Dean Baratta

“The Crisis of the Third Century”.

Through an incredible series of corrupt, childish & self-sabotaging acts, we’ve undermined American strength and vitality in exchange for a sclerotic, fearful country focused on 19c. ideas of racial purity, 18c. ideas of medicine and 17c. ideas of religion

Lawful Evil is the funniest alignment. Nothing Le Wacky Wholesome Chungus Chaotic Good bard does will ever be as funny as the guards in Morrowind asking you if you have a license for that murder then pleasantly apologizing for holding you up when you produce said license.

Inside the Debacle That Led to the Closure of El Paso’s Airspace

I’m not a fan of the “move fast and break things” philosophy because breaking stuff often results in bad outcomes.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/u...

When I worked at Microsoft they said we had to use Copilot five times a day and noncompliance would show up in our reviews.

So, every morning I’d ask it questions about puppies and clouds until I hit my quota and get to work.

Leadership was thrilled at how we integrated AI into our operations 😂

a black and white photo of a man covering his face with his hand and the words whaa happen written below him ALT: a black and white photo of a man covering his face with his hand and the words whaa happen written below him

Not sure I get all the agita about the Super Bowl yesterday…like did a huge part of America forget that for years in the 50s, the top rated TV show centered around a Cuban immigrant who frequently spoke in Spanish (without subtitles)?

Banner Saga…definitely.

All part of the goal of eroding trust in institutions…

Hey neighbor!!!

Oh boy…it’s always fun when people who don’t know the first thing about Machiavelli try to call on him to justify their tyrannical leanings…

Of course, given we were at ‘assassinate U.S. citizens on the street in broad daylight’ I’m guessing ‘softer touch’ means anything short of beatings resulting in multiple organ failure?

It’s almost like someone took every kooky accusation about the “New World Order” from the Far Right (detention camps! Rejecting the 2nd amendment! Mysteriously cabals of rich pervs! Undermining family values!) and figured out how to make those same people go “Yeah, I’m ok with that”

“I don’t want any more embarrassing cancellations of performers at the Kennedy Center!”

The monkey paw curls another finger…

spongebob squarepants from spongebob squarepants is holding a box on his shoulder . ALT: spongebob squarepants from spongebob squarepants is holding a box on his shoulder .

Sorry…Ammon. 🤷‍♂️

At least now you know this isn’t an AI generated post.

Or is that exactly what an AI bot would post?

Ammon Bundy Is All Alone The anti-government militia leader can’t make sense of his allies’ support for ICE violence.

I oppose Amon Bundy on everything…but I’ll at least say he’s a man of his principles…unlike just about every other militia weirdo from the 2010s

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Update from Hamed Aleaziz

File under: excrement rolls downhill

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

By the time this is done, some intern is going to get blamed

And that’s how you get two Trump administrations 🙄

a woman in a brown shirt is standing in front of a green door . ALT: a woman in a brown shirt is standing in front of a green door .

At least we finally got the world to all agree on something.

Just imagine if FIFA used this as justification for withdrawing their peace prize…Trump would have bombers in the air within the hour

I’m not looking forward to a National Guard / ICE street fight but it seems more possible by the day

Somewhere in hell, Osama bin Laden is looking up and saying “At least it’s another real estate guy realizing my dream of destroying America”

Just saying…if I was the Danish Ministry of Defense, I’d be putting together classes on IED construction and emplacing arms caches.

The only Peanuts Christmas special I want to see…

This is also a problem in the field of intelligence. Big pushes to use it to (somehow, magically) get a better understanding of threats and risks without gaining the fundamental knowledge and ability to communicate.

bsky.app/profile/twsi...

5) instead of asking “should we integrate LLMs into our workflows?” And “What are the benefits and costs?” Teams mostly jump into “HOW do we integrate?”

Skipping the most important step.

This is going to hit people coming into the field particularly hard.

4) research over the past 18 months raises some big red flags about frequent LLM use on cognitive ability, information retention & understanding, and (most concerning) *desire* to engage in critical thinking.

All essential elements of the intelligence profession.

2) analysts are left to figure out how to use it on their own…lots of potential for misuse and incentives to just copy/paste results

3) few teams have done any sort of risk assessments. Given the past 20 years, is it a safe bet to assume Zuckerberg, Musk, et. al. Won’t misuse data or skew results?

Over the past few months I’ve spoken to a number of intelligence analysts in the private sector about their use of LLMs in their work.

A number of concerning observations 🧵

1) Overwhelmingly, LLMs are thrust upon them by management with no training or direction other than ‘use it somehow’.

That means a mix of compromise and education that will likely take a few years and meanwhile voting/supporting the most progressive candidates likely to win in races, even if they aren’t very progressive.