Aaron Huertas
@aaronhuertas.bsky.social
Carpenter and woodworker. Democracy and unions liker. Building and fixing things: capehenlopencarpentry.com. Writing and editing: aaronhuertas.com.
Reposted by Aaron Huertas
Reposted by Aaron Huertas
Some personal news
Scoop–CFPB just fired employee alexisgoldstein.bsky.social for allegedly disrupting &documenting a meeting a year ago between CFPB & DOGE www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
She says she's being retaliated against after asking DOGE visitors who they were & if they'd completed training on handling info
She says she's being retaliated against after asking DOGE visitors who they were & if they'd completed training on handling info
CFPB Fires Employee Over a Confrontation With DOGE a Year Ago
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fired an employee for disrupting and documenting a 2025 meeting between the agency and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to emails rev...
www.bloomberg.com
February 12, 2026 at 1:10 AM
Some personal news
Not making someone listen to right wing podcasts for monitoring purposes is peak ethical use of AI
This is an interesting piece about how NYT is using AI in its newsroom. (tl;dr: they generate transcripts of the podcasts they're tracking, those transcripts gets summarized, those summaries get delivered in a report to journalists)
When actress Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad became a culture war flashpoint last summer, Times journalists noticed, in part through the reports, that right-wing podcast figures were shaping the backlash. www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/how-...
February 12, 2026 at 1:35 AM
Not making someone listen to right wing podcasts for monitoring purposes is peak ethical use of AI
I’d like to see a good faith response to this question.
February 11, 2026 at 11:29 PM
I’d like to see a good faith response to this question.
It’s important to surprise voters and the press with systemic reform. They love that.
February 11, 2026 at 9:56 PM
It’s important to surprise voters and the press with systemic reform. They love that.
Reposted by Aaron Huertas
Worth some followup reporting to see if they’re under political pressure including from clients.
Gallup will no longer measure presidential approval after 88 years thehill.com/homenews/med...
February 11, 2026 at 7:43 PM
Worth some followup reporting to see if they’re under political pressure including from clients.
Reposted by Aaron Huertas
Metascience FTW
I have a new paper. We look at ~all stats articles in political science post-2010 & show that 94% have abstracts that claim to reject a null. Only 2% present only null results. This is hard to explain unless the research process has a filter that only lets rejections through.
February 11, 2026 at 6:40 PM
Metascience FTW
Toddler started eating ravioli but when he asks for it only says the last two syllables. Hard not to repeat that one back to him.
February 11, 2026 at 7:26 PM
Toddler started eating ravioli but when he asks for it only says the last two syllables. Hard not to repeat that one back to him.
Reposted by Aaron Huertas
if you played sonic the hedgehog and put down the controller, sonic would look at you and tap his foot impatiently. this was proof that sega genesis cartridges had souls. the decision was made to make the storage cases a lot larger than the cartridges so they would have room to move around in there
February 11, 2026 at 3:58 PM
if you played sonic the hedgehog and put down the controller, sonic would look at you and tap his foot impatiently. this was proof that sega genesis cartridges had souls. the decision was made to make the storage cases a lot larger than the cartridges so they would have room to move around in there
I have squatted
the reps
that were for
much later
in the
lifting program
after
more cycles
Forgive me
they were DOMS-inducing
so sore
and hurty
the reps
that were for
much later
in the
lifting program
after
more cycles
Forgive me
they were DOMS-inducing
so sore
and hurty
February 11, 2026 at 6:51 PM
I have squatted
the reps
that were for
much later
in the
lifting program
after
more cycles
Forgive me
they were DOMS-inducing
so sore
and hurty
the reps
that were for
much later
in the
lifting program
after
more cycles
Forgive me
they were DOMS-inducing
so sore
and hurty
And assuming we hit a point where that is possible is it actually less labor and cost intensive than hiring an actor especially after accounting for editing and cleanup? And on top of that, will enough audience members be satisfied with a non-human performance?
February 11, 2026 at 6:34 PM
And assuming we hit a point where that is possible is it actually less labor and cost intensive than hiring an actor especially after accounting for editing and cleanup? And on top of that, will enough audience members be satisfied with a non-human performance?
I have watched more than five films, yes. Claims like this just seem like hand waving to me. What is a specific technology pathway for software to produce a 90 minute+ performance that contains the nuances and pathos of something like Rose Byre’s role in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You?
February 11, 2026 at 6:32 PM
I have watched more than five films, yes. Claims like this just seem like hand waving to me. What is a specific technology pathway for software to produce a 90 minute+ performance that contains the nuances and pathos of something like Rose Byre’s role in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You?
Do I want machine learning tools to help design infrastructure? Yes! But I know expert humans are using and reviewing the outputs of those tools. Do I want to watch a movie scripted by an LLM comprised of passable AI video clips? No, certainly not anymore than I want to watch bad human-made films.
February 11, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Do I want machine learning tools to help design infrastructure? Yes! But I know expert humans are using and reviewing the outputs of those tools. Do I want to watch a movie scripted by an LLM comprised of passable AI video clips? No, certainly not anymore than I want to watch bad human-made films.
Can LLM help you code? Yes. Do I want to talk to a chatbot pretending to be a human that is less helpful than the actual humans working for my insurance company? Bit of a tossup not gonna lie, but no.
February 11, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Can LLM help you code? Yes. Do I want to talk to a chatbot pretending to be a human that is less helpful than the actual humans working for my insurance company? Bit of a tossup not gonna lie, but no.
Even assuming massive improvements, this is predicated on LLM outputs becoming socially acceptable replacements for human decision-making and / or hidden away from end users.
And at this level of disruption it’s the same kind of socialism vs. barbarism ratchet we’ve had since the post-war era.
And at this level of disruption it’s the same kind of socialism vs. barbarism ratchet we’ve had since the post-war era.
I'm not even saying that's the most *likely* possibility, but it's just very clear that the likelihood of that outcome as increased and even if there's, like, a 1 in 10 change that "AI replaces most to all white collar jobs in 10 years" that's an *enormous* risk to the social order!
February 11, 2026 at 5:54 PM
Even assuming massive improvements, this is predicated on LLM outputs becoming socially acceptable replacements for human decision-making and / or hidden away from end users.
And at this level of disruption it’s the same kind of socialism vs. barbarism ratchet we’ve had since the post-war era.
And at this level of disruption it’s the same kind of socialism vs. barbarism ratchet we’ve had since the post-war era.
You really can’t get anyone at a mainstream outlets to write about this either. Even if they get it their editors spike it.
And if you work in Democratic politics and give writers fodder to hippie punch you’re not an election genius either though it may serve your narrower purposes.
And if you work in Democratic politics and give writers fodder to hippie punch you’re not an election genius either though it may serve your narrower purposes.
February 11, 2026 at 4:34 PM
You really can’t get anyone at a mainstream outlets to write about this either. Even if they get it their editors spike it.
And if you work in Democratic politics and give writers fodder to hippie punch you’re not an election genius either though it may serve your narrower purposes.
And if you work in Democratic politics and give writers fodder to hippie punch you’re not an election genius either though it may serve your narrower purposes.
Roberts and Hobbes got at this with their reactionary centrism podcast, but a sterling example of a media outlet reenforcing right wing stereotypes about Democrats while decrying Democrats’ inability to fend off right wing stereotypes.
I am starting to hate the Bulwark people as much as Republicans which makes sense considering they are Republicans
February 11, 2026 at 4:31 PM
Roberts and Hobbes got at this with their reactionary centrism podcast, but a sterling example of a media outlet reenforcing right wing stereotypes about Democrats while decrying Democrats’ inability to fend off right wing stereotypes.
Here's one: Grassroots advocacy org. funded by progressive worker unions that does accountability research about funders and funding practices.
February 11, 2026 at 4:05 PM
Here's one: Grassroots advocacy org. funded by progressive worker unions that does accountability research about funders and funding practices.
We need something like Funders for Funding Reform because they sure as hell don't listen to operatives
Democratic donors have spent a year frozen, largely out of justified anger at the consultant class, the spammy texts, and lack of leadership from some elected leaders.
That anger, however, is also hurting outside groups doing critical work — and that could hurt us in November.
THREAD 🧵
That anger, however, is also hurting outside groups doing critical work — and that could hurt us in November.
THREAD 🧵
February 11, 2026 at 4:03 PM
We need something like Funders for Funding Reform because they sure as hell don't listen to operatives
I would simply send a bunch of stand up comedians to heckle the president.
NEW: Jeffries clamping down on SOTU disruptions
Said at whips meeting this AM to either sit in "silent defiance" or boycott altogether, sources told @axios.com
Senior House Dem tells me the current plan for resisters is to go to an "alternative viewing site" www.axios.com/2026/02/11/t...
Said at whips meeting this AM to either sit in "silent defiance" or boycott altogether, sources told @axios.com
Senior House Dem tells me the current plan for resisters is to go to an "alternative viewing site" www.axios.com/2026/02/11/t...
House Democrats try to shut down disruptions at Trump's State of the Union
Jeffries told his members to either show "silent defiance" or boycott the speech.
www.axios.com
February 11, 2026 at 3:52 PM
I would simply send a bunch of stand up comedians to heckle the president.
Reposted by Aaron Huertas
Notice how the popular media narrative has moved on, while people on the ground in Minneapolis are still struggling and crying out that things are as bad as ever. This is how fascist regimes operate — overreach, recalibration, normalization. Get louder, not quieter.
February 11, 2026 at 3:54 AM
Notice how the popular media narrative has moved on, while people on the ground in Minneapolis are still struggling and crying out that things are as bad as ever. This is how fascist regimes operate — overreach, recalibration, normalization. Get louder, not quieter.
Reposted by Aaron Huertas
This was Mike Johnson's third failed rule vote of the 119th Congress, bringing him closer to tying the modern era record for rule failure in the House.
Which is currently held by... Mike Johnson, from the 118th Congress
Which is currently held by... Mike Johnson, from the 118th Congress
RULE VOTE FAILS, 217-214.
Three Republicans- Thomas Massie, Kevin Kiley, and Don Bacon - buck the party to allow floor consideration of measures to end Trump's tariffs.
The first such measure, likely on Canada tariffs, could come up as soon as tomorrow
Three Republicans- Thomas Massie, Kevin Kiley, and Don Bacon - buck the party to allow floor consideration of measures to end Trump's tariffs.
The first such measure, likely on Canada tariffs, could come up as soon as tomorrow
Republicans have been holding this vote open for 40 minutes or so, but the holdouts- Massie, Kiley, Bacon, reportedly left the Capitol. The absent Republican is Greg Murphy (R-NC), who has missed a lot of time since a mid December surgery.
Not clear why Johnson is still holding this vote open
Not clear why Johnson is still holding this vote open
February 11, 2026 at 3:07 AM
This was Mike Johnson's third failed rule vote of the 119th Congress, bringing him closer to tying the modern era record for rule failure in the House.
Which is currently held by... Mike Johnson, from the 118th Congress
Which is currently held by... Mike Johnson, from the 118th Congress
Reposted by Aaron Huertas
Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude
February 10, 2026 at 10:54 PM
Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude
Reposted by Aaron Huertas
Like 75% of the US Olympic curlers are from Minnesota. A lot of them curl out of two clubs in Saint Paul, one club is in Frogtown, a neighborhood that has been very heavily targeted by ICE. These curlers are good neighbors.
US Olympic Curling Team member speaks out against ICE:
"I'm proud to represent Team USA. But we'd be remiss if we didn't mention what's going on in Minnesota and what a tough time it's been. What's happening is wrong. There's no shades of gray."
"I'm proud to represent Team USA. But we'd be remiss if we didn't mention what's going on in Minnesota and what a tough time it's been. What's happening is wrong. There's no shades of gray."
February 10, 2026 at 10:03 PM
Like 75% of the US Olympic curlers are from Minnesota. A lot of them curl out of two clubs in Saint Paul, one club is in Frogtown, a neighborhood that has been very heavily targeted by ICE. These curlers are good neighbors.