Aari Shah

US politics, foreign affairs, technology and culture. May also have thoughts on martial arts, sports and careers.

Views are my own.

[The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 @ColumbiaBugle]

Crazy how much Trump’s cozy personalized Oval Office makes Obama’s look like a millennial’s first apartment.

Beige, bare walls, harsh cold light, mismatched furniture.

[Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter]

Brock Purdy's 89.6 Total QBR is the highest by any quarterback through four games since 2020, when NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers had a 90.6 Total QBR. Purdy is the first QB with at least 10 touchdown passes and zero sacks taken in the first four games of a season since Dan Marino in 1984, the year he won NFL MVP.

[Senator John Cornyn @JohnCornyn]

Why I’m Voting for a Texas Democrat by @KarlRove https://t.co/S44nYRsEQv via @WSJopinion

[Tibo @thsottiaux]

@_chenglou I was part of that team. Basically ChatGPT one year before it came out. Called LMChat and then another codename.

Google was too nervous to release it and DeepMind was blocked from shipping products that could disrupt Google.

I think about this a lot.

[Sam Roggeveen @SamRoggeveen]

Assuming this is possible, what would happen to China's car export market afterward?

[Aari Shah @aariforaari]

@dalibali2 But what’s saving China from the scenario that they have a financial blow up because of that? Just because they haven’t had a crisis yet under the modern regime, doesn’t make them immune, right?

[Agustin Lebron @AgustinLebron3]

Uh huh, and what about when the frontier labs "raided" the Internet, and millions of LibGen pirated books, etc?

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

[signüll @signulll]

kimi’s founder & ceo got his phd at cmu.

why didn’t he stay in america?!

[Clavicular @clavicular]

Word for word, bar for bar.

[Under Secretary of War Elbridge Colby @USWPColby]

There is a great deal of hubbub about a collective “middle powers”strategy these days.

At DoW, we are not concerned that this is a serious possibility. Rather, we are more concerned that a few allies and partners will *think it is* and waste valuable time, money, and political capital on a distraction. 1/

[Aari Shah @aariforaari]

Quick status check. Stay optimistic

[Kevin A. Bryan @Afinetheorem]

On USA250: 2026 is lowest murder rate in US history, highest median income, smallest black-white income gap, highest life expectancy, dominant firms in critical AI industry, net energy independence, and mobility so that immigrants run MSFT, Google, NVIDIA. SpaceX, Uber and Coke.

[Aari Shah @aariforaari]

This is my first bubble. So as somebody new to this game, how does it wind up for the massive conglomerate that has a decent business but loses on the most important technology of the time?

[signüll @signulll]

microsoft may be the biggest loser of the ai era so far, not necessarily financially but more in terms of relevance.

they had the best distribution in software, the best dev surface area, the best enterprise channel, & the most important ai partnership.

but somehow they turned all that into copilot, a brand that feels like a mandatory workplace training module than a frontier product experience. they don’t even have a relevant lab or a model that is remotely in the zietgiest either. how did that happen?

[signüll @signulll]

microsoft may be the biggest loser of the ai era so far, not necessarily financially but more in terms of relevance.

they had the best distribution in software, the best dev surface area, the best enterprise channel, & the most important ai partnership.

but somehow they turned all that into copilot, a brand that feels like a mandatory workplace training module than a frontier product experience. they don’t even have a relevant lab or a model that is remotely in the zietgiest either. how did that happen?

[Arthur Tellis @arthurctellis]

Even before Trump vs. Slaughter, "free from political or partisan influence" was a fiction. The Federal Reserve is independent but it is of course not free from political or partisan influence -- same for the CFRB, FHA, etc. The key here is to design institutions that:

1. both parties see as legitimate;

2. benefit from specialist talent pipelines within both parties; and

3. can be leveraged -- but not weaponized -- by both parties to advance their political/policy priorities.

Trump vs. Slaughter doesn't fundamentally change these design principles: it just reinforces the president's authority and control over agencies within the executive branch.

[spor @sporadica]

wait so we are being forced to call Turkey “Türkiye” meanwhile they call us ABD??? what in the hell is ABD what are those letters what

[Legion Hoops @LegionHoops]

Josh Hart:

“I’m a good basketball player, and I can help a team win. But if I’m the #1 option on that team, or #2 option on that team? Not a great team. Like, #4? Cool, we’re a good team….#2? Get the lottery numbers ready, baby.” 😅

(via @roommates_show, h/t @krispursiainen)

[Aari Shah @aariforaari]

@signulll Toplines?

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

The way Vance will square this circle is to blame the war on the Israelis. This is at least partly true -- the Israelis DO shoulder some of the blame here -- but it will also be seen by the New Right as a dog-whistle for blaming The Jews, allowing him to escape the Trump Trap.

[Aari Shah @aariforaari]

Horseshoe of politics. Trump and Ryan are both just describing reality here — this is how it is and how it has to be. Watching the political class treat this is some shocking scandal highlights their detachment from how politics, and the world, is going to operate for the foreseeable future.

[Aari Shah @aariforaari]

@Osint613 Bigger question: How has Trump been dealing with the negative press from this deal? This is worse than liberation day.

Does he roll the deal back or is he just so done with this war that it’s going through no matter what.