Michele Hirschfield

Passionate about Making a Difference... Gourmand...Creative.....Proud American on the loose...

[DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican]

🚨🚨 THE ILLEGITIMACY PLAYBOOK / THE DEMOCRACY FILES: A PRIMER 🚨

I will be using this thread to track all drops, so bookmark it.

I spent most of yesterday backing everything (now 312 gigabytes) up in various sources and getting the materials out to others. I also produced an AI video (below) to explain the whole thing to others are not on 𝕏 - feel free to distribute.

Here's the primer:

USAID, the foreign aid agency, had a democracy office. Inside the agency, it was called DRG.

Officially, DRG administered "democracy assistance." They'd go inside countries they thought were sliding into authoritarianism and help the opposition there. That assistance included election monitoring, judicary support, independent media, and civil society building.

You may have heard the term "color revolution." The model comes from Serbia in 2000, where trained student activists brought down Milosevic with the help of Western governments, after sustained protests. With the help of USAID's democracy office, this model was implemented in many other countries to topple governments: Georgia's "Rose Revolution" in 2003, Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" in 2004, and many more.

Then last year, DOGE shut down USAID. But the USAID democracy office didn't stop. They formed a group called the Democracy Renewal Group, the same initials as their office (USAID Democracy, Human Rights, Governance). Their goal: apply their own playbook to the United States itself.

This goal became a plan, called Renew American Democracy (RAD). It invoked the "4 B's" framework. Block - use lawfare and protests to make life harder for the Trump administration. Bridge & Belong - control dialogue and win people over. The final and most important B is Build. Build means redesigning the American government itself, and the crisis is the opening.

In their own words:
"We can take that breakdown moment and leverage it for a big structural reform, you know, refounding moment." - Danielle Reiff, DRG lead.

Calls show DRG working alongside DSA on ideas of creating a different government, one that does away with the Constitution itself.

DRG does not run the Block operations. They hand it to UDA, the United Democracy Alliance. One organizer calls it a "huge galaxy": lawsuits, street protests, non-cooperation. They list No Kings, Indivisible, MoveOn, 50501, and many other mega-activist NGOs among their members.

Another organizer calls UDA Erica Chenoweth's project. Chenoweth is the Harvard professor behind the three-and-half-percent rule of regime change: get that share of a country's populace onto the streets, and historically, the movement wins.

The UDA is very "hush-hush." They have no website, no roster, no filings.

Then come the red lines: things the Trump administration could do, such as calling the Insurrection Act on protesters, that would mean that the federal government, in their words, "crosses the threshold into illegitimacy." Nobody voted on those lines. There was no public debate. These red lines were developed within secretive working groups, and in a paper addressed to governors and staff.

In the words of Reiff/DRG:
"So that if there is a red line crossed in terms of a Constitutional crisis, like everyone's already pre-organized. And so Mike Smith actually said, he goes, oh, you guys have the day after tomorrow plan."

Cross a line, and the paper's options include states refusing to lend their resources to federal officials, and governors convening what it calls a "Third Continential Congress."

Running the UDA's Insurrection Act working group: Rear Admiral Mike Smith (RET) of National Security Leaders of America (NSL4A). NSL4A is also credited with operationalizing UDA, the blocking operations. NSL4A consists of about 1,600 ex-officers, spies, diplomats. They're turning red lines into indicators and running a situation room to monitor them throughout the midterms and beyond.

The NSL4A's lawyers told them to stop recording meetings in case of subpoenas. But the rest of the network continued to record. DRG works in conjunction with Renew to Thrive (R2T), which ended up accidentally publishing 400+ calls and thousands of documents. These calls and documents were never meant for our eyes, but it's them, on tape.

Thousands of NGOs and billions of dollars are involved in this endeavor. Most of them believe they're saving democracy. The problem is that people who spent their careers deciding when other countries' governments had lost their legitimacy wrote that test for ours, in private, and planned for what comes after.

Who decides when your government is legitimate?

[Spencer Pratt @spencerpratt]

What’s terrifying about this clip isn’t their ideals…these sweet gals’ hearts are certainly in the right place. What’s terrifying is they have the civic, political, and economic literacy of a 9 year old. When a charlatan like Abdul comes along with the Jr High class president schtick of “no more homework and the vending machines are all free!”, they fall for it.

I don’t know how you get to that age with ZERO understanding of supply chains, manufacturing, labor costs…but a lot of folks think that medicine and MRIs and hospitals just materialize out of thin air like unicorn farts. They’ve never built anything in their lives, so they have no concept of how things function…things are just…there. They think milk comes from the store. They think rich people don’t pay taxes, even though the top 1% fund 40% of government with their taxes already, and yet 40% of all Americans contribute ZERO federal income tax at all. These people don’t understand that you could tax the wealthy at 100% and it would only fund the government for 120 days. Then you’re screwed.

Too many Americans simply have zero understanding of how anything works, and even though they’re living in the easiest times in human history, they think things are “terrible out there”. These commie scammers roll through and promise them things that sound great, but aren’t possible in reality, and have devastating consequences if tried…but because they don’t know anything, they fall for it. Sadly, so many of our politicians and their advisors are such atrocious communicators, there’s like zero countervailing narrative to push back on the commie gobbledygook, so we are gonna have to learn the hard way. Guys…we just had a sample of socialism: Covid. We all got universal basic income, and it ended up tripling our costs and they’ll never go down. Ever. That one brief little experiment in command and control government will haunt us the rest of our lives. Bleak stuff, man.

[Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent @SecScottBessent]

Operation Economic Outcast is delivering results: the rial has plunged to record lows, Iran loaded zero crude oil onto tankers last month, and even Iran’s top security official has admitted the country is facing one of the most difficult periods in its history.

The Iranian regime allows its own people to suffer while it pours resources into terrorism. Operation Economic Outcast will not stop until the Iranian regime understands that the Trump Administration will never allow the regime to fund terrorism and develop a nuclear weapon.

[David Sacks @DavidSacks]

Thanks to President Trump’s leadership on AI:
— a million new jobs have been created around the AI buildout;
— 401(k)s are up ~12% this year as AI capex and productivity lift the market;
— America is re-industrializing, including the first large private investments in power generation and the grid in a generation;
— In rural Richland Parish, Louisiana, teachers just received $50,000 bonuses from data-center tax revenue.

Because the media portrays AI only as a menace, people tell pollsters they “don’t like AI.” Their behavior says otherwise. AI products are the fastest-adopted technology in history — faster than the internet or the iPhone. People like the tools, the jobs, and the tax base.

President Trump understands the media hoax cycle better than anyone else. That is why he is refusing the “pause” that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are demanding. A pause would not make America safer. It would hand the frontier to China. That would be a disaster for the American economy and for national security.

[Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump]

BREAKING NEWS: I am pleased to announce that the United States of America has entered into an Agreement with The Kingdom of Denmark, and Greenland, that gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns. There will be NO COST to the United States! At my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to guarantee that the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America. Additionally, from now on, no U.S. adversary can EVER have a base in Greenland, have a military presence in Greenland, or make sensitive investments in Greenland, without our express written approval. For over 100 years, Presidents have known the strategic importance of Greenland, but NONE of them were able to do anything about it. I am proud to be the President that permanently and conclusively addressed this very important situation. This is an “Infinite Life” Agreement, there is no end! We are very honored and proud of what has just taken place, and everything agreed to today will be cherished by the American People. We will immediately begin the process of developing a large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland, of which there are many. We will work with the people of Greenland in its development and construction. This solution is a great one for the United States of America, Denmark, Greenland, and all of our Allies. We look forward to working with the wonderful people of Denmark and Greenland toward a magnificent future with respect to this large, and highly strategic, parcel of land. We will be very protective of it! This is a dream come true for the United States of America, one that is very important, historic, and special. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

[WISH-TV News @WISHNews8]

Former Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, sat down with Circle City Broadcasting's Dante Stanton ahead of his performance with the Gene Simmons Band at the Indiana State Fair's Free Stage. His tour stretches into 2027.

[David Sacks @DavidSacks]

Some thoughts on Dario’s post:

1. Dario does not actually address Gavin Baker’s account of what he said – something he could easily deny if it were inaccurate.

2. Dario claims his critics live in a “bubble” where all regulation equals regulatory capture. He calls this an overly simplified view and notes that “Many people outside this bubble think of regulation as something that constrains corporate power and benefits ordinary people.” This argument is a straw man. Of course treating all regulation as capture would be overly simplified – but almost no one holds that view. I have repeatedly argued for strong antitrust enforcement to keep industries competitive, especially Big Tech. If Anthropic continues toward monopoly or duopoly status, I would be among the first to demand those rules apply.

3. Regulatory capture is not vague or in the eye of the beholder. Nobel laureate George Stigler defined it as regulation acquired by an industry and designed and operated primarily for its benefit. Stigler challenged the traditional view that government regulation arises from a benevolent state protecting the public from market failures. Rather, industry groups have concentrated stakes and pour resources into influencing regulators, whereas the public’s stake is diffuse and unorganized. The revolving door between companies and the agencies that regulate them compounds the problem. Anthropic understands these dynamics: it has hired multiple senior Biden AI-policy officials and built a substantial government-affairs operation plus a network of aligned organizations to push its preferred frameworks at state and federal levels.

4. Dario has consistently pushed for a new federal agency to review and approve frontier models prior to release – a proposal framed variously as an “FDA for AI,” an “FAA for AI,” and most recently a “FINRA for AI.” I call it a “DMV for AI” because a review process modeled on the FAA or FDA (which takes years) or FINRA (which issues rules for a staid industry widely seen as protecting incumbents) will create long queues as AI models wait for testing and approval. This process will only become more labyrinthine as rules accumulate to prevent theoretical harms. This would handicap the U.S. relative to China, which will not adopt the same constraints. It would also undermine Anthropic’s own business model, whose pricing power depends on remaining ahead of open models. Whatever Dario states today, it is difficult to believe the company would simply accept outcomes that erase that advantage.

5. Anthropic is on track to become one of the most valuable companies in history, with the resources to navigate any approval process and shape the rules while competitors wait. Dario wants open models under heavier scrutiny – he has called them dangerous in Senate testimony, criticized them for not being centrally monitored or withdrawn, and linked them to IP theft. He says he has never sought a ban, but he could achieve a similar result by insisting that identical rules apply to both open and closed models. The U.S. risks becoming an island of costly closed models while the rest of the world races ahead with broader choice.

6. Dario acknowledges that AI is structurally centralizing but attributes this mainly to chips and scaling laws. Access to compute matters, but the deeper risk is who decides which capabilities are available to whom. His preferred pre-deployment testing and FAA/FINRA-style oversight would place that gatekeeping power in a federal bureaucracy working hand-in-glove with a small number of frontier labs – reinforcing centralization rather than countering it.

7. The second part of Dario’s post assumes we have amnesia about Anthropic’s well-orchestrated campaigns hyping AI fears. His May 2025 claim that AI would wipe out 50 percent of entry-level knowledge jobs within five years still lacks supporting evidence fifteen months later. Similarly Anthropic breathlessly promoted its heavily contrived “blackmail” study on 60 Minutes. Yet Dario blames public negativity on a long-standing loss of trust in institutions rather than his own messaging.

8. These narratives have done more than anything to shape public fear. People are left asking the same question Mark Zuckerberg posed: why race to build a future you describe in such negative terms? Thomas Sowell’s "The Vision of the Anointed" captures the mindset – elite intellectuals convinced that only they are enlightened enough to control the outcome. As Zuckerberg notes, concentrating power in the hands of an enlightened few has rarely produced the promised results; the practitioners turn out to be less enlightened in practice than in self-conception.

9. Gavin Baker summarized the disagreement cleanly on our pod: Dario believes frontier AI is too powerful to distribute; we believe it is too powerful to centralize. Dario appears to believe, sincerely, that safety and progress are best served by centralizing authority in a marriage of corporate and state power. The weight of human history gives us reason to fear that outcome.

[Howard Lutnick @howardlutnick]

Today has special meaning for me and my family. On 9/11 my younger brother Gary was murdered by Jihadists simply for being American. He went to work that beautiful Tuesday morning pursuing the American dream. To succeed, and build his life in the greatest country on earth. Jealousy begets hatred and he was killed along with 657 other Cantor Fitzgerald employees for being American and working in the globally famous twin towers of the World Trade Center.

America deserves to be loved, she deserves to be protected and she deserves our appreciation because America is the world’s shining light. Imagine a world without America, it becomes very dark very quickly. America is the beacon of freedom beaming across the globe. This is who we are, and why we take the actions we do. There is only one nation that delivers on the American Dream. There is only one nation fighting for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There is only one America and today is her birthday. And I could not be more proud to be her son.

[Brad Gerstner @altcap]

Dear America,  

Starting today, on the 250th birthday of our country, millions of children will now benefit from a new & powerful American birthright - a privately owned investment account from birth. Every child a shareholder in the great American economy!

American capitalism is the greatest prosperity-creating engine the world has ever known. It has unlocked unprecedented abundance for our country and untold life-advancing innovation. From clean food & water to cars & planes to vaccines & cures to computers & phones.  Through depressions & world wars, through panics & pandemics, betting on America has been the best investment in human history. 

But far too many hardworking families feel like they are on the outside looking in - like the American Dream has become out of reach. 

The Invest America Act changes all that. Signed into law by President Trump it establishes the Trump Accounts - launching today - making every child a shareholder from birth.  Every account seeded with $1000 in America's best companies - making every child a direct participant in our stock markets & American capitalism.  

But it doesn’t stop there.  Representing the best of our civic traditions, an unprecedented outpouring of additional private  contributions into these accounts is already underway. Billions of dollars have been committed by philanthropists & corporations to tens of millions of children across the country. A new form of massive, direct philanthropy & corporate benefits directly to America’s kids is just getting started. From adopting all the kids of a school or organization to a city or state.  America is the most giving country in the history of the world - and Trump Accounts provide a new open source platform to enable anybody to contribute to anybody.  

Trillions of dollars will compound in these accounts over the next 20 years.   

But this is about more than just figures on an account statement. By investing in the next generation, our country is providing tangible opportunities to all future generations of Americans: an education, a first home, the ability to start a business, and the foundation for a lifetime of savings. Trump Accounts provide hope to those feeling hopeless - unlocking unlimited human potential.

Trump Accounts do this through a massive public - private partnership that empower the individual not the state.  They double down on free market capitalist democracy by empowering the individual rather than growing dependency on government.  Aligning citizens with capitalism rather than pitting them against it. 

Perhaps of equal importance, let us not lose sight of the fact that this is a movement that unites our country. Despite the many issues that divide us, this one big idea brings everyone together. From the most conservative to the most progressive leaders, we have found people of goodwill willing to step up and do the right thing to help the next generation. 

Trump Accounts represent the very best of our democracy and the American promise issued two hundred and fifty years ago today. I am grateful to all those who have partnered with us to get this far and we dedicate our tireless efforts to make certain that the Invest America Act achieves its maximum potential.  Let us advance into the future with a renewed sense of confidence, optimism and restored faith in the American Dream for EVERY American.   

Happy 250th Birthday, America!

Brad Gerstner
July 4, 2026

@TrumpAccounts @InvestAmerica24 @WhiteHouse @MichaelDell

[Bhavika Agarwal @Ai_Tech_tool]

INSTEAD OF WATCHING NETFLIX TONIGHT.

Spend 1 hour with this.

Claude AI FULL COURSE that teaches you how to BUILD and AUTOMATE anything.

The people who watch this tonight will wake up tomorrow with a new skill.

Watch it and Bookmark it now.

[Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath]

Four years ago, I invested ~$40M and got involved helping build a small publicly listed company in Canada called Perimeter Medical.

Why?

They were trying to build an AI enabled device to help doctors do cancer surgeries better: take a tumor out from a patient, analyze it with AI while still in the surgical theater and tell with precision if all the cancer was taken out. If yes, close the patient up. If not, go back and get all the cancer.

Well, we got FDA approval today!!

Our product, Claire, became the FIRST FDA-approved AI-enabled imaging device for breast cancer surgery. We also got Breakthrough Designation.

Currently, ~20% of women face repeat surgeries because surgeons "didn't get it all". What’s even worse is that they typically don’t find out for 10 days after the surgery until pathology has reviewed the resected tumor. That is 10 days of waiting and worrying for patients.

Claire’s real-time AI + OCT tech delivers 10x the resolution of standard X-rays, identifying suspicious tissue during a surgery so surgeons can act immediately.

Claire is now a regulated tool that sits in the workflow, in real time, while a surgeon is operating. It is just the start for what this platform can do for cancer care.

We will first focus on ~300,000 breast cancer surgeries per year in the U.S., and then grow into other solid tumors over time.

From a systems perspective, it’s also what “real AI” looks like: invisible to the patient, indispensable to the clinician, and measured in fewer surgeries  and better treatment experience .

Congratulations to @adrianvmendes and the @perimetermed team.

[Michele Hirschfield @WelcominResults]

🚨 Crypto in 2026—what to watch
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong outlines key trends shaping crypto’s future: growing adoption, clearer regulations, and real-world use beyond trading.

🎥 Worth a watch:
https://t.co/5aYMiepYa3

#Crypto #Blockchain #FinTech

[Michele Hirschfield @WelcominResults]

🧠 Can the FDA move faster and rebuild public trust?

In an interview led by David Friedberg, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary explains what’s slowing progress—and how science, transparency, and reform can fix it.

🎬 Watch: https://t.co/8hdSm8I7dB

[Michele Hirschfield @WelcominResults]

Iran on the brink, energy solutions, Trump & Greenland — this week’s All-In hits hard. 👇
https://t.co/s9TxDq8hZ1

[Michele Hirschfield @WelcominResults]

📘 Worth watching for anyone who wants to better understand the issue at hand. This video breaks things down clearly and provides important context.
👇
https://t.co/k8LHZL3BfF

#Education #Learning #CriticalThinking

[Michele Hirschfield @WelcominResults]

🍎 Introducing a smarter way to think about nutrition.

This updated food pyramid highlights balance, whole foods, and variety—reminding us that healthy eating isn’t about extremes, but about better choices made consistently. Small changes can lead to long-term health and energy.

[Michele Hirschfield @WelcominResults]

🚀 How America Can Hit 6% GDP Growth in 2026 🇺🇸
Insightful talk with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on economic growth, trade, and what’s ahead for the US economy 👇
https://t.co/eFxth2xOEO

[Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent @SecScottBessent]

Effective immediately, the United States is withdrawing from @theGCF.

Our nation will no longer fund radical organizations like the GCF whose goals run contrary to the fact that affordable, reliable energy is fundamental to economic growth and poverty reduction.

[Marco Rubio @marcorubio]

I do not normally respond to online rumors but feel the need to do so at this moment

I will not be a candidate for the currently vacant HC and GM positions with the Miami Dolphins.

While you never know what the future may bring right now my focus must remain on global events and also the precious archives of the United States of America.

Thank you

[Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath]

People I know, with a collective net worth of $500B, scrambled and left California for good yesterday.

They took no risk because of the proposed asset seizure tax - introduced as a “Billionaire Tax”.

Without these people, the California budget deficit will only get bigger.

This hole gets filled in one of two ways: more borrowing from the bond market - who is purely financial and unforgiving or more taxes on everyone else.

Meanwhile waste, fraud and abuse runs rampant from the hundreds of billions in revenues the state already collects.