Redneck Lefty

@rednecklefty

Student of people, history and the sciences, scholar of fortune

3.601 Folgt4.781 Follower14.992 Posts

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Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· 18d

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· 26d

Steven Miller with a lizard in his mouth, between his teeth, with tail sticking out, photoshopped.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· 26d

The bad news, from the National Constitution Center, below. Sad that the MAGA capture of it appears to be complete, since Rosen was forced out. I'm tempted to register and ask some questions. Well, akshully, more like some comments...😏

National Constitution Center
@constitutionctr.bsky.social

Joined Nov ’24
Join Ilan Wurman for an #NCCBookClub conversation on his new book, "The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction." Julie Silverbrook moderates.

Register to attend Monday, July 27 at 6:30 p.m. ET: ow.ly/cans50ZnV5r

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· 28d

I now have Questions about the Wabash Cannonball

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· 29d

Max, I bring you good news!

Wawa ad for cheesecake smoothies and milkshakes

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Jun 22

I get this

@kenwhite.bsky.social aka Popehat

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Account has been suspended

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Jun 21

Two other Best Father Figures for today.

John Herod, tyrant, gunman and killer of his son

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Jun 18

Name a TV show you're positive no one remembers but you

UFO in large letters on top of an image of two hands holding a photo, obscuring the details of the photo

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Jun 16

Reading this, I'm marveling at the fact that in the 8th Circuit, a prosecutor doesn't have to provide any legal instruction, when presenting a case for indictment to the grand jury:

“Under the prevailing law of this Circuit, the prosecutor is not under an obligation
to provide the Grand Jury with any legal instructions.” Finn, 919 F. Supp. at 1327 (citing
United States v. Zangger, 848 F.2d 923, 925 (8th Cir. 1988) (Indictment should not have
been dismissed because of prosecutor’s failure to instruct the Grand Jury on the applicable
law of obscenity).

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Jun 13

Remember this guy is trusted by every White House administration.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Jun 13

Yep, I can confirm. Fresh off the CMS they have there, as of 1 min. ago.

The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts
will present

The 27th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
to
Bill Maher
bill maher

Prize Will Be Awarded at the Trump Kennedy Center at a Gala Performance on June 28, 2026

Washington, D.C. — The Donald J. Trump

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Jun 4

For those of us who state any value or utility in LLMs or other forms of ML, we have to confront that we may be enabling the investor class (such as Musk, Thiel, Kushner and Trump) in their war on competence, expertise, and I dare say truth and consensual reality.

Understood in this framework, the LLM is simply the latest in a series of technologies that have promised the investor class that this time, finally, they can eliminate the need for competence and not have to consider or respect any value system other than their own. This is the fundamental conflict that competence engenders: rather than being a question of economic jealousy, a simple status conflict (it can involve status conflicts, but they tend to be more complex than the regular kind we're used to) or a question of being corrected on the facts (not fun, but everyone has some reality they eventually collide with and have to make their peace with), resentment towards or a desire to punish competence stems from the discomfort that comes from being forced into regular, serious conflict with people with a value system that differs drastically from yours and that you have, on some level, to acknowledge is superior to yours because it does things that yours can't. The competent engineer's value system can produce working, effective and maintainable software products. The competent medical researcher can produce mRNA vaccines that save lives. The competent public servant can arrange government projects in such a way that they get completed effectively and provide useful public services to everyone in a country.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· May 26

It's interesting that this misleading paragraph is in the article. What laws were invoked against lying in either of these two cases?

In a new book, Liar’s Kingdom: How to Stop Trump’s Deceit and Save America, Weissmann makes the case for major reform to hold political liars to account when their lies damage democracy itself, without falling afoul of free speech rights under the first amendment.

Weissmann proposes a Truth in Elections Act, built on existing law. The Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which criminalizes lying about military honors “with intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit”, survived a US supreme court challenge.

Laying out his case for new legislation, Weissmann pointed to countries that protect elections from damaging lies. Examples include Brazil, where former president Jair Bolsonaro was jailed for election fraud lies that fueled a failed coup, and the UK, where, in 2010, Labour MP Phil Woolas lost his seat after falsely suggesting an opponent supported extremist violence.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· May 25

The press release of the new exhibit/gallery at the National Constitution Center, "Governing the Nation", includes this... constitutioncenter.org/about/press-...

The development of Governing the Nation was guided by a distinguished scholarly advisory board representing leading universities and research institutions, ensuring a rigorous and balanced exploration of the separation of powers and federalism. Notable scholars include H. W. Brands, Cristina Rodríguez, Yuval Levin, Michael Klarman, Gail Heriot, and Ilan Wurman.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· May 25

The Monday before May 25th, right? What is the date today?

National Patriots Day info box in Wikipedia.

2026 date May 18, 2026.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· May 22

Funny, Boutros said he would have the press release removed or updated...

Press Release
Federal Grand Jury in Chicago Indicts Six Individuals on Charges of Impeding Federal Agent Engaged in Immigration Enforcement Operations
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Share right caret
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois
CHICAGO – A federal grand jury in Chicago has indicted six individuals for allegedly forcibly impeding and interfering with a federal agent who was engaged in immigration enforcement operations in a Chicago suburb last month. The indictment includes a conspiracy charge against all of the defendants arising out of the incident.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· May 16

Looks like the author is hawking his book in this article. I'm curious about his background.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· May 15

Checking the author, Andrew Noymer, and found this. 😦

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· May 14

We have this more current item from late last year. www.justice.gov/usao-vt/pr/u...

On October 22, Gordon Richard, 77, from Georgia, Vermont, was sentenced to an 18-month prison term, to be followed by three years of supervised release, following his guilty plea to possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Apr 30

A very good commentary, by an expert, on the sandcastle of Comey's indictment and how flimsy it is. If you haven't already, please read it. I would also quote from the end of the essay.

One remedy is to keep fighting, expel the craven Republicans (and some Democrats) supporting Trump, then expel Trump himself. The remedy is to make certain that nobody involved in this travesty is ever respected or trusted or accepted again. That means among others W. Ellis Boyle, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and Matthew R. Petracca, the assistant United States Attorney responsible for this jurisprudential prolapse. Never trust them again, and never trust or tolerate again anyone who treats them as acceptable.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Apr 18

If I were a CEO...😏 Another Goya comes to mind here as well...

Goya's painting, The Third of May 1808 in Madrid

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Apr 16

A Tale of Two Republicans

When elected leaders don't respond to democratic incentives, they are easier to beat at the ballot box. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have not just one fascist, but an entire fascist party to deal with. And that meansDemocrats need to do more than win elections. They need to crush the fascist party after they win
Are they willing to do that? I hope so. But I am not as certain as I'd like to be.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Apr 11

The (now withdrawn) summons, which has been replaced by a grand jury subpoena to Reddit, claimed that a measure in the Smoot-Hawley Act required the production of information about the critic. #lawsky, is this usual, even for a desperate DHS and DOJ?

The summons cited authority under 19 U.S. Code § 1509, which is part of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. The motion to quash by the defendant said the summons is not authorized by the law, which deals with imports of boats, alcoholic drinks, and animals, among other things.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Apr 6

Bun bun with switchblade saying, Bite Me Nerd Boy.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Apr 5

An excellent essay by @minaskar.bsky.social on some of the dangers of using LLMs in scientific research in way that the AI boosters in tech and academia are advocating. ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma... Two paragraphs in the middle especially caught my attention:

People call this friction "grunt work." Schwartz uses exactly that phrase, and he's right that LLMs can remove it. What he doesn't say, because he already has decades of hard-won intuition and doesn't need the grunt work anymore, is that for someone who doesn't yet have that intuition, the grunt work is the work. The boring parts and the important parts are tangled together in a way that you can't separate in advance. You don't know which afternoon of debugging was the one that taught you something fundamental about your data until three years later, when you're working on a completely different problem and the insight surfaces. Serendipity doesn't come from efficiency. It comes from spending time in the space where the problem lives, getting your hands dirty, making mistakes that nobody asked you to make and learning things nobody assigned you to learn.

The strange thing is that we have always known this. Every physics textbook ever written comes with exercises at the end of each chapter, and every physics professor who has ever stood in front of a lecture hall has said the same thing: you cannot learn physics by watching someone else do it. You have to pick up the pencil. You have to attempt the problem. You have to get it wrong, sit with the wrongness, and figure out where your reasoning broke. Reading the solution manual and nodding along feels like understanding. It is not understanding. Every student who has tried to coast through a problem set by reading the solutions and then bombed the exam knows this in their bones. We have centuries of accumulated pedagogical wisdom telling us that the attempt, including the failed attempt, is where the learning lives. And yet, somehow, when it comes to AI agents, we've collectively decided that maybe this time it's different. That maybe nodding at Claude's output is a substitute for doing the calculation yourself. It isn't. We knew that before LLMs existed. We seem to have forgotten it the moment they became convenient.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Apr 5

Bill the Cat > Bill Ackman

Bill the Cat, sitting with legs apart is his disheveled glory, saying "Ack!"

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Apr 4

If you see this, I implore you to post a picture from whatever device you're using with no explanation.

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Mar 26

Quote with a better magic system than HP

Redneck Lefty@rednecklefty· Mar 20

Oh, hey, is this you @msmith750.bsky.social? This OLC Opinion Is ‘Bullshit’ www.lawfaremedia.org/article/this...