Mike Brock 🇺🇸
@brockm.bsky.social
Ex-tech exec. Deeply unfashionable. Penning dispatches from democracy's peril at notesfromthecircus.com. Unmasking the unholy alliance of Silicon Valley and aspiring despots. 2+2=4, even when power insists otherwise. For Frodo.
Pinned
Revenge of the Technocrats Could Be the End of Democracy
A Response to Ruy Teixeira
www.notesfromthecircus.com
A return to technocratic liberal centrism would be the death knell of democracy.
Leadership of virtue looks like narcissism to the corrupt of heart.
"Why so serious?" says the Joker ...
People either perform to reveal. Or to conceal. And then history forms its opinions.
"Why so serious?" says the Joker ...
People either perform to reveal. Or to conceal. And then history forms its opinions.
December 5, 2025 at 4:43 AM
Leadership of virtue looks like narcissism to the corrupt of heart.
"Why so serious?" says the Joker ...
People either perform to reveal. Or to conceal. And then history forms its opinions.
"Why so serious?" says the Joker ...
People either perform to reveal. Or to conceal. And then history forms its opinions.
Here's how to think of LLMs, Silicon Valley.
LLMs Are Universal Translators, Not Universal Thinkers
Or: Why the AGI Skeptics Are Right But Missing the Deeper Point
www.notesfromthecircus.com
December 5, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Here's how to think of LLMs, Silicon Valley.
I am just saying what I honestly believe is true. I am not doing anything else. It's a curious thing about our culture, the cosmology of inhibitions of our speech, that we don't just say to the world what we really think. 1/2
December 5, 2025 at 1:04 AM
I am just saying what I honestly believe is true. I am not doing anything else. It's a curious thing about our culture, the cosmology of inhibitions of our speech, that we don't just say to the world what we really think. 1/2
I am proud of the American people.
A Note From The Circus: The People Say No
The People are Sovereign!
www.notesfromthecircus.com
December 5, 2025 at 12:59 AM
I am proud of the American people.
Reposted by Mike Brock 🇺🇸
“we are not alone. The people attempting this coup want us to believe everyone is corrupt, everyone is cynical, everyone would do the same if given the chance.
But the grand jury—that ancient democratic ritual requiring the genuine assent of randomly selected citizens—keeps proving them wrong.”
But the grand jury—that ancient democratic ritual requiring the genuine assent of randomly selected citizens—keeps proving them wrong.”
December 5, 2025 at 12:15 AM
“we are not alone. The people attempting this coup want us to believe everyone is corrupt, everyone is cynical, everyone would do the same if given the chance.
But the grand jury—that ancient democratic ritual requiring the genuine assent of randomly selected citizens—keeps proving them wrong.”
But the grand jury—that ancient democratic ritual requiring the genuine assent of randomly selected citizens—keeps proving them wrong.”
I have great news!
A Note From The Circus: The People Say No
The People are Sovereign!
www.notesfromthecircus.com
December 5, 2025 at 12:05 AM
I have great news!
The Great People of the United States, looking out for their fellow citizen, refuse Treason on behalf of Power.
BREAKING: Federal grand jury REFUSES TO INDICT New York Attorney General Letitia James again
December 4, 2025 at 11:43 PM
The Great People of the United States, looking out for their fellow citizen, refuse Treason on behalf of Power.
I cannot overstate the pathos that awaits one in moral hell. It is a path one should avoid. I write this in great effigy to the great mistake of a tragic soul.
Marco Rubio Has Gone to Moral Hell
The Secretary of State of the United States—chief diplomat of what was once a proud republic—has renamed the United States Institute of Peace after Donald Trump.
www.notesfromthecircus.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:26 PM
I cannot overstate the pathos that awaits one in moral hell. It is a path one should avoid. I write this in great effigy to the great mistake of a tragic soul.
But of course! There is gambling in the casino!
SHOCKER!
We don’t have a Supreme Court, we have a MAGA field office.
We don’t have a Supreme Court, we have a MAGA field office.
Breaking: Supreme Court on 6-3 Party Line Vote, Allows Texas to Use Its Re-redistricting Maps for 2026 Congressional Elections #ELB
You can find the order. a concurrence, and a dissent at this link. [This post is in progress]
electionlawblog.org
December 4, 2025 at 11:15 PM
But of course! There is gambling in the casino!
One must only read @andrewrsorkin.bsky.social’s masterful work of economic anthropology, “1929”, to see what this means. And once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
The co-founder of Kalshi says: " The long-term vision is to financialize everything and create a tradable asset out of any difference in opinion."
December 4, 2025 at 9:38 PM
One must only read @andrewrsorkin.bsky.social’s masterful work of economic anthropology, “1929”, to see what this means. And once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
Reposted by Mike Brock 🇺🇸
I'd normally put up a paywall for a piece that required this much research and work over three days. But I'm feeling generous.
The Performance: How Intellectual Cowardice Masquerades as Argument
Or: A Field Guide to Recognizing When People Have Stopped Thinking
www.notesfromthecircus.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:06 PM
I'd normally put up a paywall for a piece that required this much research and work over three days. But I'm feeling generous.
This is tyranny.
FLORIDA — Woman in scrubs: “I’m a U.S. citizen! Why are you doing this to me??”
December 4, 2025 at 8:27 PM
This is tyranny.
I'd normally put up a paywall for a piece that required this much research and work over three days. But I'm feeling generous.
The Performance: How Intellectual Cowardice Masquerades as Argument
Or: A Field Guide to Recognizing When People Have Stopped Thinking
www.notesfromthecircus.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:06 PM
I'd normally put up a paywall for a piece that required this much research and work over three days. But I'm feeling generous.
It's pretty remarkable, really. They *are* trying to construct a Reichstag Fire moment. But they are also so fucking stupid and incompetent. And everyone can see through it, except the lost souls in the MAGA media bubble.
Bondi takes a question from a Daily Wire reporter who asks a loaded question suggesting the J6 pipebombs were an inside job orchestrated by Kamala Harris
December 4, 2025 at 7:06 PM
It's pretty remarkable, really. They *are* trying to construct a Reichstag Fire moment. But they are also so fucking stupid and incompetent. And everyone can see through it, except the lost souls in the MAGA media bubble.
You don't come back from moral hell.
Marco Rubio Has Gone to Moral Hell
The Secretary of State of the United States—chief diplomat of what was once a proud republic—has renamed the United States Institute of Peace after Donald Trump.
www.notesfromthecircus.com
December 4, 2025 at 3:41 AM
You don't come back from moral hell.
This is tyranny. The purpose of our republic being established was that such scenes would be vanquished from these lands.
Agents in Key Largo, Florida ripped this woman wearing medical scrubs out of her car as she screamed she is a US citizen. Agents cuffed her and put her in one of their cars.
She was eventually let go, per David Goodhue of the Miami Herald, who also took this footage:
She was eventually let go, per David Goodhue of the Miami Herald, who also took this footage:
December 4, 2025 at 2:05 AM
This is tyranny. The purpose of our republic being established was that such scenes would be vanquished from these lands.
I do a small incantation to myself each day. I ask myself, "How is this real life?" It grounds me. Reminds me how fucking stupid it is that any of this is happening. And from this place of tragic humor, one might find some cosmic courage.
December 4, 2025 at 1:04 AM
I do a small incantation to myself each day. I ask myself, "How is this real life?" It grounds me. Reminds me how fucking stupid it is that any of this is happening. And from this place of tragic humor, one might find some cosmic courage.
Reposted by Mike Brock 🇺🇸
I find it a little endearing that Nuzzi would dare to betray her own thoughts, absurd as they might appear, and how, I think with some degree of self-awareness, knows they will be seen as such. Perhaps those mocking her, guard their own insecurity.
December 3, 2025 at 9:35 PM
I find it a little endearing that Nuzzi would dare to betray her own thoughts, absurd as they might appear, and how, I think with some degree of self-awareness, knows they will be seen as such. Perhaps those mocking her, guard their own insecurity.
I don’t know. This seems like a pretty vulnerable admission of someone’s psychic proclivities.
December 3, 2025 at 9:30 PM
I don’t know. This seems like a pretty vulnerable admission of someone’s psychic proclivities.
On immigration.
On Citizens and Humans
A meditation on immigration.
www.notesfromthecircus.com
December 3, 2025 at 5:25 AM
On immigration.
Yes. It's genuinely fascinating how this naked fascist pathology is able to dance in the sufferability of us all, per Jefferson's despair in the Declaration, because we are able to simply think them non-citizens.
We're doing pogroms in America now
Officials prepare immigration operation in Minnesota that would focus on Somali immigrants, source tells AP, as Trump says he doesn't want Somalis in U.S.
December 3, 2025 at 5:07 AM
Yes. It's genuinely fascinating how this naked fascist pathology is able to dance in the sufferability of us all, per Jefferson's despair in the Declaration, because we are able to simply think them non-citizens.
The people who find truth exhausting are the ones busy making lies.
December 3, 2025 at 4:38 AM
The people who find truth exhausting are the ones busy making lies.
Quelle surprise, the French may say.
Silicon Valley is rallying behind a guy who sucks
Silicon Valley is rallying behind a guy who sucks
The coordinated support of David Sacks after a New York Times report is only drawing more attention to the story.
buff.ly
December 3, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Quelle surprise, the French may say.
Reposted by Mike Brock 🇺🇸
Not entirely sure I agree with Mike here but he knows a lot more about Bitcoin and the crypto currency project than I do. Passing it along for others to inform themselves.
About complicity, and arguments along those lines: everything happens in a context. 1/2
About complicity, and arguments along those lines: everything happens in a context. 1/2
My critics fire back. And I reply.
The Banality of Bitcoin Advocacy
Yesterday, I wrote an essay.
www.notesfromthecircus.com
December 2, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Not entirely sure I agree with Mike here but he knows a lot more about Bitcoin and the crypto currency project than I do. Passing it along for others to inform themselves.
About complicity, and arguments along those lines: everything happens in a context. 1/2
About complicity, and arguments along those lines: everything happens in a context. 1/2
My critics fire back. And I reply.
The Banality of Bitcoin Advocacy
Yesterday, I wrote an essay.
www.notesfromthecircus.com
December 2, 2025 at 9:24 PM
My critics fire back. And I reply.