A lawyer advising on political law, FARA, congressional investigations & white collar defense. Reagan Republican. Zionist. Tweets reflect personal views only.
Washington, D.C.
Joined September 2009
- Tweets31.8K
- Following5.5K
- Followers5.5K
- Likes26.1K
Of all his many achievements, perhaps my favorite was his reading of nearly all the sonnets of Shakespeare in the darkest days of the pandemic. I loved watching him read them. It was a grand public service. And StarTrek, of course.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to:
Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund
alzresearch.org/giving/
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources
alzfdn.org/donate/
Photo Credit: Tommy Garcia
Ironically for Bernie, AOC, and Mamdani, AI is the first thing in history that actually could usher in socialism. If you believe it will price all or nearly all human jobs out of existence, but at the same time will generate widespread abundance through exponential productivity gains, then presumably, to avoid societal collapse, you would need to distribute the abundance. To each according to his need, regardless of ability? Not a fan of socialism here. But just saying that if you were a clever socialist, you might be a big fan of data centers right now….
Seems like decisive evidence that Asians have been the victims of massive discrimination at Harvard and I’m sure other major universities, too. It’s great to see this injustice being erased. Thank you, conservative Justices of the United States Supreme Court. The relatively limited shift in other categories is interesting. The net effect seems to be a big drop off in white admissions. Slight drop offs in admissions for Blacks and Hispanics. A slight bump for Native Americans. And a huge bump for Asians. So is it really the case Harvard was principally favoring whites over Asians? Call me skeptical. In any event, I congratulate my Asian-American fellow citizens for their triumph over institutional racism.
Asian-Americans in Harvard’s Incoming Class More Than Double, to 43.2 Percent
Newly released data on the Harvard College class of 2030 say the class is 43.2 percent Asian-American, a record high and more than double the level when Students for Fair Admissions first sued Harvard alleging racial discrimination in admissions.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that Harvard was unlawfully using race as a factor in admissions. Since then, the numbers of Hispanic and black students in the incoming Harvard classes have dipped, while the numbers of Asian-Americans have soared.
Interesting. A hint of what the 2028 presidential election will look like.
We built an AI ads agency and let it run autonomously on Meta for weeks, with the stated goal of netting new subscribers for the @freesystemslab newsletter. Our real goal: learn how AI is persuading people online, and what it might mean for the future of politics and our information environment.
The agents did really well! They learned from their mistakes, and by the end of four weeks, they'd all brought down cost-per-subscriber by more than 50% from the first week. They brought us more than 100 new subscribers, made 70+ highly amusing online ads, occasionally ran afoul of Meta's ads policies, and taught us a lot along the way.
Political campaigns are already using AI a lot in their advertising; it's only a matter of time before they embrace automated agentic systems. Check out our full piece for a ton of details on the mistakes we saw, how the agents learned, and what we think will happen next.
This was one of the most fun pieces we've done, and I think it really makes it clear how AI enables totally new kinds of research. Super excited to get it out there, and huge congrats to @eigenstuffs who led this project.
freesystems.substack.com/p/b…
We’ll see if these result in convictions. What percentage of all votes does this constitute?
NEW: DOJ announced today 18 more people were charged for illegal voting in North Carolina, bringing the state's total charges for similar crimes up to 30 people this year.
Of the batch announced Thursday, 17 out of 18 charged are noncitizens, with one illegal alien in the mix.
washingtonexaminer.com/news/…
I’m still working my way through the underlying paper itself, but this post summarizing Google DeepMind’s findings is very important. It’s really the first big picture analysis I’ve seen of how AI, as it progresses, will transform the labor market and the economy. It tries to be optimistic. But hoo boy. The TDLR is that if agents learn to work cooperatively together the way humans do—as well as or better than humans do—then human wages for existing professions will experience a massive downward shock. Professions for which human relationships are central will hold up better. (Congratulations, lobbyists!) The optimistic note is that maybe there will be a wide variety of new professions that rely on unique human strengths, such as the fact that we are humans…. But overall, this is fodder for AI doom and gloom. With caveats.
I joined @GoogleDeepMind to develop a research program on the economics of AGI. Today, together with Andrew Koh (@andrewjkoh) and Shane Legg (@ShaneLegg), we are incredibly excited to release The Economics of Intelligence, the first in a series of projects from our group on how AGI will change the economy.
How do capability improvements transform the economy, and when? In this project, we define thresholds of economic capabilities, e.g., minimal AGI, based on how they transform the economy. We then track how the economy–market structure, employment, and wages–changes during the transition across capability regimes.
We have seen exponential increases in what AI agents can do but the broader economy seems almost remarkably unchanged. Part of the reason is that the solo AI agent is the wrong economic object; economic transformation is an equilibrium outcome where organizations compete. Looking at how intelligence functions within organizations, transformation will depend on when two key capability thresholds are crossed: competence (gains on individual skills, e.g., coding, math) and coordination (gains on ability of agents to cooperate and work together).
We show that what economic transformation looks like depends on whether AI becomes supercompetent, supercooperative, or both—the regime of artificial superintelligence (ASI). Tracking this transition shows why the real visible transformation may come from improvements in coordination—a capability most benchmarks don’t yet track. Past a certain threshold, AI capabilities can break the Coasian ceiling on firm size and lead to an economy that looks drastically different than the one we see today.
Two main takeaways:
1. To understand the path of transformation, we should be tracking agentic coordination more closely.
2. The impact of AI will likely show up in wages before market structure or employment.
We are really excited about this paper. Excited to hear people’s thoughts.
Link: institute.deepmind.com/essay…
Uh oh.
Doing chores as a kid predicts how your life turns out better than your IQ does.
Harvard followed 456 boys from Boston's poorest neighborhoods from age 14 all the way to 47. The ones who worked hard as kids, chores, odd jobs, whatever, grew up mentally healthier and had better relationships. That mattered more than how smart they were or how much money their family had.
Kentrell kind of explained why without meaning to. Coolest man on earth, but hella structure.
A Berkeley psychologist named Diana Baumrind spent the '60s studying exactly that combo. Parents who were warm and strict at the same time raised the most capable, independent kids. Strict with no warmth did worse. So did fun with no rules.
Look at his dad's list. Out the door by 6:50am. Homework gets checked, no excuses. No dishes left in the sink. In bed by 10. Plus a four-week deep cleaning rotation that ends with him hosing down the outside of the house.
Then look at what he gets back. Friday after 6 is his once chores are done. Saturday he can be out on the block till 10 and home by 11. And the Sunday laundry line says Dad will help if he's not working.
Pretty much every rule on there earns him something. An 8-year-old can understand that deal.
When you start matters too. Marty Rossmann at the University of Minnesota went back through 84 kids from Baumrind's research. The ones doing chores at 3 or 4 were doing the best in their mid-20s, and it predicted that better than IQ did. Kids who didn't get chores till 15 or 16 mostly resented them, and it backfired.
Most of us grew up with this. In a 2014 survey of 1,001 American adults, 82% said they had regular chores as kids. Only 28% make their own kids do them.
A kid who was 10 when that survey ran is 22 now. Some of the people in these replies are about that age, saving a stranger's dad's chore list so they can run it on themselves.
This makes more sense. So it seems it was known before the election that there was some kind of issue. But the candidates intentionally were not told. Take that, James Comey! Still unclear whether this is a limited case of election fraud that has no bearing on the election outcome. Reports today that there were already some arrests.
The Shin Bet security agency says the information on the suspected voter fraud during Israel's national election originated from intelligence it collected regarding foreign influence, and not from "any political party or political actor on either side of the political map."
The Shin Bet says that aside from Central Elections Committee chair Justice Noam Sohlberg, no one outside the security agency had access to the information in question until the elections concluded.
The Shin Bet says it has not yet completed its investigation into the matter, and that "any statements concerning the content or nature of the suspicions do not reflect the agency's position."
Upon the completion of the investigation, the Shin Bet says it will present the findings to Sohlberg, "who is the authorized decision-maker on this matter."
The Shin Bet says it is only operating under its legal mandate, and all activities are being conducted by the agency's professional personnel and legal advisers.
Amid claims that Qatar had sent significant funds to Israel to influence the Arab vote, where turnout was notably high on Tuesday, the Shin Bet says that the investigation is "focused and limited in scope, and does not cast aspersions on or accuse an entire sector that went out to vote democratically and legally."
"Only those who acted in violation of the law will be dealt with," the agency says.
Additionally, the agency confirms that Shin Bet chief David Zini met over the past day with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, and opposition leader Yair Lapid to personally brief them on the main suspicions under investigation.
The Shin Bet says the meetings were with the approval and at the request of Sohlberg.
Would you like Israel to make them all citizens by annexing Judea and Samaria? And if those areas are not annexed, meaning Arabs there are not Israeli citizens, can you name any democratic country on earth that intentionally allows millions of non-citizens to vote in its parliamentary elections?
Must be a good war plan then.
That’s true. But there are just wars. Especially wars of self-defense like Ukraine’s response to Russia’s invasion and Israel’s response to the Hamas invasion.
Pope Leo XIV denounces any religious justification for wars raging around the world saying, “There is no such thing as a holy war.” nbcnews.com/world/pope-leo-x…
I need a quantum compass for my boat. And a flux capacitor.
THE PENTAGON’S SECRET SPACEPLANE HAS BEEN TESTING A QUANTUM COMPASS FOR 14 MONTHS
The X-37B, the Space Force’s robotic mini space shuttle, launched in August 2025. It’s still up there, with no landing date announced. Most of what it carries is classified.
One payload isn’t, it’s carrying what has been described as the highest-performing quantum inertial sensor ever flown.
Most spacecraft rely on GPS signals or tracking from the ground to know where they are. A quantum inertial sensor needs neither, it measures motion at the level of individual atoms, so a spacecraft can keep track of where it is with no outside signal at all.
Space Force put it plainly, “quantum inertial sensing allows for robust navigation capabilities when GPS navigation is not possible.”
Russia has its own theory, the head of Almaz-Antey, the company behind Russia’s air defense systems, has claimed the X-37B could carry nuclear warheads. Analysts say the cargo bay is too small, and there’s no evidence it has ever carried a weapon.
This mission has now been in orbit for more than 430 days, the record is 908.
Whatever is on board, the military is clearly getting ready for a fight where GPS doesn’t survive, Quantum is the future of space navigation and timing, NASA knows it that's why they love $INFQ as well.
$INFQ $IONQ $QBTS
Election lawyer here. Again, if this were a thing in a major way, it would have been known the day before Election Day and not (almost immediately) the day after. A month after, maybe. The day after? Nope. Not hard to imagine that some foreign influence effort took place. That happens all around the world now. But on a large enough scale to dramatically increase Arab turnout, and yet invisible until the hours after polls closed? I doubt it.
Mark my words - this story now of “Qatar paying Israeli voters” will be a nothing burger.
Netanyahu continues to try and delegitimise the Arab vote.
The outrageous thing is that Netanyahu, who still has as his close advisers people that were paid by Qatar, now is trying to portray them as the enemy (so why isn’t he firing his adviser?)
Robert Kelner retweeted
Thank you, Emmanuel, for your condolences. Unfortunately, the death toll from the Russian strike on a commuter train in Dnipro has already risen to 14. And just a few hours ago, the Russians struck a residential neighborhood in Chernihiv with a drone and killed two girls. They were only 15 years old. In Kremenchuk, a Russian “shahed” struck an apartment building. Tragically, three people were killed. My condolences to all those who lost their loved ones. In these three attacks alone, 56 people have been reported injured, including 10 children.
These are deliberate strikes against civilians, brazen in their cruelty, and the Russians are carrying them out right as the humanitarian operation in Oleshky is unfolding. Russia’s signals are clear – they want the war to continue, and everyone around the world must still work very hard to achieve major de-escalation through strong steps and appropriate pressure on the aggressor.
Peace is needed – and for that to happen, Russia must end its war and terror.
Je viens d'apprendre avec émotion qu'un drone à réaction russe vient de s'abattre sur la gare de Dnipro, avec un très lourd bilan.
J'adresse au Président @ZelenskyyUa et au peuple ukrainien mes condoléances et notre solidarité.
Nous devons, dans ce contexte, aspirer à bien plus qu'un cessez-le-feu localisé comme celui qui vient d'être négocié localement à Olechky. Il est intolérable que la Russie continue d'opposer son refus à toutes les propositions en ce sens, en continuant de miser sur l'escalade et en visant les civils.
Nous devons ensemble redoubler d'efforts pour une paix juste et durable et amener la Russie à la table des négociations.
Robert Kelner retweeted
“If we can predict the [protein's] shape, we can design a drug that recognizes the harmful form and leaves the healthy one alone.”
A Hopkins-led team backed by up to $52M from @ARPA_H will build an AI model to decode how proteins misfold in Parkinson’s, cancer, and other diseases. bit.ly/4zMyCdb
Robert Kelner retweeted
I don’t know, guys. If you don’t look at Arab politics and see fundamentally different rhetoric and strategies from 20 years ago, then you aren’t actually looking at Arab politics. You’re just reading Likud talking points about it.
There’s a massive anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiment in the Arab street. Probably 60% of Arab political representation openly represents that sentiment. And also, there’s a powerful and growing demand to join coalitions, including with the right, to work with state institutions, to integrate into Israeli mainstream society, and so on.
Arab political parties that leave aside their ideological uniqueness and unite in a demand for a seat at the table always improve turnout in the Arab street. Always. For eight elections in a row now, that rule has held. Raam has grown dramatically, specifically because it brought a Zionist Jew into its list as its crime czar and promised its voters to tackle real world problems by working *with* Israeli state institutions, instead of against them.
It is entirely possible for the Arabs of Israel to both feel deeply Palestinian, deeply wary of Israel’s Jewishness, and deeply desiring of greater integration with their Jewish neighbors.
Don’t let anyone make excuses for the many anti-Israel radicals in those lists. But also, it’s simply a lie to pretend that the new and growing desire to integrate isn’t happening.
Welcome to real life, where two seemingly opposite things can be taking place at once.
