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Sam Halpert

@samhalpert.bsky.social

2.1K followers 780 following 1.9K posts

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Reposted by Sam Halpert

dr. caitlin m. green @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social · 4h

there are SO many more inflatable costumes tonight. clearly we have settled on a motif

Wide shot of many people in inflatable costumes

Reposted by Sam Halpert

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 4h

Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight.

Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

Reposted by Sam Halpert

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 8h

Every single AI data center is a toxic investment, with most of its value tied up in GPUs that will be multiple generations behind by the time these things turn on - and then die in 3-5 years.

All to build for AI demand that doesn't exist.
edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo...

Actually, wait - how long do GPUs last, exactly? Four years for training? Three years? The A100 GPU started shipping in May 2020, and the H100 (and the Hopper GPU generation) entered full production in September 2022, meaning that we’re hurtling at speed toward the time in which we’re going to start seeing a remarkable amount of chips start wearing down, which should be a concern for companies like Microsoft, who bought 150,000 Hopper GPUs in 2023 and 485,000 of them in 2024.
Alright, let me just be blunt: the entire economy of debt around GPUs is insane.
Assuming these things don’t die within five years (their warranties generally end in three), their value absolutely will, as NVIDIA has committed to releasing a new AI chip every single year, likely with significant increases to power and power efficiency. At the end of the five year period, the Special Purpose Vehicle will be the proud owner of five-year-old chips that nobody is going to want to rent at the price that Elon Musk has been paying for the last five years. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the rental prices for H100 GPUs that went from $8-an-hour in 2023 to $2-an-hour in 2024, or the Silicon Data Indexes (aggregated realtime indexes of hourly prices) that show H100 rentals at around $2.14-an-hour and A100 rentals at a dollar-an-hour, with Vast.AI offering them at as little as $0.67 an hour.
This is, by the way, a problem that faces literally every data center being built in the world, and I feel insane talking about it. It feels like nobody is talking about how impossible and ridiculous all of this is - it’s one thing that OpenAI has promised one trillion dollars to people - it’s another that large swaths of that will be spent on hardware that will, by the end of these agreements, be half-obsolete and generating less revenue than ever.
Think about it - let’s assume we live in a fantasy land where OpenAI is somehow able to pay Oracle $300 billion over 5 years. Said money is paying for access to Blackwell…

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Karl (sad trombone noise enthusiast) @brainnotonyet.bsky.social · 7h

This is very very good news frankly.

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 7h

Our plane to Spain is in the air!

🙌🙌

Thank you so much to the countless people supporting us in every way and in particular all of the Rutgers students and faculty who have supported us every step of the way.

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 8h

Trump v Hawaii wasn’t about foreign policy, iirc. It carved out discretion based on a national security justification, which is concerning.

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 8h

The Daily Show didn’t write this sketch. Portland did. <3

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 11h

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Paul Gowder @gowder.io · 9h

The presumption of regularity is dead, at least before serious district court judges. That's what happens when you constantly send half-qualified "lawyers" from the DOJ to lie in court

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 10h

Perry: Four (4) federal judges have issued rulings in the past two (2) days in separate cases that cast significant doubt on federal officials' "credibility and assessment of what is happening on the streets of Chicago."

Reposted by Sam Halpert

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 8h

Anyone know where one might find Trump's alleged Oct. 4 determination that the "regular troops" are unable to execute federal laws in Chicago and/or his activation of the National Guard for Chicago?

@justsecurity.org

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Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 9h

#BREAKING Federal judge in Chicago temporarily blocks the Trump administration from "ordering the federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States within Illinois."

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 9h

Perry says the order will say defendants are "temporarily enjoined from ordering the federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States within Illinois."

Reposted by Sam Halpert

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 9h

Perry says the order will say defendants are "temporarily enjoined from ordering the federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States within Illinois."

Reposted by Sam Halpert

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 9h

Perry just handed a draft of her order to both sides and left the bench. She's letting them look at it until she returns.

We still don't know the details of her order. She said she's granting the state's request "in part," which indicates some part of it is also being denied. Stay tuned.

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Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 9h

Perry goes on to say the deployment of the National Guard is "likely to lead to civil unrest."

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 9h

From the federal judge hearing the lawsuit against Trump's militarization of Chicago.

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 10h

Perry: "I have seen no credible evidence that there is danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois."

Reposted by Sam Halpert

Kathleen Bush-Joseph @kathleenbush.bsky.social · 11h

Do the Courts Matter? The Trump Administration Tests the Limits of Immigration Law

@ilyasomin.bsky.social is starting our last #immconf panel of the day talking about the Trump admin's invocation of an "invasion"

Previously, lower courts mostly rejected Texas' arguments that migration...

Reposted by Sam Halpert

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 2d

Absent the structure of federalism, this would be an unambiguous act of aggression. And POTUS eliminated any ambiguity last week at Quantico, when he looked all his generals in the face and said, “this is a war.” He’s told us what these moves mean: he’s levying war on the United States. It’s treason

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 11h

And there’s a decent argument that Treason impeachments specifically should not function as a purely political process left to the House’s discretion (notwithstanding Federalist 65). bsky.app/profile/samh...

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 11h

Treason is the only federal crime that isn’t created by Congress. The only one it doesn’t have the power to end or modify solely through its own political judgment.

This isn’t the House’s political call to make. The framers made it for you and your colleagues. This is simply your duty to execute.

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 1d

I couldn't imagine a more perfectly poetic example of saying the quiet part out loud than "we took the freedom of speech away"

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 11h

Treason is the only federal crime that isn’t created by Congress. The only one it doesn’t have the power to end or modify solely through its own political judgment.

This isn’t the House’s political call to make. The framers made it for you and your colleagues. This is simply your duty to execute.

Reposted by Sam Halpert

Maxwell Frost @maxwellfrost.bsky.social · 11h

This is a federal agent pointing a weapon at a person recording them.

ICE has become Trump’s personal military that he is using to terrorize communities and cities that don’t support him. And some say we shouldn’t call him a fascist? Open your eyes.

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 11h

It’s a military, and he’s told generals it’s a war. He’s levying war against the United States. You have a duty to introduce Articles charging him with treason. Ppl are standing by to assist. bsky.app/profile/samh...

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 4d

MoC can shape the media narrative by drafting articles of impeachment and talking publicly about how POTUS’ speech Tuesday furnished proof of the *intent* behind his military occupation of cities; he’s waging war on the United States in violation of the Treason Clause.

Josh Sternberg @joshsternberg.com · 4d

One of the questions: Will the media step up and report as such? Yes, the conservative media owns the modes of mass comms. But ostensibly, large mainstream outlets who purport to speak truth to power etc have leaders who are watching things unfold and understand the stakes. Will they be as honest?

Reposted by Sam Halpert

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 12h

“Judges have a choice: Allow Trump to take them as fools, or look at the facts including his own admissions when assessing his power grabs?”

Absolutely. Good ideas here.

Jen Rubin @jenrubin.bsky.social · 19h

In abusing the shadow docket and overruling lower courts’ detailed fact-finding, MAGA justices give Trump leeway to lie, encourage more outrageous conduct, and incentivize him to hurl threats. The deference offered should be to the lower courts as finders of fact. open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

Trump Takes Judges for Fools

Rejecting unwarranted deference means preserving judicial review

open.substack.com

Reposted by Sam Halpert

Julie DiCaro @juliedicaro.bsky.social · 13h

I have no idea how this squares with Oklahoma taking part in the amicus briefs on Trump's side in the Oregon and Illinois cases.

Maybe someone more versed in politics can explain it to me.

Larry Ferlazzo @larryferlazzo.bsky.social · 14h

Oklahoma’s Republican governor criticizes guard deployment. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/u...

Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, a Republican and the chairman of the National Governors Association, on Thursday criticized the deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Illinois as a violation of his beliefs in federalism and “states’ rights.”

His comments, in an interview with The New York Times, marked the first time a Republican governor has questioned the interstate deployment of National Guard troops over a governor’s objections. Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and other Democratic elected officials have been strongly critical of the move and have implored Republican governors to join the opposition.

Mr. Stitt on Thursday said, “We believe in the federalist system — that’s states’ rights,” adding, “Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.”

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 12h

Thanks @pkrugman.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

It's true that the plan to aid Argentina looks quite a lot like Bill Clinton's bailout of Mexico during that nation's financial crisis of 1994-5.

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POLITICO
Using his executive powers, President Bill Clinton, on this day in 1995, approved a $20 billion loan from the U.S. Treasury to Mexico after Congress had rejected providing a $50 billion bailout to America's southern neighbor.

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POLITICO
Clinton issued the loan through the Federal Reserve's Exchange Stabilization Fund, marking the first time the fund had been used to help stabilize a foreign currency. In

Reposted by Sam Halpert

Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 13h

If this stuff would end up on the news it would absolutely motivate voters. Plenty of people who don't give a shit about politics would absolutely give af about this.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 17h

CHICAGO — Outside an elementary school during dismissal… horrifying. What have we become?

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 12h

Has the administration offered any statements about their legal authority for this? What budget provision the money is coming from, why Article II somehow allows this kind of spending…

I haven’t seen any. Did I miss something?

David Gura @davidgura.bsky.social · 13h

Secretary Scott Bessent says the U.S. has “directly purchased Argentine pesos,” and the Treasury Department has “finalized a $20 billion currency swap framework with Argentina’s central bank.”