Paul DeOrd

99.8K posts

Paul DeOrd

Paul DeOrd

@LordBexar

Immune to job-creator Kool-Aid, engaged in economic development & guru of nothing - just checking it all out.

San Antonio, TX, USA Katılım Haziran 2009
3.1K Takip Edilen1.8K Takipçiler
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John Harwood
John Harwood@JohnJHarwood·
strange but not surprising. Trump and his vice president actively favor Russia, an enemy of our democratic system, over our European democratic allies they are, literally, anti-American
Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesias

It’s just extremely strange that the Vice President of the United States is giving a campaign speech in a foreign country at all, much less that he’s specifically urging the re-election of the pro-Russian anti-western party rather than the reverse.

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Mark S. Zaid
Mark S. Zaid@MarkSZaidEsq·
In any other Administration this would be cause for Espionage Act investigation. It is tremendous news we rescued our downed airmen but this is terrible leak of operational technology. It's NY Post which - let's face it - means this was official Trump leak of classified info.
Collin Rugg@CollinRugg

NEW: The CIA used a secret tool called "Ghost Murmur" that uses AI to find heartbeats to rescue the U.S. airman who was stranded in Iran, according to the New York Post. The secret technology was allegedly used for the first time in the field, according to the Post. "The secret technology uses long-range quantum magnetometry to find the electromagnetic fingerprint of a human heartbeat and pairs the data with artificial intelligence software to isolate the signature from background noise," the Post reported. "It’s like hearing a voice in a stadium, except the stadium is a thousand square miles of desert," the source said. "In the right conditions, if your heart is beating, we will find you." "The name is deliberate. ‘Murmur’ is a clinical term for a heart rhythm. ‘Ghost’ refers to finding someone who, for all practical purposes, has disappeared..." "Advances in a field known as quantum magnetometry, specifically sensors built around microscopic defects in synthetic diamonds, have apparently made it possible to detect these signals at dramatically greater distances." CIA Director John Ratcliffe appeared to hint at this technology on Monday, saying the CIA possessed "unique capabilities" but said he couldn't "tell you everything that you want to know." President Trump also revealed during the press conference that the CIA spotted the officer from about "40 miles away." Insane.

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Marci Shore
Marci Shore@marci_shore·
I've taught European history for 30 years. Americans have always asked me how the Holocaust was possible, how Germans could have enabled a madman reveling in mass murder to carry out his plans. Now we can see in real time how this is enabled; now we have front-row seats.
Marci Shore tweet media
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Anders Åslund
Anders Åslund@anders_aslund·
Vance's speech in Budapest is truly outrageous: 1. The US vice president campaigns for an enemy of the EU & NATO, but a friend of Putin & China. 2. Vance attacks the EU for pressuring Hungary, but Hungary has received net about 3% of GDP a year from the EU, but it has squandered much on corruption. 3. In effect, Vance argues that the EU should promote corruption just as the Trump administration does. Trump and Vance fight freedom and the rule of law in favor of autocracy, kleptocracy and Russia. US foreign policy has hit the bottom.
Jay in Kyiv@JayinKyiv

Vance blames all Hungary's economic problems on foreign interference (Brussels and Zelensky, not Orban's 16 year looting binge).

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Very Brexit Problems
Very Brexit Problems@VeryBrexitProbs·
MAGA calls Europe freeloaders. Here’s what they’re not telling you. ​1. Ramstein Air Base, the most important US military hub outside America, is built on German land provided rent-free, with Germany contributing hundreds of millions to its upkeep. The US couldn’t replace it anywhere in the world. 2. Every US military operation in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia flows through Ramstein. Lose it and US power projection in the Eastern Hemisphere is crippled. 3. The UK provides and maintains RAF Lakenheath used almost entirely by the US Air Force. Italy provides Aviano. Greece provides Souda Bay. Turkey provides Incirlik. European land. European infrastructure. American operations. 4. The US Sixth Fleet depends entirely on European ports for fuel and supplies. Souda Bay, Naples, 11 Greek ports. Without them the Sixth Fleet cannot operate in the Mediterranean or project power into the Middle East. 5. The majority of NATO’s intelligence and surveillance capacity is hosted on European soil and fed directly to the CIA, NSA and Pentagon. 6. Early warning radar at Fylingdales, UK. Missile tracking in Greenland. Norwegian monitoring stations near Russia. All dependent on European goodwill. 7. It would cost America MORE to bring the troops home than keep them here. European hosts subsidise roughly a third of all basing costs. 8. Europe is America’s largest arms customer. Stop buying American and part of their defence industry goes bankrupt. 9. The bases aren’t charity. They’re America using European soil, European money and European goodwill to project power across the world. 10. We’re not the freeloaders.
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Chuck Todd
Chuck Todd@chucktodd·
This is beyond bizarre. A sitting VP of the USA attacking our close allies in Europe (you know, those bureaucrats in Brussels!) in a stump speech for a self-described illiberal politician that has the support of Putin. The Republican Party I grew up with would cringe at any American politician doing this, let alone a Republican!
Aaron Rupar@atrupar

JD Vance: "Will you stand against the bureaucrats in Brussels? Will you stand for western civilization? Will you stand for freedom, truth, and the God of our fathers? Then, my friends, go to the polls and stand for Viktor Orban!"

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Qasim Rashid, Esq.
Qasim Rashid, Esq.@QasimRashid·
Iran Deal By Obama: •Strait of Hormuz open for free •Iran limits Uranium enrichment •Iran agrees to make no nuclear weapons •Iran allows Int'l inspectors to ensure compliance •Inspectors confirm Iran's full compliance Iran Ceasefire By Trump: •Strait of Hormuz closed, only open for $2M Per Ship •Iran makes no guarantee of limit on uranium enrichment •Iran makes no guarantee of no nuclear weapons •Iran makes no guarantee to allow Int'l inspectors MAGA: Trump Playing 5D Chess! Art Of The Deal!!
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Tom Nichols
Tom Nichols@RadioFreeTom·
It took a almost a century for the United States to build a global system of trade, security, and cooperation, and these guys are going to throw it away because they screwed up and have to save face.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar

Hegseth indicates reopening the Strait of Hormuz is not a core US objective: "We've been willing to lead, President Trump has led the entire time, but it's not just us. You might want to start learning how to fight for yourself."

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Teja Karlapudi
Teja Karlapudi@teja2495·
Google could have kept this algorithm private instead of open sourcing it. But they allowed everyone, including competitors, to benefit from their research. That is why I respect Google. If you did not know, this entire AI era became possible because Google openly published their transformer model research paper.
Google Research@GoogleResearch

Introducing TurboQuant: Our new compression algorithm that reduces LLM key-value cache memory by at least 6x and delivers up to 8x speedup, all with zero accuracy loss, redefining AI efficiency. Read the blog to learn how it achieves these results: goo.gle/4bsq2qI

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NOVA
NOVA@TechWith_Nova·
Claude Code + Nano Banana 2 is f*cking cracked 🤯 I built a skill inside Claude Code that writes JSON image prompts for Nano Banana 2, and the outputs look like they came from a professional photo shoot. One plain-text prompt. Claude rewrites it as structured JSON with lighting, camera, composition, style, and negative prompts. Then fires it off to Nano Banana 2. All inside Claude Code. Perfect for DTC brands and agencies who need high-volume ad creative without booking a shoot. If you're using Nano Banana 2 for product shots and lifestyle images but every generation feels like pulling a slot machine lever — random lighting, inconsistent style, plastic skin, misspelled labels ... This skill fixes the entire output: → You describe what you want in plain English → Claude rewrites it as a structured JSON prompt (lighting, camera angle, lens, depth of field, color grading — all of it) → Fires it to Nano Banana 2 via API → Saves the prompt + image in organized folders → You iterate on the style until it's dialed, then every output matches No more slot machine prompting. No more inconsistent brand imagery. No more burning credits on unusable generations. What you get: - Photo-realistic product shots and lifestyle images on demand - Full control over style, lighting, composition, and camera settings - Saved JSON prompts you can reuse across every campaign - A skill that gets smarter the more feedback you give it Built 100% in Claude Code with a custom skill + Python scripts. I put together a full playbook showing the exact skill, the JSON schema, and the workflow to set this up yourself. Want the full playbook? > Like this post > Comment "BANANA" And I'll send it over (must be following so I can DM)
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Phil Gordon
Phil Gordon@PhilGordonDC·
When Obama sent Iran $400m + $1.3bn in interest in 2016 Trump called it "insane" and he and others spent a decade mocking the idea of "pallets of cash" even though it was Iran's own money, American prisoners were released, courts were likely to require the U.S. payment, and Iran had just agreed to significant and verified reductions and restrictions on its nuclear program for 15+ years. Now Trump is giving Iran up to ten times that amount of revenue--one of the most significant measures of sanctions relief provided to the Islamic Republic since its founding--in exchange for marginal and temporary relief from the big increase in oil prices his actions have caused, without any concessions from Tehran, and even as Iran continues to target the United States, its allies, and world oil supplies. No way to read as anything other than desperate recognition of the situation Trump's own actions have created and the lack of available alternatives for dealing with it.
Barak Ravid@BarakRavid

🚨U.S. to allow Iran to get ~14 billion dollars (!!!) in oil revenue 🚨This is a huge financial concession to Iran by the U.S. 🚨It is the first time U.S. is buying Iranian oil since 1996 🚨It's all happening in the middle of a war against...Iran

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Fred Wellman
Fred Wellman@FPWellman·
Yes. A foreign country’s puppet think tank wrote our President’s fake excuse for attacking Iran. We have given our national security over to another country.
Zachary Foster@_ZachFoster

This is wild. The @WhiteHouse plagiarized its reason for launching a war on Iran from @FDD, a cutout of Israeli intelligence. Side-by-side screenshots in the 🧵

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Gary Koepnick
Gary Koepnick@garykoepnick·
Just going to keep posting this to counter the ridiculous bullshit until someone makes me stop. The Special Counsel investigation uncovered extensive criminal activity •The investigation produced 37 indictments; seven guilty pleas or convictions; and compelling evidence that the president obstructed justice on multiple occasions. Mueller also uncovered and referred 14 criminal matters to other components of the Department of Justice. •Trump associates repeatedly lied to investigators about their contacts with Russians, and President Trump refused to answer questions about his efforts to impede federal proceedings and influence the testimony of witnesses. •A statement signed by over 1,000 former federal prosecutors concluded that if any other American engaged in the same efforts to impede federal proceedings the way Trump did, they would likely be indicted for multiple charges of obstruction of justice.   Russia engaged in extensive attacks on the U.S. election system in 2016 •Russian interference in the 2016 election was “sweeping and systemic.”[1] •Major attack avenues included a social media “information warfare” campaign that “favored” candidate Trump[2] and the hacking of Clinton campaign-related databases and release of stolen materials through Russian-created entities and Wikileaks.[3] •Russia also targeted databases in many states related to administering elections gaining access to information for millions of registered voters.[4]   The investigation “identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign” and established that the Trump Campaign “showed interest in WikiLeaks's releases of documents and welcomed their potential to damage candidate Clinton”  •In 2015 and 2016, Michael Cohen pursued a hotel/residence project in Moscow on behalf of Trump while he was campaigning for President.[5]Then-candidate Trump personally signed a letter of intent. •Senior members of the Trump campaign, including Paul Manafort, Donald Trump, Jr., and Jared Kushner took a June 9, 2016, meeting with Russian nationals at Trump Tower, New York, after outreach from an intermediary informed Trump, Jr., that the Russians had derogatory information on Clinton that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”[6] •Beginning in June 2016, a Trump associate “forecast to senior [Trump] Campaign officials that WikiLeaks would release information damaging to candidate Clinton.”[7] A section of the Report that remains heavily redacted suggests that Roger Stone was this associate and that he had significant contacts with the campaign about Wikileaks.[8] •The Report described multiple occasions where Trump associates lied to investigators about Trump associate contacts with Russia. Trump associates George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen all admitted that they made false statements to federal investigators or to Congress about their contacts. In addition, Roger Stone faces trial this fall for obstruction of justice, five counts of making false statements, and one count of witness tampering. •The Report contains no evidence that any Trump campaign official reported their contacts with Russia or WikiLeaks to U.S. law enforcement authorities during the campaign or presidential transition, despite public reports on Russian hacking starting in June 2016 and candidate Trump’s August 2016 intelligence briefing warning him that Russia was seeking to interfere in the election. •The Report raised questions about why Trump associates and then-candidate Trump repeatedly asserted Trump had no connections to Russia.[9]
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David Hume Kennerly
David Hume Kennerly@kennerly·
This is an extraordinary piece of writing. I started reading it and couldn’t stop, and neither should you. @Liz_Cheney @KerryKennedyRFK @mikebarnicle @kathleenparker @AdamKinzinger @gtconway3d @NormOrnstein @JohnJHarwood @BeschlossDC @SykesCharlie @ImprovAmbassadr @ccwhip
Gandalv@Microinteracti1

Robert Mueller died last night. He was 81 years old. He had a wife who loved him for sixty years. He had two daughters, one of whom he met for the first time in Hawaii, in 1969, on a few hours of military leave, before he got back on the plane and returned to Vietnam. He had grandchildren. He had a faith he practiced quietly, without performance. He had, in the way of men who have seen real things and survived them, a quality that is increasingly rare and increasingly mocked in the country he spent his life serving. He had integrity. And tonight the President of the United States said good! I have been sitting with that word for hours now. Good. One syllable. The thing you say when the coffee is hot or the traffic is moving. The thing a man who has never had to bury anyone, never had to sit in the specific silence of a room where someone is newly absent, reaches for when he wants the world to know he is satisfied. Good. The daughters are crying and the wife is alone in the house and good. I want to speak directly to the Americans reading this. Not the political Americans. Just the human ones. The ones who have lost a father. The ones who know what it is to be in that first hour, when you keep forgetting and then remembering again, when ordinary objects become unbearable, when the world outside the window seems obscene in its indifference. I want to ask you, simply, to hold that feeling for a moment, and then to understand that the man you elected looked at it and typed a single word. Good. This is not a country having a bad day. I need you to understand that. Countries have bad days. Elections go wrong. Leaders disappoint. Institutions bend. But there is a different thing, a rarer and more terrible thing, that happens when the moral center of a place simply gives way. Not dramatically. Not with a single catastrophic event. But quietly, in increments, until one evening a president celebrates the death of an old man whose family is still warm with grief, and enough people find it acceptable that it becomes the weather. Just the weather. That is what is happening. That is what has happened. The world knows. From Tokyo to Oslo, from London to Buenos Aires, people are not angry at America tonight. Anger would mean there was still something to fight for, some remaining faith to be betrayed. What I see, in the reactions from everywhere that is not here, is something older and sadder than anger. It is the look people get when they have waited a long time for someone they love to find their way back, and have finally understood that they are not coming. America is being grieved. Past tense, almost. The idea of it. The thing it represented to people who had nothing else to believe in, who came here with everything they owned in a single bag because they had heard, somehow, across an ocean, that this was the place where decency was written into the walls. That idea is not resting. It is not suspended. It is being buried, in real time, with 7,450 likes before dinner. And the church said nothing. Seventy million people have decided that this man, this specific man who has cheated everyone he has ever made a promise to, who has mocked the disabled and the dead and the grieving, who celebrated tonight while a family wept, is an instrument of God. The pastors who made that bargain did not just trade away their credibility. They traded away the thing that made them worth listening to in the first place. The cross they carry now is a costume. The faith they preach is a loyalty oath with scripture attached. When the history of American Christianity is written, this will be the chapter they skip at seminary. Now I want to talk about the men who stand next to him. Because this is the part that actually breaks my heart. JD Vance is not a bad man. I have to say that, because it is true, and because the truth matters even now, especially now. Marco Rubio is not a bad man. Lindsey Graham is not a bad man. They are idiots, but not bad, as in BAD! These are men with mothers who raised them and children who love them and friends who remember who they were before all of this. They are not monsters. Monsters are simple. Monsters do not cost you anything emotionally because there is nothing in them to mourn. These men are something more painful than monsters. They are men who knew better, and know better still, and will get up tomorrow and do it again. Every small compromise they made had a reason. Every moment they looked the other way had a justification that sounded, at the time, almost reasonable. And now they have arrived here, at a place where a president celebrates the death of an old man and they will find a way, on television, to say nothing that means anything, and they will go home to houses where children who carry their name are waiting, and they will say goodnight, and they will say nothing. Their oldest friends are watching. The ones who knew Rubio when he still believed in something. Who knew Graham when he said, out loud, on the record, that this exact man would destroy the Republican Party and deserve it. Who sat next to Vance and thought here is someone worth knowing. Those friends are not angry tonight. They moved through anger a long time ago. What they feel now is the quiet, irrecoverable sadness of watching someone disappear while still being present. Of watching a person they loved choose, again and again, to become less. That is what cowardice costs. Not the coward. The people who loved him. And in the comments tonight, the followers celebrate. People who ten years ago brought casseroles to grieving neighbours. Who stood in the rain at gravesides and meant the words they said. Who told their children that we do not speak ill of the dead because the dead were someone's beloved. Those people are tonight typing gleeful things about a man whose daughters are not yet done crying. And they feel clean doing it. Righteous. Because somewhere along the way the thing they were given in exchange for their decency was the feeling of belonging to something, and that feeling is very hard to give up even when you can no longer remember what you gave for it. When Trump is gone, they will still be here. Standing in the silence where the noise used to be. Without the permission the crowd gave them. Without the pastor who told them their cruelty was holy. They will be alone with what they said and what they cheered and what they chose to become, and there will be no one left to tell them it was righteous. That morning is coming. Robert Mueller flew across the Pacific on military leave to hold his newborn daughter for a few hours before returning to the war. He came home. He buried his dead with honour. He served presidents of both parties because he understood that the institution was larger than any one man. He told his grandchildren that a lie is the worst thing a person can do, that a reputation once lost cannot be recovered, and he lived that, every day, in the quiet and unglamorous way of people who actually believe what they say. He was the kind of American the world used to point to when it needed to believe the story was true. He died last night. His wife is alone in their house in Georgetown. His daughters are learning what the world is without him in it. And somewhere in the particular hush that falls over a family in the first hours of loss, the most powerful man and the biggest loser on earth sent a message to say he was glad. The world that loved what America was supposed to be is grieving tonight. Not for Robert Mueller only. For the country that produced him and then became this. For the distance between what was promised and what was delivered. For the suspicion, growing quieter and more certain with each passing month, that the America people believed in was always partly a story, and the story is over now, and there is nothing yet to replace it. That is all it needed to be. A man died. His family is broken open with grief. That is all it needed to be. Instead the President said good. And the country that once stood for something looked away 🇺🇸 Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

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Music Jim 🎩🪄
Music Jim 🎩🪄@MusicJim2·
Chicago 🎩🪄 25 or 6 to 4 (1970) Terry Kath absolutely unleashes one of the most blistering guitar solos ever put on film, raw and untouchable, the best quality ever! Peak Chicago, peak Kath. #Chicago 💫
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Ron Shillman
Ron Shillman@shillman1·
Convicted fraudsters Trump has pardoned this year: Jason Galanis — ~$200M+ Joseph Schwartz — ~$38M Lawrence Duran — ~$205M (Medicare fraud billed; ~$87M paid) Carlos Watson — ~$60M investor fraud Trevor Milton — ~$20M+ investor losses Todd Chrisley — ~$30M bank fraud Julie Chrisley — ~$30M bank fraud Devon Archer — ~$60M tribal bond scheme George Santos — ~$44K–$1M+ (multiple fraud schemes) Michele Fiore — ~$70K charity fraud Brian Kelsey — ~$90K campaign finance fraud Scott Jenkins — ~$75K bribery/fraud scheme Paul Walczak — ~$10M+ tax fraud Adriana Camberos — ~$1M+ counterfeit/fraud
The White House@WhiteHouse

President Donald J. Trump just signed an Executive Order creating the Task Force to ELIMINATE Fraud. Chaired by @VP Vance, this task force will crack down on fraud, close loopholes, and make sure benefits go ONLY to eligible Americans. Promises Made. Promises Kept. 🇺🇸

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