I actually think targeted export controls on model access are prudent. But across the board controls on all countries on a single model, without any warning, is highly questionable. Imposing equally broad deemed export controls, which also restrict access to foreign nationals, is just absurd—and obviously will result in the model being pulled from distribution, as just happened. Export controls are a critical tool, and an extremely powerful one. Used correctly, they have the potential to massively extend the US lead in AI. Used incorrectly, they will stifle AI development. The Department of Commerce’s export control strategy has been completely incoherent and sabotaging. It is sending powerful AI chips to China, not enforcing controls that would prevent Chinese smuggling, creating massive loopholes that allow AI chips to be sent to China, and preventing US AI companies from releasing their own models. This has to stop. We urgently need a smart export control strategy that applies robust export controls to deny our adversaries access to advanced technology, while advantaging US companies. Commerce and BIS are consistently doing the opposite. If BIS doesn’t understand how to use its authorities or what the implications are of its actions, then it needs to find some new personnel who can actually execute a competent export control strategy. The current one is incoherent and self-defeating.

When I fell asleep at the Garden, the Knicks were Winning. Then when I wake up, I see the Spurs have "won." It seems that in the 4th Quarter, the so-called referees kept "finding" Points for the Spurs. Rigged! Fake Game! by Donald J. Trump

People who continue to blame New World Screwworm crisis on the Biden Administration need to stop The Secretary has had 15 months to prepare a competent response, and despite what some are saying, the response has been lackluster and unserious Let’s go over some facts: In order to eradicate the NWS, we need somewhere between 500M-600M sterile flies produced WEEKLY, and we currently produce 100M weekly There are current mechanisms and technologies that could be deployed IMMEDIATELY in order to produce those numbers that have been ignored by the USDA for the past 6 months The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) which oversees the NWS response is a disaster. There were some competent veterinarians interviewed during the transition willing to serve and reform the bureau who were blocked by the Secretary and her team. Instead they decided to retain the same director from the Biden Administration (ironic) who botched the response to the Avian flu The tick rider program (people on horseback looking at wildlife and livestock in desolate areas) is completely disorganized, so the “surveillance” mechanisms that continue to be touted are not sufficient enough to detect these infestations in extremely rural areas in the timely manner required to combat this On top of all this, producers in Texas are being pressured NOT TO REPORT potential cases, and if it wasn’t for some brave people reporting on this current case in LaPryor, it’s possible it would have been covered up NATIONAL EMERGENCY DECLARATION NOW

I’m 95% done with dinner I just have to decide what I’m eating, how I’m cooking it, and what store I want to shop at

HOLY CRAP Trump actually accomplished a miracle. Here is what he got out of Iran: - Reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium by about 98% - Limit uranium enrichment to 3.67% purity (far below weapons-grade) - Cut the number of installed centrifuges by roughly two-thirds - Only enrich uranium at one declared site (Natanz) - Stop enrichment activities at Fordow and convert it into a research facility - Redesign the Arak heavy-water reactor so it could not easily produce weapons-grade plutonium - Ship out or dilute excess enriched uranium Allow extensive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Permit continuous monitoring of nuclear facilities and supply chains - Accept “snap” inspections under expanded monitoring rules - Avoid building new heavy-water reactors for years - Stay within strict limits on uranium stockpile size and centrifuge development for set periods ranging from 10–25 years Ooops, sorry! That was the JCPOA that Obama signed with Iran, only to have him tear it up, kill 140 kids, get hundreds of Americans injured, 13 killed, and gas prices to surge 50%.

June 1, 1933: The "Fund of German Trade and Industry" is created, a huge slush fund administered by Martin Bormann in the Führer's name. The regime used the funds to compensate SA Stormtroopers who committed street violence, subsize the SS, and enrich Nazi party officials.

Read @EggerDC on the utter foulness of the Trump IRS settlement fund. Truly the type of rank corruption we have not really witnessed before. Plundering at its finest

A Maryland tax scofflaw owing thousands of $. Paid off last month. District 39 voters prioritize personal integrity in their leaders. You are the progressive Robin Ficker. A serial candidate with serious ethics problems. @BaltimoreBanner

Your level of comfort & privilege is found in your $1 million home in Germantown. And there is a HOA lien for unpaid assessments. How can you lecture anyone about privilege?

The MAGA crowd in Washington has decided that since Europeans don’t sufficiently appreciate Trump, the American bases on the continent must go. This is the strategic reasoning of a man who burns down his own kitchen. American bases in Europe were never a favour. They are the logistical spine of every war the United States fights east of Gibraltar. Ramstein moves the cargo, Aviano launches the jets, Rota services the ships. Without them the Pentagon does not project power into the Middle East. It projects PowerPoint. The fantasy assumes the alternative is aircraft carriers gliding majestically into the Persian Gulf. That era is ending. A modern carrier is a thirteen-billion-dollar trophy that can be reduced to scrap by a couple of hundred cheap missiles fired from the Iranian coast. China noticed. The other fantasy is that America simply fights from home. Picture the alternative: twenty thousand transatlantic sorties shuttling spare parts, munitions, fuel bladders, mechanics and replacement pilots from Norfolk and Dover to wherever the war happens to be. A C-17 burns through roughly 35,000 dollars of fuel every hour it flies, and the round trip from the American east coast to the Gulf is the better part of a day. Multiply that by every bolt, every missile, every spare engine. The war becomes a sustained airborne traffic jam with the bill arriving by the second. So you need land, specifically land near the war. Modern combat aircraft are not Spitfires you fuel up and send off with a wave. An F-35 demands an entire Walmart of spare parts, a small city of technicians, climate-controlled hangars and a supply chain stretching halfway round the planet. Drones need operators, networks, satellites and a steady diet of components no carrier can store. Modern war arrives by container ship and lives in a warehouse. Close the bases, and Washington loses the warehouses. Lose the warehouses, and the next confrontation with Iran is either fought by phone or fought from Kansas with a flight schedule that bankrupts the Treasury before the first missile lands. MAGA thinks shutting Ramstein punishes Europe. It punishes America. Europe will be inconvenienced. America will be unarmed. And so, after a thousand insults, a thousand sneers, a thousand late-night posts about freeloading allies, Europe is quietly drafting the politest letter in diplomatic history. It thanks America for its service. It wishes the troops a safe journey home. It suggests, with great warmth, that Washington might now turn its attention to its neighbours in Latin America, where a fading superpower can busy itself with whatever a fading superpower busies itself with. Spain had its century. Britain had its empire. The Soviets had their parades. Each ended the same way: as a shadow of itself, with the historians left to argue, volume after volume, about precisely when the rot set in and why nobody noticed in time. America is welcome to join them on the shelf.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ If you like what you read, please follow Gandalv on Substack: substack.com/@gandalv

Page 8647 Jan 31 2025 Federal Register is publication of the #Trump Crypto EO. govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2… Are we to read into this a Deep State plot? @dojphofficial has jumped down the rabbit hole like Alice in Wonderland asserting arranging seashells in the sand is a threat.

Next thing you know #doj and #fbi will investigate Americans who play the numbers 8647 in the daily #win4 lottery.

It's a disgrace when @SecWar mess serves lobster and steak. Warfighters on extended deployment get short rations. And no care packages from home. @ChrisVanHollen @AlsobrooksForMD @MarkWarner

Right.

Donald Trump thought he could score cheap political points by calling Bill LeRoy an “insult to Jesus” because the veteran catcher and captain of the Savannah Bananas is “beyond woke” and believes that God does not discriminate on the basis of gender. Standing in front of a roaring, sold-out Banana Ball crowd, LeRoy didn’t just clap back — he delivered a powerful, no-nonsense response that shook the stadium. “The president of the United States just said that I insulted Jesus,” LeRoy began, gripping the mic with calm intensity. “You want to know what’s a real insult to Jesus? Turning your back on people who need help while giving more to those who already have everything.” “You know what insults Jesus?” he continued, gesturing toward the crowd. “Separating families, shutting doors on those in need, and forgetting what ‘love thy neighbor’ actually means. That’s not the message I stand for — and it’s not the message this team stands for.” “You know what insults Jesus? Preaching values while ignoring compassion. Talking about faith while practicing division. That’s not faith — that’s politics dressed up as religion.” “I’m not a perfect Christian,” he said, a small smile crossing his face. “There’s only been one perfect man, and I’m not him. I’m just a catcher who believes in treating people right.” “Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves… So why do we keep choosing hate, division, and fear instead?”

I guess rigorous science and real medicine still matter. If only this breakthrough had occurred before my Dad died of pancreatic cancer, a horrible disease. Support research and ignore kooks, some of whom are now in high office.

A reasonable deal is better than a return to war and I’ll support it. But let’s remember that this is a colossal failure for Trump and for US interests. 1. We could have had this deal or something similar before the war without: the death and destruction across the Middle East; massive damage to US allies and partners and global relationships; huge use of military resources that will take years to rebuild; and significant damage to the global economy. 2. If Trump hadn’t left the JCPOA we’d probably be in the midst of negotiations on extensions of key components and follow on deals at this point but from a much stronger position. Iran wouldn’t have 400KG of HEU and we’d have the most comprehensive inspections regime ever developed to catch any cheating. Instead this 3 page MOU will probably involve nothing even close on what is arguably the single most important element of any nuclear deal - inspections and verification.

To all those who berated the JCPOA because it “gave” billions to the Iranian dictatorship, I’m eager to your assessments of Trumps Iran nuclear deal. Under JCPOA, the US released frozen Iranian funds & did not transfer US taxpayer dollars to the mullahs)