Joshua Loftus
@joft.bsky.social
1.8K followers 260 following 170 posts
Prof. of #Statistics, #machinelearning / ethics for #datascience @LSE. Unschooled to community college to PhD @Stanford Technology, institutions, and ideas should serve people, but much of humanity is stuck with this upside-down.
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joft.bsky.social
I haven't seen anything in FT/NYT about this, is it a big deal or do we not know yet
joft.bsky.social
Over 300,000 children have died so far as a direct result of trump and musk illegally defunding USAID
joft.bsky.social
The really strange thing is that Klein is fully bought-in on the idea that social media algorithms are a major cause of all the things getting politically worse right now

... and then he turns around and promotes/befriends(?) the specific people using those algorithms *most* destructively 🤨
esqueer.net
I am going to become the joker.
Alt text: Screenshot of a headline from The Ezra Klein Show in the Opinion section. The title reads: “Ben Shapiro and I Talk Political De-escalation.” Below it says, “Sept. 16, 2025, 5:05 a.m. ET.” At the bottom is a byline with a small headshot of Ezra Klein and the text, “By Ezra Klein.”
joft.bsky.social
I'm now guessing >20%
joft.bsky.social
I think the likelihood of a US civil war in the next ~1-10 years is >15%

This is extremely high, why is nobody talking about it?

There is already no rule of law & trump lives to provoke and divide. Mass protests, trump orders military crackdown, chain of command breaks. Who could even stop it now?
joft.bsky.social
Left: The entire British political establishment working diligently to destroy Jeremy Corbyn and keep him out of power by any means

Right: Starmer's Labour, in power, manages to become more unpopular than its lowest point under Corbyn
joft.bsky.social
I’d really like to see a version of this where the question wording was more neutral (“true American patriots”)
joft.bsky.social
Delete all the data, is something I say, oftentimes
brunojnavarro.bsky.social
A data broker owned by major US airlines, including American Airlines, United, and Delta, is selling access to five billion plane ticketing records to the government for warrantless searching and monitoring of peoples’ movements, including by the FBI, Secret Service, ICE and other agencies
Airlines Sell 5 Billion Plane Ticket Records to the Government For Warrantless Searching
New documents obtained by 404 Media show how a data broker owned by American Airlines, United, Delta, and many other airlines is selling masses of passenger data to the U.S. government.
www.404media.co
joft.bsky.social
Arrest and charge him with encouraging terrorism
joft.bsky.social
He's speaking to a far-right rally telling them that violence is coming to them, they have to fight back, there must be a revolutionary government change, and it cannot wait until the next election

He's trying to incite a violent insurrection, he should be arrested for encouraging terrorism
paleofuture.bsky.social
"We must have revolutionary government change for that to occur. And this is not ordinary course of business sort of stuff. This really requires everyone to sort of marshal the people, to take charge, reform the government..."
joft.bsky.social
(because he is a big dumb baby)
joft.bsky.social
Noahpinion accidentally admitting that the left isn't responsible for cancel culture, but probably doesn't even realize he implied as much
joft.bsky.social
Realized that at least some Dem Party leaders aren't doing more to stop or resist the power grab because they are salivating thinking about the bribes they will be able to extract when it's their next turn holding the WH and Congress
joft.bsky.social
This is what I've been saying since 2023 (image below)

"prediction: use of "AI" [...] will come to be broadly associated with cheating, deception, lack of respect for other people, and low quality work that cannot be trusted in important settings"
joft.bsky.social
The rest of the world should unite and negotiate their trade deals with the US collectively rather than individually

"America First" should mean "USA vs The Entire World," and the side with ~95% of people on this planet should win
joft.bsky.social
Can anyone explain why other countries haven't started uniting into blocs to collectively negotiate against the US?

It's one imbecile versus the entire world, but other world leaders are lining up and waiting their turn to fight with him 1-on-1. Just team up and crush him, make the USA your lapdog!
josephpolitano.bsky.social
Here's what Trump's new tariff hikes look like—another 5% on major allies like the EU, Japan, & South Korea. Another 10% on large trading partners like India, Vietnam, & Canada. Some rather insane choices like 39% tariffs on Switzerland, 41% on Syria, and of course 50% on Brazil.
joft.bsky.social
How about

s/reached/defined/
joft.bsky.social
I'm guessing the general pattern is that these DOGE losers asked "grok" to summarize/search documents for them, didn't check any details, then made life and death decisions based on "hallucinations"
joft.bsky.social
Health insurance: more insured people, but they can't afford to actually use their insurance

STEM education: more students get these degrees seeking high salaries, the quality/content of the education (critical thinking, attention to detail, analytical problem solving) declines (python camp)
joft.bsky.social
There's a grand historical narrative to be told about (competent, i.e. center/left) neoliberal governance and Goodhart's law

Targeting-
GDP: more consumption, but it's wasteful and unhealthy

Unemployment: more jobs, but they suck

Housing: more units, but they suck

etc
joft.bsky.social
Squatted so hard I went temporarily partially blind

(it was probably just a migraine actually, squatting is safe)
joft.bsky.social
The lead-up to the Iraq war, the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, and the ~2015-2019 coverage of Corbyn as Labour leader come to mind
joft.bsky.social
Getting closer
joft.bsky.social
I think the likelihood of a US civil war in the next ~1-10 years is >15%

This is extremely high, why is nobody talking about it?

There is already no rule of law & trump lives to provoke and divide. Mass protests, trump orders military crackdown, chain of command breaks. Who could even stop it now?
joft.bsky.social
Outside these evil giants most of the rest is "solving problems" to scale up some B2B SaaS product to collect more data when a user sees an ad video and then clicks a buy-from-drop-shipper button, usually with the goal of being bought out by one of the giants so they don't have to compete