Tim O'Brien
@_TimOBrien
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Technology law and policy | Lecturer @INSEAD | @PurdueEngineers, @KelloggSchool, @UWSchoolofLaw
Bull Valley, IL
Joined October 2011
In 1929, @andrewrsorkin's telling of the runup to Black Tuesday feels a lot like crypto: speculation run amok, gateway to gambling addiction, 'number go up' mindset, and ostentatious displays of newfound (& often temporary) wealth, to name a few. Lessons for today abound.
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Hey Google & Disney streaming execs - how's that anti-Comcast 'cut the cable' campaign going? In the end, all these firms are terrible. For consumers, all they've achieved is replacing coax with wi-fi ... same shit, different day.
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As a sr. exec once said to me, "I'd rather be Machiavellian than stupid."
Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the only Republicans who sees where this is headed. Trump is weak. He’s tanking the economy and raising prices. He’s underwater on all key issues. The GOP is likely headed toward a midterm loss. MTG is positioning herself for a post-Trump GOP.
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In 2022, Techdirt's Mike Masnick created a 'Legal Misunderstanding March Madness' bracket for law twitter, and of course the First Amendment "won" as the most misunderstood legal doctrine in the U.S. Was funny at the time, but also not funny.
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Super ... Fox & Friends trying to bring back Aktion T4
“Or involuntary lethal injection or something. Just kill them.” - Fox News Host during a segment about the homeless population
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'Comparative advantage' is among the most basic concepts in economics, yet this administration continues to pretend it doesn't exist.
For all of its efforts to drive a domestic manufacturing boom in key industries, the United States remains heavily reliant on Asian expertise to build batteries, FP’s @christinafei writes.
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Ford was, of course, sued into oblivion, and juries lowered the boom with punitive damages when it came out that the company knew about the risk all along. So yes ... there is a cautionary tale here for AI shops.
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Ford did exactly this in the 70's, when it discovered the Pinto could burst into flames if the fuel tank ruptured in a rear collision. Fatalities were deemed acceptable, as the cost of settling suits was less than a recall & retrofit.
The safety and security policies that AI companies have (voluntarily/non-bindingly) committed themselves to have very high risk thresholds. It’s like if Ford and Honda said “if the engine explodes, no more than a thousand people will die. Also, babies can’t break into it.”
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This is what happens when you use quotas to drive performance. ICE doesn't think or care about trade relations, trade policy, or impact on the US economy. The agency is simply tasked with making "number go up". USTR is the new worst job in the admin because of this eff-up.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ordered all-out efforts to swiftly respond to the arrests of hundreds of the nation's citizens in a US immigration raid on a Hyundai Motor car battery factory https://t.co/xvCwgfQEBY
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A few years ago I saw Garry Kasparov (Russian chess grandmaster) talking about the problem w/U.S. politics: base voters supporting their party the way rabid sports fans support their favorite team, even if the team is a terrible, ongoing source of heartbreak & pain.
John Deere, a U.S. Icon, Is Undermined by #Tariffs and Struggling #Farmers — The tractor maker said that sales were down and that higher metal tariffs would cost it $600 million, while American farmers face dwindling overseas demand for some crops. https://t.co/3N6CtGeQCk
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Curious to see if Taylor Sheridan included this diabolically stupid tariff nonsense into a storyline for Landman season 2
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Lol The arg in the complaint is downright Brandeisian ... a passing nod to consumer welfare but mostly about how bigness is bad
Newsmax Sues Fox News for Having a 'Monopoly' on Right-Wing News https://t.co/jNXMEUtb7y
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The farm sector is in a long-term abusive relationship with this president - he hurts them over & over again, and when the election comes around, they say, "Well, he promised he won't do it again"
John Deere is laying off 238 workers at three factories in Iowa. The company said Tariffs and lower commodity prices are to blame. “Tariff costs in the quarter were approximately $200 million, which brings us to roughly $300 million in tariff expense year to date,” said director
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Need to double check ... did our guy take the oath of office on the Holy Bible or Das Kapital?
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I look forward to the president's ham-handed Neville Chamberlain act, waving some worthless document around and claiming to have secured "peace in our time" by selling out an ally. He's getting played like a grand piano, again.
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I'd recommend reading Browning's "Ordinary Men" to better understand how seemingly normal people become transformed by their employment in these systems.
A man coughing up blood. Men zip-tied face down on a wet floor. CCTV turned off. Men forced to eat off of a chair like animals while handcuffed. Solitary confinement if you complain. This is three paragraphs from a report. It comes days after we learned that detainees in
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The glorious Age of AI Agents that people like @sama and @DarioAmodei promised is … turning out be a bust. All of this was entirely predictable. Shame on anyone who believed them.
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Citizens United ftw
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Alfalfa is a legume and a $7.5 billion ag business in the US. This research helps farmers increase yields and profitability, but the govt calls it "waste".
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This is the central thesis of Arlie Russell Hochschild's 2016 book Strangers in Their Own Land, explaining why Tea Party Conservatives in Louisiana keep voting against their own interests. All rooted in anger, resentment, and bitterness. No one was talking about policy.
You didn’t vote for Trump because of policy. You voted for him because he told you the system was rigged against you—and you needed someone to burn it down. It wasn’t about solutions. It was about your grievance. Your resentment. Your need to blame someone else for being left
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