flipforchips

“Unpredictable evolutions may ensue, including financial crisis, unrest, civil strife, war, and a meltdown of the social fabric” A prescient warning of the unintended consequences of lockdowns and school closures from John Ioannidis in March 2020. statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-f…

@mamoun_linda @lhfang He was removed from the center because he sent a wildly inappropriate newsletter to the center’s listserv. Comically dishonest to frame it as a “witch hunt”. He remains a tenured professor at the university.

This is basically a tenured professor forced out of a leadership position at a flagship public university for criticizing Israel. The witch hunt at universities across the country is still going on.

@ramez You “don’t think it matters much” that Covid leaked from a Wuhan lab and this leak was covered up by the Chinese government?

Concur that COVID was very likely zoonotic in origin. That's always been the most likely scenario, and the evidence has just grown stronger. (See below.) From a policy standpoint, I don't think it matters much. 1. Some past pandemics have originated from labs. We can do better in lab safety protocols and in transparency. 2. Many deadly outbreaks have zoonotic origins. No matter how well we do on labs, these will remain a risk. 3. We are massively under investing in pathogen monitoring and detection, in vaccine technology, and in other kinds of pandemic preparedness. There's high overlap between the preparedness we need for natural outbreaks, lab leaks, and AI-related bio risk. Politics and tribalism are causing us to be far less prepared than we ought to be. Finally, here is a good starting point for the case that zoonotic origin is by far more likely than a lab leak in the case of COVID-19. x.com/i/status/19415…

@conor64 @priyaee Why are you normalizing entire neighborhoods in the heart of California cities being overrun by homeless and drug needles?

@priyaee You can live in almost all of California and have this. Sorry if you had your heart set on The Mission or Venice Beach or DTLA but come on.

Idk I just want a California where I can take my future children to the park and not have them get stabbed by fentanyl needles… Is that too much to ask?

@bennetthaselton @zachweinberg Can you link the survey so we can see the methodology, who conducted the survey, survey questions and phrasing, and results?

@zachweinberg Like I said, 44 out of 46 economists in a WSJ survey said that undocumented immigrants contribute positively to the economy, which is the opposite of "untenable". Do you think the economists in the survey are incorrect?

Back in my day, being a liberal meant: - Do you and we won't judge (be gay, be black, be Jewish, whatever, do you) - Crime is bad. Believing criminals should go to jail and are accountable for their own actions (because society needs safety). Families in particular need safe communities. And safe communities help poor Americans up level their life. - Business is good! Growing business funds social programs. Pro business! We loved growth. We loved American companies who succeeded, because that helps grow future tax revenue. We believed the pie gets bigger. - America, while flawed, is awesome. We still loved America and wanted to win. - Legal immigration is a great thing. Brings smart people to America. Do more of this. More smart people, legally coming here. - Illegal immigration is not a great thing, because illegal immigrants aren't paying taxes but pull on benefits...this harms the average American who relies on some budget discipline to afford social programs for citizens. We are now politically homeless. It's sad.

I know Ryan Grim's attack is aimed at @jaketapper, but let me respond since he is referencing my post: 1) Dropsite News is absolutely terror propaganda. The site has repeatedly shared clear falsehoods and spin directly from U.S.-designated terror groups. Ex: x.com/AGHamilton29/s… In fact, this is so apparent that even the Palestinian ambassador has called them out as “compromised” advocates for Hamas: x.com/AGHamilton29/s… 2) There is actually a lot of “credible evidence” of rapes. Witness testimony, like the example he is dismissing, is credible evidence. There are several other witnesses. There are the video confessions from captured Hamas terrorists. There is extensive physical evidence, including many victims found naked and with broken pelvises. Even the UN experts, who are hardly pro-Israel, have concluded that “There are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence — including rape and gang-rape — occurred across multiple locations of Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on 7 October 2023” You can read the UN report here: ohchr.org/sites/default/… All while propagandist Ryan Grim says “no credible evidence” 3) His response to this specific example is full of intentional nonsense meant to cover for terrorist rapists. He claims they couldn’t have done this because IDF helicopters were bearing down on them. The attack on Nova started before 7 am. There were no helicopters near the area until over 3 hours later. We have countless videos of terrorists operating openly for hours. He also claims they could not have shot an RPG at the car because they would have been blown up, but we have over a dozen videos of the hamas terrorists shooting RPGs at cars throughout the attack. He’s calling the witness and victim a liar based on no evidence other than preferring a narrative that the terrorist murderers he supports aren’t also rapists. But they were. And the fact that he continues to deny it speaks volumes about him.

@guypbenson “Win the big games” like Alabama did?

Notre Dame coach on Gameday explaining why the program quit on the season after not earning a slot in the playoff. Join a conference & win the big games, or stop whining.

@EyeOnStalk @patorioto @HistoryBoomer The thread is about disaffected Dems/liberals, not Republicans. Either way, why would a candidate who “very famously refused to differentiate herself from Biden in any way” appeal to either group?

@patorioto @flipforchips @HistoryBoomer I wasn’t being snarky. I was genuinely asking under what theory would someone vote for Biden and not Kamala, especially since her whole campaign was aimed at disappointed Republicans.

Recently, a buddy said, "I feel politically homeless." Me too, brother! We're both on the left, both voted Harris, both loathe Trump, but still don't completely fit our parties. I know the "politically homeless" line is cliché, but clichés happen for a reason. It is what it is.

@EyeOnStalk @HistoryBoomer I agree refusing to differentiate herself from Biden’s failures on inflation, illegal immigration, and crime was a huge error. Unsure why you think campaigning with Liz Cheney did an iota to sway…disaffected Dems.

@flipforchips @HistoryBoomer You mean Biden’s VP, who very famously refused to differentiate herself from Biden in any way, bragged about owning a gun, and campaigned with Liz Cheney?

@HistoryBoomer @EyeOnStalk Two good friends of mine are lifelong Democrats, absolutely loathe Trump, and voted for Biden in 2020. Both held their nose to vote for Trump in 2024 because of what the Dems have devolved into.

@EyeOnStalk I think a lot of people who voted for Trump feel alienated. Not the MAGA core, but those who voted *against* what they thought the Dems stood for.

@Aaron_Torres Alabama has looked terrible lately - they barely beat awful 5-7 Auburn and got blown out yesterday. They have a worse record than ND and also lost to 5-7 FSU. It’s impossible to argue they are a better team than ND right now. Losing as badly as Alabama did yesterday has to matter

So, I don't care who gets the last two spots, but serious question: What is Notre Dame's actual resume, besides eye test? No great wins. Didn't play in a conference title game. Lost to Miami. Last time I checked "Trust me bro, they're good" wasn't part of the criteria process

@ESPNBooger The issue is with an anemic Alabama - who has a worse record, lost to 5-7 FSU, and got blown out YESTERDAY - getting in vs Notre Dame.

@TMatich You “honor”conference championship games by rendering them meaningless? How on earth can a 3 loss Alabama team who got decimated yesterday get the nod over ND? Why would yesterday’s shellacking not count? It’s pure corruption and toxic for the sport.

Okay, the committee chose door #2 (below), or at least close to it. It was the right call. It came down to Alabama, Miami and Notre Dame for two spots. It was absolutely the right call to rank Miami ahead of ND, because of H2H. If you disagree, you're just flat wrong. So, Bama vs ND. Bama was ranked ahead of ND last week, and would have stayed there without question if they hadn't played in the SEC champ game vs #3 Georgia. ND"s last game was, um, Stanford, and they didn’t have the risk on championship weekend that Bama did because they didnt play. Yes, Bama got smoked. But choice #2 below was to honor champ games. ND had a playoff-worthy season. But there are only 12 spots, and they were first team out. It was the correct call.

@ClayTravis So an anemic Alabama losing by 21 yesterday..,just doesn’t count? Notre Dane losing by 3 months ago counts, but Alabama losing by 21 doesn’t?

The committee told you what they were going to do last week when Alabama jumped Notre Dame in the rankings. That opened up Notre Dame and Miami to be side by side when BYU lost. Head to head dictates then.

This UCSD math proficiency scandal reminds me of the great financial crisis in 2008. There was an assumption then, that bundled mortgages are nearly risk-free investments. This led to banks being incentivized to underwrite more mortgages, so they started handing out "NINJA" loans (No Income, No Job / Assets). This radical shift in the distribution of who got loans caused the initial assumption to break. It's similar here: there's a base assumption that a UC diploma leads to better salaries, so the more we give to lower-income folks, we lift more young people out of poverty and that's a good thing. But if you start handing these diplomas out to larger numbers of students who can't do elementary school math, employers will notice and the base assumption will break.

@MaestroGaeta @lhfang They haven’t done nearly enough to curb this monster.

@lhfang someone tell this pea brain that the Right has been attacking teachers' unions for decades.

The left failed so stupendously on K-12 ed since 2020. Racial equity-based ideas to remove algebra, remove standardized testing, lower standards for reading and math -- all have failed. But Republicans are too hyper focused on idiotic culture war to bring this up effectively.

The Sierra Club Embraced Social Justice. Then It Tore Itself Apart. nytimes.com/2025/11/07/us/…

@lordpet8 @CollinRugg Because it’s hypocritical and corrosive to a functioning society?

@CollinRugg yup most people want fair maps but if Texas and Indiana won't play by the same rules why should CA

Despite passing Prop 50, which just stripped power from California's nonpartisan commission, 92% of CA voters say district lines should be drawn by a nonpartisan commission. "The irony is 9 of 10 voters said they'd like to see this done by a nonpartisan commission." Are people really this stupid?

@robgoldbergo @JamesSurowiecki She lost in a lean red state to a very weak Dem. Lake ran an awful campaign in an otherwise very winnable race.

@JamesSurowiecki Kari Lake seems to be to closest IMO, having only lost a swing state very narrowly

In all seriousness, are there are good MAGA candidates? Trump aside, how many MAGA candidates have won big races in swing states/districts?

@JamesSurowiecki Why is “socialist” in scare quotes now? Mamdani has a lengthy track record of discussing his impassioned political views. Why on earth would he magically transform into a centrist Dem upon winning as you suggest?

@flipforchips What "socialist" policies do you think Mamdani is going to enact?

The relevant history here is the history of socialist mayors in the U.S., and it's actually a perfectly fine history. Milwaukee had a socialist mayor for 24 years - very popular and effective. Bridgeport also had one for 24 years during its economic heyday. LaGuardia was a socialist at one point, and is arguably New York's greatest mayor. Bernie was mayor of Burlington, seems to have done fine.

@JamesSurowiecki So now the far left socialist is going to govern as a “left of center” Dem? Do you really believe this nonsense? The mayor has significant control over the police and school system.

The obvious point is that socialist mayors are limited in what they can do. They can't seize the means of production. They typically have little unilateral power. So in practice they govern as left-of -center Dems focused on economics, which is not going to wreak havoc on a city.