Michael Bastos

ML/LLM Developer & Researcher 🤖 | Software Mercenary 🛠️ | Brazilian Born 🇧🇷 | Deacon 🙏 | Former CTO 💼 | Marine Corps Sergeant 🎖️

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

Milam County Republicans: Please Watch Both Speeches and Decide for Yourself

Last night, I gave my speech about why I’m running for Milam County Republican Chair.

My opponent, Rebecca Lucky, gave hers.

I’m posting both videos here so every Republican in Milam County can hear us directly and make their own decisions.

Before reading the rest of this post, please go down to the bottom and watch both my speech and Rebecca's for context.

After hearing Rebecca’s speech, I want to respond directly using her own words.

1) On fundraising and control structure

Rebecca said: “the Republican women are the Political Action Committee, that is the PAC… So the PAC is the fundraiser for our county. Our GOP is represented, but we cannot fundraise because we are not a PAC… So all the power that we have is flooded in through the Republican women.”

Those are her words, and they explain exactly why I’m running.
Different legal structures between a PAC and a county party do exist, but that does not justify the elected county party functioning as second fiddle. The official party should be active, organized, and able to build and fund its own operations.

2) On meetings and open process

Rebecca said: “we may not have prescribed meetings.”
She also said: “there’s not too many things that go on that I don’t know about.”

That is at the core of the issue. A party should not depend on informal awareness by one person. It should function through regular, open meetings where voters can scrutinize decisions, ask questions, debate respectfully, and vote under rules of order. That is how trust is built.

3) On call-based politics vs open forum

Rebecca said: “Congressman Sessions is here. He takes my calls; I take his calls… Representative Stan Gerdes… Senator Schwertner… There is not a political person that I don’t take a call from.”

Again, those are her words.

To me, that highlights a top-down, call-driven approach to running the party. My position is different: party business should happen in the open, not primarily through private channels and backroom communication.

4) On what me and my wife experienced so far

Rebecca said: “when someone has a concern… they’re on speed dial.”

For two years, my wife and I repeatedly asked when official meetings would be held and how members could engage the elected party more. We did not experience that same responsiveness when the questions became difficult to answer. That disconnect is one of the reasons we decided to run.

5) On representation and fairness

Rebecca said: “all the power… is flooded in through the Republican women.”

If practical party control sits in an organization where men cannot hold office, then many Republican voters are effectively observers instead of decision-makers in county-level party direction. That is not a healthy long-term model. It was wrong when women were kept out of politics, and it is wrong for any structure today to sideline representation through the elected party.

6) Respect and reform can coexist

I respect the work of the Milam County Republican Women. Rebecca also made clear they have carried major responsibilities for years. I acknowledged that.

But the long-term solution is not to keep the elected county party weak.

It is to restore a proper balance:

- Quarterly evening meetings everyone can attend
- Published bylaws, minutes, and public calendar
- Open forums for all Republicans connected or not
- Independent county party fundraising and operations
- Clear separation of roles, with real partnership

This race is not about attacking the establishment. It is about rebuilding structure.

Please watch both speeches and decide for yourself what future you want for the Milam County Republican Party.

Also case you missed it because of the audio, the quote I gave at the beginning of my speech was “Unity without verity (meaning principles) is no better than conspiracy” - John Trapp

Michael Cabral Poubel Bastos & CHristina BAstos
Cell: 858-335-0190

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

@mattshumer_ https://t.co/4y2KYcgGND I had way too much on this last night thanks for the prompt idea, I hope you enjoy it as well. PS - It's browser based.

[Matt Shumer @mattshumer_]

Claude Opus 5 one-shotted this game.

EVERYTHING you see in this demo is custom code... not a single external asset was used.

AI games are going to be amazing.

(sound on)

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

I've been coining a term lately: session maxxing. Instead of spending a significant amount of money on tokens unnecessarily, session maxxing means lining up a lot of work that needs to get done and maximizing your entire Claude/Codex/Grok sessions for the day, week, or month. This approach ensures that you always reach the rate limit at the end of each day or week, allowing you to maximize what you're already paying for and leaving nothing on the table in terms of unused tokens.

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

I've been coining a term lately: session maxxing. Instead of spending a significant amount of money on tokens unnecessarily, session maxxing means lining up a lot of work that needs to get done and maximizing your entire Claude/Codex/Grok sessions for the day, week, or month. This approach ensures that you always reach the rate limit at the end of each day or week, allowing you to maximize what you're already paying for and leaving nothing on the table in terms of unused tokens.

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

I've been coining a term lately: session maxxing. Instead of spending a significant amount of money on tokens unnecessarily, session maxxing means lining up a lot of work that needs to get done and maximizing your entire Claude/Codex/Grok sessions for the day, week, or month.

This approach ensures that you always reach the rate limit at the end of each day or week, allowing you to maximize what you're already paying for and leaving nothing on the table in terms of unused tokens.

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

They brought an elephant to the #TexasGOP convention in Houston Texas

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

To switch your active model in Claude Code to Fable 5, use the /model command directly in the chat window.

You can do this by typing:
/model claude-fable-5

If you prefer to browse the available models or access the 1M-context and extended thinking level variants, you can also open the configuration settings within your interface:

Type /model and select Fable 5 from the model picker.

To use the 1 million token context window, use /model claude-fable-5[1m].

Usage appears to be Free until June 22nd.

Important note, it won’t let you do security audits of your code yet, says its safety reasons.

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

@traskjd Windows? People still use that? lol jk

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

@traskjd Welcome to the dark side my friend lol

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

@traskjd My son is 15 and attending college right now for computer science, my goal is to make him know so much that his professors are baffled lol.

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

@grok is there an @elonmusk approved @Grokopedia version we can download and use instead?

[Alex Prompter @alex_prompter]

🚨 BREAKING: Someone just open-sourced a full offline survival computer with AI, Wikipedia, and maps built in.

Project N.O.M.A.D. is an open-source offline survival computer.

Self-contained.
Zero internet required after install.
Zero telemetry. Everything runs locally on your hardware.

What it includes:
→ Full Wikipedia archives via Kiwix
→ Offline maps via OpenStreetMap
→ Local AI models via Ollama + Open WebUI
→ Calculators, reference tools, resource libraries
→ A management UI to control
everything from a browser

One curl command installs the entire system on any Debian-based machine.

Runs headless as a server so any device on your local network can access it.
Minimum specs to run the base system: dual-core processor, 4GB RAM, 5GB storage.

To run local LLMs offline, you want 32GB RAM and an NVIDIA RTX 3060 or better.

No accounts.
No authentication by default.
No cloud dependency.
No phone-home behavior.

Built to function when nothing else does.

The grid, the cloud, the API you depend on. None of it is guaranteed.

The people building local-first systems right now are the ones who won’t be asking for help when access disappears.

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

Consultants are going to need to need to have skin in the game in order try survive, meaning not just be the guy who makes the recommendations but actually be the guy who applies their own recommendations and expertise to a problem and get paid after the results are performed. A lot of people are going to wake up to the fact that execution has always mattered more than ideas and now it’s going to matter even more.

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

Face Act was a compromise between Republicans and Democrats that if Republicans would protect the front and inside of Abortion clinics, that Democrats would protect the front and inside of churches and religious worship. What this really tells me is that both sides got to protect their most sacred places of worship, Republicans get to worship God, Democrats get to worship the slaughter of innocent children and everyone seems happy with that compromise?

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

I have to admit this is one of the most well thought out and brilliant speeches I’ve heard in a very long time. https://t.co/1CLbBK7tE2

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

Save the Party from the PAC

This election is about something bigger than personalities. It is about structure, transparency, and whether our county Republican Party operates in the open or in the shadows.

Political Action Committees have a legitimate role. They fundraise. They advocate. They mobilize. That is their purpose.

But a PAC is not the same thing as the official county party.

When practical control and momentum sit primarily inside a privately funded PAC instead of the elected county organization, several things are lost:

• Open, properly noticed meetings where all Republicans can participate
• Decisions made under rules of order instead of private conversations
• Published minutes, bylaws, and clear accountability
• Equal representation through the elected structure
• A county party that belongs to all Republicans, not just a subset

When party business happens informally, even with good intentions, trust erodes. Questions feel unwelcome. Transparency disappears. Momentum slows.

An official party should be:

• Active and rule-based
• Transparent and accountable
• Independent from any privately funded group
• A public forum for ideas, debate, and grassroots engagement

The goal is not conflict. The goal is clarity.

A strong Republican Party in Milam County must operate in the open, under the rules required by the Texas GOP, and independent from any single PAC or private organization.

That is what “Save the Party from the PAC” means, that’s myself and my wife Christina BAstos are asking for your vote.

It means restoring process over personalities and principles over proximity.

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

@r0ck3t23 Its a great way to keep salaries low by telling his programmers they should be thankful to even have a job. Expect more of that to happen as more and more companies look to reduce operational costs to spend more on compute.

[Palmer Luckey @PalmerLuckey]

@OlexGameDev @SandyofCthulhu Freedom to hire does not mean freedom to import as many people as you want from any country you want.

American citizens and taxpayers are not obligated to organize our society around allowing large corporations to lay off Americans and replace them with foreign nationals.

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

@compliantvc Umm those are just responses and comments, I’m not sure you understand how this stuff works?

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

Palmer Luckey should do the same for any hard witnesses coming forward about the truth about Jason. If these people are telling the truth that offer to pay their legal fees if they come forward with their allegations to the DOJ or on X, would be interesting to see if @elonmusk changes his friendship status if real people come forward with hard evidence?

[Michael Bastos @bastosventures]

@SweeperSolana @PalmerLuckey @Jason @mttgrmm He’s teaching me I need a billionaire status to really achieve ultra revenge mode