaker with a party ... - Chattanooga Times Free Press

PRESS RELEASE

Published October 6, 2023

The impact of AI and ML on modern business environments is more than fascinating; it's critical in today's hyper-connected world. While AI and ML have far-reaching practical applications, their greatest disruptive influence may be in business revenue. In this piece, I'll break out why artificial intelligence and machine learning aren't just "nice to have" but a "must have" for any company serious about long-term success.

The Importance of AI and ML in Generating Revenue

In today's data-driven and rapidly evolving environment, tried and true money-generation techniques are no longer sufficient. McKinsey reports that companies using AI in their operations boost revenue by 20% and save expenses by 30%.ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Stable Diffusion, and other generative AI applications have captivated global interest due to their widespread accessibility and user-friendly interfaces.

Unlike AlphaGo, which had a more specialized focus, these tools offer almost anyone the ability to communicate, create, and engage in uncanny discussions with a user. It's not merely a wave of the future; it's today's currency.

Practical Applications of AI and ML in Revenue Generation

Several revenue-generating uses for AI and ML exist:

These features may be added to your company model incrementally over time rather than all at once.

Challenges to Adoption and Solutions

The apparent complexity of the technology, concerns over data privacy, and the early expense of deployment are the most prevalent obstacles to AI/ML adoption. Based on my expertise in Turn-Key Design and Systems Integration, I would suggest a staged adoption, beginning with smaller projects to show rapid wins and ROI. In addition, working with other IT companies helps soften the change and save startup expenses.

Increasing Productivity While Lowering Expenses

AI/ML is a tool for improving the efficiency of an organization in addition to helping it make more money. With machine learning, everyday tasks are taken care of by computers. This frees up people to work on more complicated tasks and reduces technical debt. The production can also benefit from AI's ability to simplify back-end activities.

Tendencies and Prospects for the Future

The mutually beneficial connection between AI and ML and their earning potential will deepen as technology advances. Companies that don't change with the times will likely fail in today's fiercely competitive economy.

Final Thoughts

No company that wants to expand its income in a scalable and sustainable way can afford to ignore artificial intelligence and machine learning. It's not a matter of 'if,' but 'when,' AI/ML will become essential to your company's operations.

Who is Waleed Nasir?

Throughout his career, visionary builder and technology specialist Waleed Nasir has launched over a hundred platforms and led countless system deployments and workflow integrations. Dr. Waleed has extensive technical expertise in AI and ML and practical experience building and expanding technology companies. Notable examples of his work include the COVID-19 Crisis Management System, the Paycheck Protection Plan's Programmatic Loan Forgiveness System, and the Emergency Rent Relief Administration System. His wide-ranging skillset includes not just Turn-Key Design but also Process Automation and High-Performance Infrastructure, making him an industry leader in areas beyond only technological innovation. Currently, Dr. Waleed is working with Qult Technologies as the CPO, leading the company to new fronts.

Additional Resources

For those interested in diving deeper into this subject, I recommend:

Media Contact Company Name: qult.ai Contact Person: Hassan Tariq Malik Email: Send Email Country: United Kingdom Website: https://www.qult.ai/about-us/

Excerpt from:
How AI and ML Can Drive Sustainable Revenue Growth by Waleed ... - Digital Journal

Hong Kong based Insilico Medicine, a pioneer in AI-based drug discovery, has made significant strides in recent years. Two of their candidates have reached clinical trials, with INS018-055 leading the pack as the first AI-discovered drug designed by generative AI to enter phase 2 clinical trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Back in 2014, when the company began, AI for drug discovery was relatively unheard of, but now it's an indispensable part of the drug discovery process. Insilico's partnerships with major pharmaceutical firms like Janssen underscore the growing importance of AI in this field. Dr Alex Zhavoronkov, Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, sheds light on the industry's evolving response to AI in drug discovery, partnerships, regulatory reforms etc. and also shares the company's future plans.

Insilico Medicine has garnered attention for its innovative utilisation of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery. Could you provide insights into how the industry's response to AI-based drug discovery has evolved since your inception in 2014?

In the early days, when I presented at conferences on how generative AI technology could be applied to chemistry, there was a lot of scepticism. I had discovered through my research that generative adversarial networks (GANs) combined with deep reinforcement learning (the same AI learning strategy used in AlphaGo) could generate novel molecules that could be used to treat disease. Since that time, AI drug discovery has undergone enormous acceleration, fueled both by advances in AI technology and in massive stores of data. While there are still no AI-designed drugs on the market, there are a number of companies with these drugs in advanced clinical trials, including our own lead drug for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the drug with an AI-discovered target and designed by generative AI now in Phase II trials with patients.

Although the pharma industry has moved cautiously, the inherent risks in drug discovery (99 per cent of the drugs fail in the early discovery phase and 90 per cent of the drugs fail in clinical trials) and the validation of AI developed drugs to reach advanced trials, means that pharma companies are more actively pursuing partnerships and developing their own internal AI programmes. We have major partnerships with Exelixis, Sanofi and Fosun Pharma to develop new therapies, for instance.

Recently, your two candidates INS018_055, ISM8207 have entered phase II and phase I respectively. Can you share the significance of reaching these stages in the drug development process, and what key milestones do you hope to achieve during these trials?

To our knowledge, Insilicos lead drug for IPF INS018-055 - is the first drug for an AI-discovered target and designed by generative AI to reach Phase 2 clinical trials with patients.

AI was used in every stage of the process. Insilico Medicine used its AI target-discovery engine, https://insilico.com/pandaomics, to process large amounts of data including omics data samples, compounds and biologics, patents, grants, clinical trials, and publications to discover a new target (called Target X) relevant for a broad range of fibrosis indications. We then used this newly discovered target as the basis for the design of a potentially first-in-class novel small molecule inhibitor using its generative AI drug design platform, Chemistry42.

Insilicos molecule INS018_055 - demonstrated highly promising results in multiple preclinical studies including in vitro biological studies, pharmacokinetic, and safety studies. The compound improved myofibroblast activation, a contributor to the development of fibrosis, with a novel mechanism and was shown to have potential relevance in a broad range of fibrotic indications, not just IPF.

The current phase II study is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to assess the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and preliminary efficacy of 12-week oral INS018_055 dosage in subjects with IPF divided into 4 parallel cohorts. To further evaluate the candidate in wider populations, the company plans to recruit 60 subjects with IPF at about 40 sites in both the US and China.

If our phase IIa study is successful, the drug will then go to phase IIb with a larger cohort. This is also the stage where our primary objective would be to determine whether there is significant response to the drug. The drug will go on to be evaluated in a much larger group of patients typically hundreds in phase III studies to confirm safety and effectiveness before it can be approved by the FDA as a new treatment for patients with that condition. We expect to have results from the current phase II trials next year.

Advancing ISM8207 is also significant both because it is the first clinical milestone reached in our partnership with Fosun, and also because it is the first of our cancer drugs to advance to the clinic, and cancer represents the largest disease category in Insilicos pipeline. This drug is a novel QPCTL inhibitor, designed to treat advanced malignant tumours, and works by blocking the tumour cells dont eat me signal. We entered into phase I clinical trials to assess the drugs safety in healthy volunteers in July 2023.

You have had quite successful partnerships with Exelixis, Fosun etc. Can you provide insights into Insilicos approach to forming strategic partnerships? How do you approach deal making?

We have the advantage of being able to produce and advance new, high quality small molecules that have been optimised to treat diseases much more quickly than traditional drug discovery methods. Thats because our generative AI system can optimise across 30 parameters at once based on desired criteria when generating molecules, rather than the traditional method of screening libraries to find a potential compound, and then working to optimise it for each desired property in a linear fashion. As we speed up the drug discovery process on these high-quality molecules we now have 31 in our pipeline we look to find partners who have specific disease expertise and clinical experience to advance these molecules into later stage clinical studies, and, we hope, to market where they can begin helping patients.

Our most recent partnership with Exelixis is a perfect example. We just announced an exclusive global licence agreement with Exelixis with $80 million upfront granting Exelixis the right to develop and commercialise ISM3091, an AI designed cancer drug and potentially best-in-class small molecule inhibitor of USP1 that received IND approval from the FDA in April 2023. This company is expert in cancer and cancer drug development and discovery, and has an expert drug hunting team. Because its an extremely innovative company, they already have substantial revenue coming from best-in-class cancer therapeutics and they are strengthening this pipeline and making bets on innovative cancer drugs.

If we were to look at one of your AI-designed drugs versus a traditionally designed drug candidate, is there a telltale signature?

Our AI-designed drugs will often have a novel structure or work via a novel mechanism compared to existing drugs. By optimising across these 30 different parameters to design molecules with just the right structure and properties to provide the best likelihood of treatment without toxicity and minimal side effects, we are essentially designing ideal new drug-like molecules from scratch. There may be other drugs that are designed to act on those same targets, but ours are optimised through structure or mechanism to be most efficacious, first-in-class, or best-in-class.

Until recently perhaps, big pharma was somewhat sceptical or resistant to AI. What has been responsible for this growing appetite to embrace AI as a fundamental part of the drug discovery process?

There are a number of reasons pharma is now embracing AI. Traditional drug discovery is an incredibly slow and expensive process that fails in clinical trials 90 per cent of the time. AI improves all three of those roadblocks improving speed, lowering cost, and optimising molecules to have the greatest likelihood of clinical trial success. Our AI engine known as PandaOmics can sift through trillions of data points quickly to identify new targets for disease that humans might not find. Then, our generative AI Chemistry42 platform can design brand-new molecules that are optimised to interact with those targets without causing adverse effects, scoring them based on which are likely to work the best. Finally, using our InClinico tool, we can predict how these drugs will likely fare in clinical trials to reduce the time and money lost on failed trials.

There is also now significant validation that this method of developing new drugs is producing very high quality new drugs for hard-to-treat diseases and even diseases that were considered undruggable. And a number of these AI-designed drugs are now in later stage clinical trials.

Finally, the technology is itself progressing and improving with additional use and data via reinforcement learning and expert human feedback. The better the AI gets, the harder it is to ignore.

How sceptical are regulatory bodies towards AI-driven drug discovery? How are regulations evolving to support such developments?

Data privacy and protection are critical to any businesses utilising AI, as is compliance with all international laws and regulations. I expect that these measures will become more stringent in coming years and they are essential to building and maintaining public trust. Insilico Medicine uses only publicly available data and employs privacy by design and by default. We facilitate security of our systems by thorough security analysis on each phase of development. All Insilico data hubs are contained in Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure cloud.

In addition, there are several checks and balances in place to ensure continuous data integrity, protection and privacy. For example, clients data is not used in any internal environments of the platform, and a firewall is separated for the clients access to the platform versus everyone elses access. All data is encrypted, and data privacy is managed according to Insilico Medicines privacy policy.

What does the future hold for Insilico over the next few years?

Were eager to see our clinical stage programmes progress, and the continued advancement of our lead drug for IPF. Its a terrible, chronic condition with a very poor prognosis and patients are in desperate need of new treatment options.

I also hope that our latest deal with Exelixis marks a trend of pharma companies partnering earlier in the drug development process with highly optimised AI-designed molecules as we continue to expand our pipeline, so that we can truly accelerate the process of delivering new treatments to patients in need.

We will also continue to expand the capabilities of our end-to-end generative AI platform, through new data, reinforcement learning, and expert human feedback; and augment those capabilities with our AI-powered robotics lab as well as incorporating the latest technological tools into our platform, including AlphaFold and quantum computing both of which weve published papers on.

Ayesha Siddiqui

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The better the AI gets, the harder it is to ignore - BSA bureau