Robert Detch

@MatthewModine You need to work on trigger discipline, Matt

Just found this Polaroid from making FULL METAL JACKET in 1985.

I have two stacks on my desk. The left stack is financial disclosure forms from members of Congress. The right stack is waivers for members who filed their financial disclosures late. The right stack is always taller. On Wednesday morning, I watched a soldier get arrested on CNN. I am a Disclosure Analyst for the House Ethics Committee. I have held this position for eleven years. My job is to receive the forms, verify their completeness, and file them. I do not investigate. I do not flag. I do not refer. I file. I have a lanyard. The lanyard says ETHICS. The soldier's name is Gannon Ken Van Dyke. He is thirty-eight years old. He was stationed at Fort Bragg. He was Special Forces. In December, he created an account on a prediction market called Polymarket. On January 2nd, he bet $32,500 that the president of Venezuela would be removed from power. On January 3rd, he helped remove the president of Venezuela from power. He collected $409,881. He has been charged with five federal crimes. Commodities fraud. Wire fraud. Unlawful use of confidential government information. Theft of nonpublic government information. Unlawful monetary transaction. The Department of Justice called it "the first-ever insider trading prosecution on event contracts." I watched this on the television in our break room. Then I walked back to my desk and processed a late financial disclosure from a member of the House Financial Services Committee who purchased $250,000 in bank stocks eleven days before his subcommittee held a closed-door hearing on proposed capital reserve changes. The filing was forty-seven days late. The STOCK Act requires disclosure within forty-five days. The penalty for late filing is $200. I waived it. I waive most of them. In 2021, fifty-four members of Congress and senior staff violated the reporting rules. The fines were minimal. Most were waived. I have a form for the waiver. The form has a box that says "Reason." I write "administrative delay." In ethics, "administrative delay" means the member's office forgot and then remembered when a reporter called. My approval rate is one hundred percent. In any other field, that number would trigger an audit. In mine, it is called thoroughness. Let me show you what I processed this year. January. A senator on the Armed Services Committee sold defense contractor shares worth $1.2 million. Three days later, his committee received a classified briefing that the Iran campaign had exceeded its projected cost by 340%. The stock dropped 8%. He filed the disclosure sixty-one days late. I calculated the fine. $200. His chief of staff asked if it could be waived. He did not ask what the senator traded on. Nobody asks that. The form does not have a field for it. I waived the fine. The senator's portfolio returned 23.4% in 2025. The S&P 500 returned 16.8%. February. A representative on the Energy and Commerce Committee bought pharmaceutical stocks worth $400,000. Two weeks later, her committee advanced a bill that would extend patent exclusivity for the exact drug class she purchased. The stocks rose 14%. She filed on time. There was no fine. There was no investigation. There was nothing to investigate because buying stocks in companies regulated by your own committee is not illegal. It is legal. The STOCK Act made it legal by making it disclosed. In Congress, disclosed means legal. In my office, legal means filed. March. A member whose spouse manages a portfolio worth $9.2 million reported forty-three separate transactions in a single quarter. Twelve of them were in sectors directly affected by legislation the member co-sponsored. The timing on eight of those twelve was within a two-week window of committee action. I logged all forty-three. None were flagged. We do not flag. We file. I asked my supervisor once what would happen if I flagged a filing. She said we do not have a form for that. I never asked again. In 2020, I processed 847 disclosures. In 2023, 1,211. In 2025, 1,614. The number of enforcement actions in each of those years was zero. The numerator changes. The denominator does not. I want to tell you about the soldier again. He made $409,881. He tried to delete his Polymarket account by calling customer service and saying he lost access to his email. He moved his profits into a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He used his real identity. He placed thirteen bets. Every single one was connected to an operation he personally participated in. In my eleven years, I have processed disclosures from members of Congress who traded on: Pending FDA approvals they learned about in committee. Defense appropriations they voted on. Trade policy they negotiated. Pandemic response measures they drafted. Interest rate decisions they were briefed on before the public. None of them have been charged. None of them have been investigated by the Department of Justice. None of them have been referred to the SEC. The STOCK Act has produced zero prosecutions since it was signed on April 4th, 2012. Fourteen years. Five hundred and thirty-five members. $635 million in trades last year alone. Zero cases. My daughter asked me once what happens when someone breaks the rules. I told her we write it down. She asked what happens after that. I said it depends. She was nine. She is twenty now. It does not depend. Nothing happens after that. The soldier made $409,881 and faces decades in prison. Nancy Pelosi entered Congress in 1987 with a portfolio worth approximately $785,000. It is now worth $133.7 million. That is a return of 16,930%. The Dow Jones returned 2,300% over the same period. Professional fund managers who beat the market for three consecutive years are considered exceptional. She has beaten it for thirty-seven. If a hedge fund produced those returns, the SEC would subpoena the records on a Thursday. She produced them from a building with a chapel and a gift shop. She announced her retirement last year. No investigation was opened. No disclosure was flagged. Her filings were on time. In my office, on time means compliant. Compliant means closed. I want to tell you about the fine. $200. That is the maximum penalty for violating the STOCK Act's disclosure requirements. $200 for a member of Congress whose portfolio gained $4.7 million in a single quarter. I calculated what $200 represents as a percentage of $4.7 million. It is 0.004%. I could not find a comparison that made it meaningful. It is less than the price of the parking pass in the Rayburn garage. It is less than lunch at the members' dining room if you order the crab cakes, which I am told are excellent though I eat at my desk. Since 2012, thirty-one bills have been introduced to restrict congressional trading. I keep a list. The list is longer than the STOCK Act itself. On March 5th, 2026, a representative from Michigan introduced the thirty-second. He called it the "No Getting Rich in Congress Act." The bill would prohibit the President, Vice President, members of Congress, and their spouses from trading individual stocks, cryptocurrency, futures, and commodities while in office. The bill was referred to committee. The committee has not scheduled a hearing. The committee is chaired by a member whose spouse executed $2.1 million in trades last year. The bill will be reviewed. In my office, reviewed means read. Read means acknowledged. Acknowledged means a status has been assigned. A status is the absence of an action that has been given a name so it looks like one. The soldier used classified information to make $409,881 on a prediction market. He has been charged with five federal crimes. The Department of Justice announced the case on the same day I processed three disclosures from members who traded on committee knowledge worth a combined $3.8 million. The difference between the soldier and the members is not what they did. It is the building they did it in. He did it from Fort Bragg. They did it from the Capitol. He used a prediction market. They used the New York Stock Exchange. He bet on a military operation. They bet on the legislation they write. He did not write the law. They did. They wrote the STOCK Act. Then they funded its enforcement at zero dollars. Then they set its maximum penalty at $200. Then they gave my office the authority to waive it. Then they traded $635 million. The soldier flew to Caracas. He breached a compound. He put his body between a mission and a bullet. The people who ordered the operation were in a building with a credenza and sparkling water. They did not go to Caracas. They went to their brokerage accounts. The soldier made $409,881 and is now in federal custody. The people who knew what he was going to do before he did it made more and filed less. His prosecution is not a failure of the system. It is the system. One conviction per decade, at the lowest level, so the briefing slides can say enforcement exists. The $409,881 is not the crime. It is the cost of making $635 million look supervised. In my field, we call this self-regulation. The soldier's Polymarket account has been frozen. His military career is over. He will spend years in federal prison. My office will process every congressional disclosure filed this year. Every trade logged. Every $200 fine calculated and waived. The system is immaculate. Fourteen years. Zero prosecutions. $635 million a year. A 16,930% return. I have not leaked a document. I have not filed a complaint. I have not deviated from the process one single time. The process was written by the people whose forms I process. As long as the disclosures go up and the cases don't, my performance review says I am meeting expectations. My lanyard still says ETHICS. In eleven years, nobody has asked me to define the word.

@AriDrennen Maybe PP should stop the insanity, then 🤔

If Hawley's amendment passes, Planned Parenthood loses Medicaid funding. 2.4 million patients a year lose their clinic — cancer screenings, contraception, STI testing, gender-affirming care. All of it. 'Transgender insanity' is the pitch. 2.4 million are the target.

@tedlieu Haha This “paying informants” is excuse is not going to fly, Democrats

This is one of the stupidest DOJ cases in history. Southern Poverty Law Center wasn’t paying the Klan, they were paying informants to who were helping to take down the Klan. Unless you believe white supremacists all of a sudden took over SPLC, this entire case makes no sense.

@starwars Hey George Would you like some cheese with that whine?

but really, who could choose? For more hallways watch Ahsoka, The Clone Wars, The Mandalorian, Andor & Rogue One streaming on Disney+.

@ThomasWillett9 When have you ever posted about anything other than “trans”??? Get a life

It’s a freaking fun run. My god. TERFs really need to get a life instead of spending every waking minute thinking of how they can make trans peoples lives worse.

@Rainmaker1973 You forgot to mention that life on Earth existed for millions of years with CO2 concentrations between 1000-2000ppm That’s important context Stop fear mongering

Earth’s atmosphere has crossed a historic threshold unseen for more than 3 million years. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels have now surpassed 430 parts per million (ppm): a concentration last experienced during the Pliocene epoch, long before modern humans existed. This milestone was recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, the world’s longest continuously operating CO₂ monitoring station. In early March, daily averages peaked at 430.60 ppm: a figure climate scientists have tracked with growing concern for decades. But what does crossing this threshold actually mean? Prior to the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric CO₂ levels remained stable around 280 ppm. Today, they stand more than 50% higher, largely due to the burning of fossil fuels, large-scale deforestation, and other industrial activities. This is far more than just a number: it’s a clear warning signal for the planet. Approximately 25% of the CO₂ we emit is absorbed by the oceans. As it dissolves, it forms carbonic acid, driving ocean acidification. This process is already weakening shell-forming marine organisms such as corals, plankton, and mollusks — the foundational species of ocean food webs. Researchers note that the current rate of ocean acidification is likely the fastest seen in at least 300 million years. Many climate models had projected that CO₂ concentrations would only approach this level under aggressive global mitigation efforts. Instead, we’ve reached it while emissions continue to rise. If current trends persist, atmospheric CO₂ could exceed 500 ppm by the end of the century, ushering in climate conditions not seen on Earth for tens of millions of years. ["Record-breaking CO2 Levels Recorded for Earth’s Polar Regions." PML]

@macanaria29 What rights do trans people currently not have? Specifically?

Their scam worked for decades

@PatrickLenton It’s absolutely true. Open your ears and listen

There needs to be consequences for just sharing completely untrue things like this

@DarrigoMelanie Wow you really believe in this “I’m trying not to understand” thing

To be clear: Trump’s FBI is going after the Southern Poverty Law Center because they infiltrated and exposed the same dangerous right-wing extremist groups that many Trump allies are associated with.

@MAGA_X_Times @Primewave96 Get away as fast as possible

After close to a year of dating this woman drops a bombshell on this man stating if he wants to take this to the next level he must “convert to Islam” while she is recording him, what advice would you give this man ?

@ZeekArkham This is the best post I’ve ever read!

Honestly, at the end of all of this, it just really sucks that people I’ve defended and, at one time, looked up to have turned out to be garbage human beings. I really liked Candace Owens at one point. Even watched a couple of her videos with my daughter because I wanted her to be like Candace. Now I regret it. Looked up to Tucker Carlson as a commentator. Wanted to be on his show. Now I’m wondering when he went directly off the rails. Defended MTG. Now I’m sorry I ever did so. Thankfully Thomas Sowell has always been the same and isn’t ever going to change. For what it’s worth, I’m going to be the same dude I’ve always been.

@TheRealJChubby Define the word Nazi

This is just Nazi shit. These people are Nazis.

UPDATE: Chris Ostroushko says that the backlash his family has been receiving for their actions last weekend has been “overwhelming” and “nonstop” He’s now “second guessing” living in the United States, because he’s unhappy with how negatively the public has reacted to him assaulting a woman on camera. He is in complete disbelief, stating that, "I've never had anything like this happen in my life". Chris and Deyanna have been going on a press tour continuing to assert that they are the real victims, despite millions watching the footage of them instigating everything. There is also a GoFundMe for them, where they are currently trying to raise $8k, stating that they’ve lost their jobs and, “are facing one of the most overwhelming and life-altering moments they have ever experienced”. The family has still taken zero accountability for any of the violence they committed and are in complete shock that they are facing consequences for their actions. Last week Chris also did an interview where he lied, stating that his family is “absolutely not violent" and that all he did was "stay back and watch" everything, despite being on camera shoving me multiple times.

@BmNation @carson_ Wow this is awesome!

This is just INSANE 🤯 Found out I’m good at calling cats and turkeys! Missed a bird three minutes later at 35 yards then headed to the docs office. Just a few scratches on the shoulder 📸: @carson_.bender

@JGiftedoak69914 @virtualgeof @mark_slapinski Way to change the subject and ignore the reality

@virtualgeof @mark_slapinski We're talking about trans people in the bathroom not your fantasy of a 6'4 trans women fucking you in the ass or whatever you're in to

Trans people are a tiny minority of the population. You have more of a chance of being struck by lightning than seeing a trans woman in the washroom.

@Phoenix2A_1980s Agree!!!

4 of the greatest albums from the 90's 💯

@dom_lucre Why can’t he speak English?

🔥🚨STEALING: This young man’s life was saved in Chicago when he ‘ran to the police’ after his ops caught him lacking without a gun as his enemies can be heard taunting him for running to the police when he saw them. This video has many lessons: Lesson 1. Everyone hates the police until it’s time for them to save you, Lesson 2. Don’t be concerned about the opinions of others especially the people that want to see your demise. Lesson 3. don’t even put yourself in a situation where you look like a coward for going to the law because you wanted to act like a gangster before you knew how real it gets. Many lessons to learn in such a quick video and the most important one, Lesson 4. is the fact that this officer did something this young man’s parents should have done and saved his life. We are so quick to judge the police but not judge the people judging them, we need to look at reality for what it is and not what we wish it could be.