I’ve been saying for decades that we don’t actually live in a democracy and everyone got so mad at me
#BREAKING: With no explanation (save for a solo concurrence by Justice Kavanaugh), #SCOTUS has frozen lower-court rulings that had enjoined allegedly suspicion-less arrests as part of "roving" immigration patrols in California.
Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, dissents:
Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, dissents:
www.supremecourt.gov
September 8, 2025 at 6:17 PM
I’ve been saying for decades that we don’t actually live in a democracy and everyone got so mad at me
Reposted by bald
If you aren't convinced at this point that the New York Times is captured media that exists as a propaganda tool of the ultrawealthy and the GOP, I genuinely don't know what to tell you at this point. You are broken.
Thinking about how the Times would have covered Joe Biden doing this and feeling calm, serene, like I'm floating in a vast warm ocean
August 26, 2025 at 9:55 PM
If you aren't convinced at this point that the New York Times is captured media that exists as a propaganda tool of the ultrawealthy and the GOP, I genuinely don't know what to tell you at this point. You are broken.
Gavin newsom personally helped terrorize homeless people in a sweep, for a photo op
We asked people who experienced "sweeps" of homeless encampments to write about it in their own words.
In Portland, Teresa Stratton told us about how her husband’s ashes were taken in a removal:
In Portland, Teresa Stratton told us about how her husband’s ashes were taken in a removal:
August 16, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Gavin newsom personally helped terrorize homeless people in a sweep, for a photo op
Five posts about Gaza, one wagging their finger at Harris protestors (yeah, why protest the supposed progressive and not the open fascist), not a single post saying “Palestine”, using neo-Nazi slogans? Yeah this guy really cares about justice lol
August 16, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Five posts about Gaza, one wagging their finger at Harris protestors (yeah, why protest the supposed progressive and not the open fascist), not a single post saying “Palestine”, using neo-Nazi slogans? Yeah this guy really cares about justice lol
Reposted by bald
“It’s a bit of an obscenity that I’m asked so much to speak on this subject because I happen to be Jewish and because I happened, as an infant, to have survived the Holocaust…Why aren’t we listening to the Palestinians?”
Auschwitz-survivor Gabor Maté: Gaza genocide 'the worst thing I've seen in my whole life.'
“It's a bit of an obscenity that I'm asked so much to speak on this subject because I happen to be Jewish and because I happened, as an infant, to have survived the Holocaust…Why aren't we listening t...
therealnews.com
August 12, 2025 at 8:02 PM
“It’s a bit of an obscenity that I’m asked so much to speak on this subject because I happen to be Jewish and because I happened, as an infant, to have survived the Holocaust…Why aren’t we listening to the Palestinians?”
Reposted by bald
A major danger of LLMs is that humans are SO predisposed to attribute knowledge to any entity that uses natural language fluently. We cannot imagine that a machine that outputs natural-seeming speech/text doesn't have cognition. Brilliantly articulated by @emilymbender.bsky.social et al. (2021).
![Text generated by an LM is not grounded in communicative intent, any model of the world, or any model of the reader’s state of mind. It can’t have been, because the training data never included sharing thoughts with a listener, nor does the machine have the ability to do that. This can seem counter-intuitive given the increasingly fluent qualities of automatically generated text, but we have to account for the fact that our perception of natural language text, regardless of how it was generated, is mediated by our own linguistic competence and our predisposition to interpret communicative acts as conveying coherent meaning and intent, whether or not they do [89, 140].”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:uj2g526vwfe3qnpuskjexeyp/bafkreiappchidtcrrumnegykz4uq6chvznuu6fg4pbutw5y7yjaab2iczu@jpeg)
June 17, 2025 at 3:33 PM
A major danger of LLMs is that humans are SO predisposed to attribute knowledge to any entity that uses natural language fluently. We cannot imagine that a machine that outputs natural-seeming speech/text doesn't have cognition. Brilliantly articulated by @emilymbender.bsky.social et al. (2021).
The democrats must be abandoned. This is not a lesser evil. This is just Trump if he went to Ms porters school
Pod Save America: Do you think it's time to recognize a Palestinian state?
Pete Buttigieg: I think that that's a profound question that arouses a lot of the biggest problems that have happened with Israel's survival, Israel's right to survival, in the diplomatic scene.
Pete Buttigieg: I think that that's a profound question that arouses a lot of the biggest problems that have happened with Israel's survival, Israel's right to survival, in the diplomatic scene.
August 10, 2025 at 9:04 PM
The democrats must be abandoned. This is not a lesser evil. This is just Trump if he went to Ms porters school
Am I truly naive and credulous in thinking that the ad guys behind the sweeny ad are just too stupid to intentionally do white supremacy? I honestly think they just wanted to call her hot. And ofc she’s hot because white supremacy is just laminated into our culture. Am I stupid?
August 10, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Am I truly naive and credulous in thinking that the ad guys behind the sweeny ad are just too stupid to intentionally do white supremacy? I honestly think they just wanted to call her hot. And ofc she’s hot because white supremacy is just laminated into our culture. Am I stupid?
Reposted by bald
My Threads mentions are full of ostensible liberals telling me I’m missing the “nuance” when it comes to trans kids playing sports.
It’s not a matter of discrimination, they say. Trans folks are such a small percentage of the population, it’s a losing issue, they say.
To which I say:
It’s not a matter of discrimination, they say. Trans folks are such a small percentage of the population, it’s a losing issue, they say.
To which I say:
No sorry I will not allow treating transgender people as anything less than full and equal members of American society be characterized as purity and something to be papered over to defeat the right. If people like Buttigieg and Newsom want to throw those rights under the bus we have more options.
August 8, 2025 at 2:07 AM
My Threads mentions are full of ostensible liberals telling me I’m missing the “nuance” when it comes to trans kids playing sports.
It’s not a matter of discrimination, they say. Trans folks are such a small percentage of the population, it’s a losing issue, they say.
To which I say:
It’s not a matter of discrimination, they say. Trans folks are such a small percentage of the population, it’s a losing issue, they say.
To which I say:
Reposted by bald
this is why everyone told Mayor Pete to fuck off. this is why we cannot give an inch. it will never stop at sports.
August 8, 2025 at 6:16 PM
this is why everyone told Mayor Pete to fuck off. this is why we cannot give an inch. it will never stop at sports.
Reposted by bald
Who cares. These things aren't evil or good, they're transformer-based models that generate what is the most likely thing you want based on what you tell them. This is getting so tired. What am I meant to be excited about here?
Anthropic details "persona vectors", patterns of activity within an AI model's neural network that control its character traits, such as evil and sycophancy (Anthropic)
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
August 2, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Who cares. These things aren't evil or good, they're transformer-based models that generate what is the most likely thing you want based on what you tell them. This is getting so tired. What am I meant to be excited about here?
Reposted by bald
I actually think that it is fine for the left to say that actually, biologically essentialist views are not a project that we are interested in engaging seriously with, and that is the case both for race essentialism and sex/gender essentialism.
August 1, 2025 at 11:17 PM
I actually think that it is fine for the left to say that actually, biologically essentialist views are not a project that we are interested in engaging seriously with, and that is the case both for race essentialism and sex/gender essentialism.
Blue sky lets you disable quote posts?
This stupid app won’t last. It’s not truly federated but you still can’t have a truly private account. Blocking shouldn’t break threads for non blocked people. If your account isn’t private, you should be able to quote tweet.
Awful UX, no safety improvement
This stupid app won’t last. It’s not truly federated but you still can’t have a truly private account. Blocking shouldn’t break threads for non blocked people. If your account isn’t private, you should be able to quote tweet.
Awful UX, no safety improvement
August 2, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Blue sky lets you disable quote posts?
This stupid app won’t last. It’s not truly federated but you still can’t have a truly private account. Blocking shouldn’t break threads for non blocked people. If your account isn’t private, you should be able to quote tweet.
Awful UX, no safety improvement
This stupid app won’t last. It’s not truly federated but you still can’t have a truly private account. Blocking shouldn’t break threads for non blocked people. If your account isn’t private, you should be able to quote tweet.
Awful UX, no safety improvement
Reposted by bald
I find it absolutely baffling when liberals talk about the US criminal punishment system as though it exists to prosecute and incarcerate powerful people. What country do you live in?
August 1, 2025 at 8:26 PM
I find it absolutely baffling when liberals talk about the US criminal punishment system as though it exists to prosecute and incarcerate powerful people. What country do you live in?
Reposted by bald
Then why did she not resign? Why did she so smugly scold anti-genocide protesters with an 'I'm speaking' and put it on merch? Why is she currently selling a book instead of loudly admitting her admin supported a genocide? There's no 'handling' a genocide, there's just stopping it.
I read the "Biden was old" book and the most heart breaking, infuriating revelation was that, in her refusal to appear disloyal (in large part bc the Biden team never trusted her) Harris swallowed her greatest differentiation from him:
That she vehemently opposed the handling of the Gazan siege.
That she vehemently opposed the handling of the Gazan siege.
COLBERT: You warned everyone…he would prosecute political enemies, cut Medicaid, alienate our allies, give tax cuts to the rich. I know you're not here to say 'I told you so' but would you like to?
HARRIS: You're correct. I did predict a lot of that. But what I did not predict was the capitulation.
HARRIS: You're correct. I did predict a lot of that. But what I did not predict was the capitulation.
August 1, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Then why did she not resign? Why did she so smugly scold anti-genocide protesters with an 'I'm speaking' and put it on merch? Why is she currently selling a book instead of loudly admitting her admin supported a genocide? There's no 'handling' a genocide, there's just stopping it.
Reposted by bald
Per @freedomflotilla.bsky.social, Smalls was released with last remaining Handala volunteer Hatem Aouini at the King Hussein Bridge (into Jordan). Aouini was received by the Tunisian embassy.
Smalls was not met by U.S. embassy or consulate, despite being provided advance details of his release.
Smalls was not met by U.S. embassy or consulate, despite being provided advance details of his release.
ALU founder Chris Smalls to be released from Israeli detainment. Smalls was beaten and jailed in inhumane conditions for trying to deliver baby formula and medicine to starving people in Gaza on the @freedomflotilla.bsky.social
Expected to arrive back in the US on Friday.
Expected to arrive back in the US on Friday.
July 31, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Per @freedomflotilla.bsky.social, Smalls was released with last remaining Handala volunteer Hatem Aouini at the King Hussein Bridge (into Jordan). Aouini was received by the Tunisian embassy.
Smalls was not met by U.S. embassy or consulate, despite being provided advance details of his release.
Smalls was not met by U.S. embassy or consulate, despite being provided advance details of his release.
Reposted by bald
Emil Bove's confirmation was only possible because Democrats caved to a vile right-wing smear campaign of Adeel Mangi, who would have been the first Muslim appeals court judge, when Biden nominated him for the same seat last year. Absolutely disgraceful. Bove's confirmation is on them, too.
The Cowardice of Senate Democrats Made Emil Bove’s Confirmation Possible
Senate Democrats could have confirmed Biden nominee Adeel Mangi to the Third Circuit last year. They caved to a disgraceful right-wing smear campaign instead.
ballsandstrikes.org
July 30, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Emil Bove's confirmation was only possible because Democrats caved to a vile right-wing smear campaign of Adeel Mangi, who would have been the first Muslim appeals court judge, when Biden nominated him for the same seat last year. Absolutely disgraceful. Bove's confirmation is on them, too.
It’s built on plagiarism, it destroys the environment, it doesn’t think, and now it’s racist, too? You couldn’t write this they’d laugh at you
"AI companies are already doing what Trump wants. Meta notes that after removing 'bias,' its 'Llama' LLM is now 'comparable to Grok.' Yes, Grok — Musk’s AI chatbot, which was recently in the news for having a full-on pro-Nazi meltdown, including copious praise of Hitler." — @paulwaldman.bsky.social
Tech elites are turning AI into ChatGPTrump
The administration's new AI plan gives Silicon Valley everything it wants — for a price.
www.publicnotice.co
July 30, 2025 at 3:14 AM
It’s built on plagiarism, it destroys the environment, it doesn’t think, and now it’s racist, too? You couldn’t write this they’d laugh at you
Is presidential politics just going to be hiring and then re firing millions of people every time the party swaps until society collapses
Just praying at this point that someone is putting together an exhaustive priority-ranked list of all the actions that need to be reversed if we ever get out of this.
July 30, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Is presidential politics just going to be hiring and then re firing millions of people every time the party swaps until society collapses
Crazy to see someone you recognize but can’t remember get married on social media so you scroll through the grid and realize they were dating someone you don’t talk to anymore 6 years ago
Or maybe that’s totally banal idk
But it was an interesting feeling to go from no memory, to memory
Or maybe that’s totally banal idk
But it was an interesting feeling to go from no memory, to memory
July 29, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Crazy to see someone you recognize but can’t remember get married on social media so you scroll through the grid and realize they were dating someone you don’t talk to anymore 6 years ago
Or maybe that’s totally banal idk
But it was an interesting feeling to go from no memory, to memory
Or maybe that’s totally banal idk
But it was an interesting feeling to go from no memory, to memory
Reposted by bald
People in Gaza take care of so many cats and they deserve at least that care in return (they deserve so much more than that too)
July 29, 2025 at 5:53 AM
People in Gaza take care of so many cats and they deserve at least that care in return (they deserve so much more than that too)
Reposted by bald
You cannot address the starvation in Gaza without addressing the fact that Israel also destroyed all agriculture and fishing as part of this engineered famine. It's not just cutting off food aid, it is destroying all internal capability to feed people.
July 28, 2025 at 8:54 PM
You cannot address the starvation in Gaza without addressing the fact that Israel also destroyed all agriculture and fishing as part of this engineered famine. It's not just cutting off food aid, it is destroying all internal capability to feed people.