Author | Lightnews

Bruce R

@flitbrucer.bsky.social

190 followers 140 following 820 posts

Personal account of a recovering Afghan vet, gamer and gadabout. Asst. Editor of a peer-reviewed military journal in my spare time, which I may mention here once in a while Previously on Twitter as Flit_BruceR, and a blogger of little consequence long ago

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Bruce R @flitbrucer.bsky.social · Nov 21

"I have sworn on the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" youtu.be/stIK_uPpVjY via
@YouTube

Bob Roberts: the end

YouTube video by gluckschmerz

youtu.be

Reposted by Bruce R

Stone Cold “Crazy” Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 2d

The central lie — the key dishonesty — of modern conservatism is that being judgmental about the ethnicity or language or culture of the person next door is fine and acceptable, but being judgmental of that attitude is elitist and arrogant and closed-minded. What vapid bullshit.

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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 5h

I am confident that virtually everyone in this administration is within three hops of a member of a terrorist organization, probably several times over.

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 12h

This three-hops theory is especially insane. Even if you assume each person is connected to only 100 other people, there are 1m people within three hops of every suspected drug trafficker—and remember that even *known* drug traffickers aren’t legitimate targets. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/u...

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Jeremy Pober @jpober.bsky.social · 5h

I think those benefits from responsible use only accrue in a world where we stop treating the thing we have like an intelligence and start thinking of it as a fancier autocomplete

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jslaker.bsky.social @jslaker.bsky.social · 5h

That said, all models on all providers require careful, systematic prompting to get good outputs. You pretty much need to build up a lot of scaffolding to properly manage context and get it to perform well and on the rails.

And it's my observation that most people... aren't really doing that.

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GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 5h

this is more or less where i'm at, though i would add that i think most of the companies selling this as a product have not done anywhere near enough work to train people on how to use them effectively, and i think they should be legally compelled to do so

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thestinkfoot.bsky.social @thestinkfoot.bsky.social · 5h

For me at least AI is useful for setting things up, providing mid-quality summaries, and finding citations/sources. It's frankly intern-stuff, but I'm happy to take it off my own plate.

The "our AI overlords are here and they can do everything" people are as nuts as the anti-AI-anything luddites.

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Bruce R @flitbrucer.bsky.social · 4h

...not because it's always better, it's not, but because the human needs to now explain why their choice is superior and that steels their argument. But again that's a human mind and an AI working in concert, not a magic 8-ball.

Bruce R @flitbrucer.bsky.social · 4h

A truthful AI advocate would say, well you might need to use two different AIs for a problem, cross check the outputs to find the hallucination stuff. In situations where they can suggest an alternative to a human output, I've found them quite useful...

Bruce R @flitbrucer.bsky.social · 4h

For a job I had to read a lot of numbers off webpages and put them in a table. The AI I used for that was error prone. Was it still faster than other methods to do that? Sure. But it was a marginal savings, entirely because of the human cell by cell checking required.

Bruce R @flitbrucer.bsky.social · 4h

Exactly.

But that skepticism comes with its own costs, defraying the savings, so people don't want to talk about that.

William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 5h

I'm anti-anti-anti AI I think. It probably could be used in responsible ways for many applications, but it's appropriate that it face stiff headwinds when doing so to keep the people who want to use it honest. The skepticism is healthy.

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Andrew Rakich @atunshei.bsky.social · 5h

Next October, Dr. Justin Sledge and I are going on tour through New England! Get your tickets here: www.esotericaoccultbooks.com/shop/p/esote...

youtu.be/qbqSMx3tqLs?...

YOUR TWO FAVORITE NERDS ARE GOING ON TOUR

YouTube video by Atun-Shei Films

youtu.be

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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 5h

yeah i mean come on. if you're remodeling a bathroom in 2025 and you're not adding a bidet, are you even an autocrat?

Andrew Mueller @andrewmueller.bsky.social · 6h

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.

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Mike Nellis @mikenellis.bsky.social · 5h

Lots of reports that ICE is terrorizing the city of Evanston, just a bit north of Chicago, right now. Noem wasn't kidding about escalating these raids during Halloween. I worry it's going to be really bad tonight in Chicago—these kids and families should be able to just fucking enjoy the holiday.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 13h

Here’s what they actually thought: they’ll just go after the left wing Bad Jews (who aren’t really Jews so it’s ok) but we’re the Good Jews so it will be fine. joelhs.bsky.social/post/3m4gzansohs2a

Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 1d

The Jewish right discovering in real time that the Trumpist right, and the open bigotries it has unleashed upon the US body politic, is not in fact going to spare Jews, is quite a trip.

Tweet from John Podhoretz reading: "My mother was a Heritage board member for 40 years. You have befouled her, you rancid wretch of an amoeba."
quoting Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, tweeting: "There has been speculation that
@Heritage
is distancing itself from
@TuckerCarlson
over the past 24 hours.

I want to put that to rest right now—here are my thoughts:"

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Schnorkles O'Bork @schnorkles.bsky.social · 6h

Nope!

runningrunner.bsky.social @runningrunner.bsky.social · 6h

What I wonder is, where do they go from here? The plan was to realize Stephen Miller's wildest anti-immigrant fantasies, let Trump enjoy his corruption orgies, let Rubio invade Venezuela, and... then what? Is there really anything in their bag of policy tricks *other* than sticks?

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Joseph Britt @zathras5.bsky.social · 4h

Federal agency personnel fled the scene of a car accident?

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Andrew Mueller @andrewmueller.bsky.social · 6h

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 5h

I'm being entirely serious when I say that this is one of the core commitments of reactionary politics: demand all the privileges, refuse any of the responsibility.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6h

Trump: "It's their fault. Everything is their fault."

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 5h

“Holsey did in fact quit,” Rep Adam Smith told me. “So we need to hear: Did he quit because he believed he was being given illegal orders?”

How is it possible that we may never hear the answer to this question?

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 7h

News on Trump boat bombings --> Rep Adam Smith, top Dem on Armed Services, tells me GOPers are failing to press for testimony from the top Pentagon official who recently resigned, potentially over the strikes.

Appallingly, we may never hear from him.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2025...

Trump Boat Bombings Worsen as New Horror Shakes Experts: “Alarm Bells”

Remember the Southern Command admiral who resigned two weeks ago? Hill Republicans haven’t heard from him—and they don’t apparently want to.

newrepublic.com

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Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 5h

FBI: "We didn't zip tie children."

REPORTER: "Here's a photo of a zip tied 14 year old."

FBI" "OK, we didn't zip tie YOUNG children."

Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · 6h

this is insane.

www.kivitv.com/canyon-count...

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Murph @murphtracks.bsky.social · 7h

Deplatforming Nick Fuentes was what kept him from being mainstreamed, it worked. Elon's replatforming of all of these people and allowing actual Nazis around is why the US government is now publishing white supremacist propaganda regularly.

This is not a new debate. Deplatforming works.

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 8h

Mind-blowing stuff from Robby Soave.

"Podcasters should not avoid Fuentes." Of course they should. Deplatforming Nazis is good. Not amplifying them is not censorship.

Also laughable to claim Fuentes has been deplatformed. His growing reach is directly tied to MAGA destigmatizing naked racism.

Deplatforming Nick Fuentes Won't Stop Antisemitism

Tucker Carlson's interview of the right-wing podcaster has begun a debate on how best to combat antisemitic, racist, and white nationalist views.

reason.com

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Bruce R @flitbrucer.bsky.social · 4h

Thread

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 5h

New from Bellingcat: “‘Pattern of Extreme Brutality’ — Tear gas, pepper balls among weapons used by federal agents at Illinois immigration protests.”
Read the full investigation:
www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10...

Tear Gas, Pepper Balls Among Weapons Deployed Against Illinois Protesters

A judge recently issued a restraining order on crowd-control tactics by federal agents in the state, including those involved in Operation Midway Blitz.

www.bellingcat.com

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LexUltimaVeritas @lexultimaveritas.bsky.social · 5h

@jd-vance-1.bsky.social is even a Nazi with his own wife. You bet on a bad horse, Usha 🤷🇺🇸

George Conway 🇺🇸🚫👑🐸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 18h

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Bellarusque @bellarusque.bsky.social · 5h

😳

"Pentagon Officials said they Reserve the Right

To KILL PEOPLE who are 'AFFILIATED'

With 👉THEIR LIST👈 of 'narco-terror groups'

But under QUESTIONING

They wouldn't DEFINE what 'AFFILIATED' Means"

😠

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 6h

This is really appalling: Rep Adam Smith tells me that in a briefing, Pentagon officials said they reserve the right to kill people who are "affiliated" with their list of "narco-terror groups."

But under questioning, they wouldn't define what "affiliated" means!

newrepublic.com/article/2025...

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Sylvia Chi 齊思涵 @sylviachi.bsky.social · 4h

Coach Kav says nothing to see here.

An image showing Justice Kavanaugh, displaying his famous judicial temperament at his Senate confirmation hearing, with a speech bubble containing the following quote from his concurrence in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo: "f the person is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter." This is overlaid on top of a photo from October 31, 2025, of a masked federal agent in military gear shoving Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, in Albany Park, Chicago.

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