Our government has been increasingly involved in suppressing lawful speech. Dissent, like COVID mitigation approaches, are legal and protected by the first amendment.

Please listen to @ShellenbergerMD’s excellent opening remarks before the House Subcommittee. #Twitterfiles twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Read more:

https://twitter.com/shellenbergermd/status/1633819725607174146?s=46&t=__t3v6WdVtOPFu7bcq4_WQ

This took place at Stanford the other day -- an institution I love. My god. Do you think this performative, self-absorbed nonsense is helpful to the exchange of ideas?

Trivia: This woman is an administrator, not faculty; Stanford now employs as many faculty and staff as… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Context:

https://twitter.com/EdWhelanEPPC/status/1634194343987691527?s=20

Now that we're in "budget season," here's a thread on some basic macroeconomic realities Americans should know. 🧵

1) Federal revenues as a % of GDP have remained relatively stable since 1988, even risen slightly. SPENDING, however, has not. 2) As a result, our projected national debt -- which is now roughly equal to one year's GDP -- will soar way beyond it.

Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government LIVE

youtube.com/live/etvy-38jq… via @YouTube Superb opening remarks by @ShellenbergerMD. I urge you to hear them.

Hard to believe that 40 years ago (last month), the world lost this singer. I didn't fully appreciate her -- pretty sappy ballads. But wow, what a voice.

Related, just Youtube-scrolling. 10cc, "I'm not in love." A song about denial. A subtle masterpiece. Of course he's in love.

Is there a more important question than how the greatest health crisis in our lifetime came to be?

If you’re thinking of putting a podcast on today or streaming something tonight, consider listening in on the House Committee on COVID origins.

youtube.com/live/kPAvkSFwu… Virologist Dr. Robert Redfield, former head of the CDC, made quite clear in his opening statement that he believes the preponderance of evidence suggests this pandemic came from GoF research efforts, via lab accident. He believes we should put a halt on such research.

Worth a read.

https://twitter.com/wrongspeakpub/status/1628405681786171393

We cannot ignore it: there IS an explicit goal to tear down merit-based programs and opportunities. Do you think that’s a good thing? Defend it, if so. But stop pretending it’s not happening.

Humans are highly optimized pattern-matchers. And that’s what makes AI particularly precarious right now. 🧵 Learning involves a lot of pattern matching.

ChatGPT and other transformer models are trained on enormous bodies of text. Yet ChatGPT -generates- enormous bodies of text. So updated training will continue to ingest more of the modal/average viewpoint. It’s all very interesting, filled with both potential and danger. What is the role of “propaganda?”

It is in essence, manufactured consensus.

Basically, a Social Credit System as applied to a market economy. Legal, but kind of insane. I don't even know Lauren's viewpoints.

Should Airbnb block, say, Jeffrey Epstein's relatives? Ghislane Maxwell's? Harvey W's?

Consider telling AirBnB "don't do this" with your wallet.

https://twitter.com/Lauren_Southern/status/1623103441844436992

I dropped @PayPal for similar reasons, and do everything I can to avoid using @GoFundMe. These are mainstream services, but have taken on the role of ideological purity tests. I wrote about why I disagree with that approach here:

stevemurch.com/financial-syst…

Regarding odes to Presidents 45 and 46, which seem to be all the rage in #ChatGPT and pundit circles today... I decided to give it a whirl. Recorded February 7th 2023 at 2pm. (It's nondeterministic so your results may vary, but this is my 1st attempt.)

I earned an MS in CompSci: Symbolic and Heuristic Computing at Stanford in '86, just when neural nets were being invented. So I get the basics of HOW this can happen WITHOUT explicit nefarious aims.

But let's please not deny that it's happening, or claim it's insignificant.

Is Generative Chat headed in the direction of Microsoft Excel, or AM/FM/cableTV?

Once you encode values into a text-generator, the audience is going to self-select. I'll share a few threads and screenshots on this. Ponder what you'd LIKE the output to be -- it's not simple. Follow this thread for numerous examples:

https://twitter.com/RudyTakala/status/1620555072336969728?s=20&t=8a7yCcwAtvMX9GRTIUimkQ

Seattle Public Schools have seen at least a 10% drop in enrollment, and now have a dire forecast on enrollment in the next 5 years. SPS is looking at consolidating schools, shutting some down.

If only someone had said something. #Seattle

seattletimes.com/education-lab/… SPS is now looking at shutting some neighborhood schools down to try to save money.

The Gallup numbers on race relations in the US are striking. They make a very good case that we are NOT on the right track with a racial essentialism approach, which is the underlying theme in too many DEI initiatives. Let's look at some data and see if you agree. 🧵 1) Race relations, as viewed by Black adults and White adults are down SUBSTANTIALLY in my lifetime, and trending lower.

In 1963, 70% of Black Americans said race relations "would eventually be worked out." By 2021, just 40% felt that way.

Seattle Teachers Union letter, advocating to keep all 56,000 K-12th graders masked until “at least May 1st.” This despite @CDC and state department of health guidelines. They don’t cite a single study which shows that mask mandates change outcomes. Follow the science, or nah? Washington State is lifting all indoor mask mandates March 12th. But the teachers union insists that somehow letting kids and their families decide whether to mask up or not doesn’t “center the need of BIPOC communities.” What?

Good morning. The @CDC says it’s ok to make masks optional. The State Department of Health agrees. @GovInslee has made masking optional statewide as of March 12th. But the Seattle teachers union won’t agree to let kids choose to mask or not. Why does SPS give them this power? They say it’s in their collective bargaining agreement. So essentially adults are forcing kids, who have done everything asked of them during this pandemic, to keep covering their faces, because some adults want more. Shameful.

Here's a pretty astonishing fact the Sawant Solidarity Campaign likely doesn't want you to know...

1/6 Just 19% of donations to the "Sawant Solidarity Campaign" come from WITHIN her district.
That is, 81% of the funds raised to KEEP her in office come from OUTSIDE her district. 81% of funds are from non-constituents.

2/6