Ann Bridges

How long have we been ignoring China's threat? Link to in-depth interview on what I observed on the ground in Silicon Valley inspiring me to write Rare Mettle, and catapulting me into the world of critical minerals and how capitalism can beat communism. metaltechnews.com/story/2026/01/…

@KenLaCorte @joeroganhq And yet you are still plugging away. Thank you.

@ABridgesAuthor @joeroganhq Aww. Thank you Ann! It's been a long time.

If you haven't found @kenlacorte yet, you really should. Ken covers the stuff everyone's thinking about but nobody's actually talking about. Genuinely surprised this account isn't in everyone's feed already.

Without this global town square for free speech, a lot of important things never would’ve seen daylight. Real-time information governments tried to bury. Scientific debate that was actively censored. Voices that would’ve stayed silenced forever. Respect to @elonmusk for being the man in the arena when it actually counted. 🫡🙏

@hollywood2pt0 The concept of balancing power, which was suposed to be legislative, executive, judicial became more like a Parliamentary system, of balancing parties, not branches. Thus, voters are convinced to return balance by voting for opposite party that whoever is President.

⚠️ READ BETWEEN THE LINES HERE. President Trump is trying to tell us something: “ When somebody gets elected president that party always loses the midterms. I don’t know why…Nobody can explain it… Even when you have a great president they tend to lose the midterms. It doesn’t make sense.” It is NOT a stretch to believe that ALL our ELECTIONS HAVE BEEN RIGGED which would explain the ridiculous idea that after a great President, long term Conservatives (or Democrats!) would vote AGAINST their own party Tulsi Gabbard PROVED with declassed docs that OBAMA 💥directed the “manufacturing”💥of the Jan 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian election interference Do we honestly believe that was the ONLY TIME it’s EVER BEEN DONE? Hell No‼️

Huge huge W

@MKnowlesShow @michaeljknowles exactly the premise of my last book, Slick and Con Valley--retain AI on virtues to fight against the vices

.@michaeljknowles offers a stark warning for the future of our country: “ Our society will either be trained in virtue and goodness, or in vice and degeneracy. We tried the first version for the first 200 years of our country. We've tried the last version for the last 50. I don't think that's a tough choice to make.”

I've done business all over the world. As an American, the most frustrating thing for me to deal with has been passive-aggressive cultures where what is said and what is actually done is a mismatch. Maybe there are sophisticated cultural cues I'm missing, but I find the practice of saying what you think someone wants to hear when you have no intent of actually doing that thing to be terribly dishonest. And I think that is what confuses so many non-Americans about Donald Trump. Donald Trump unambiguously and loudly tells you what he is thinking, forcefully tells you what he is about to do, then he does it. This is an alien and indecipherable method of communication in much of the world, but it is quintessentially American. As is Donald Trump.

OUT NOW: “Storytime with the Second Lady”, my new podcast for kids! Join me and my special guests as they read good books out loud and share why they love to read. Episodes are available on YouTube and Spotify!

President Trump’s military demonstrations in Venezuela and Iran were acts of supreme kindness towards Chairman Xi, as they have given him the first **real** information about the Communist Party’s military capabilities. Marxists use language to persuade, not describe, both internally and externally. So the CCP military was never **not** going to develop “a stealth fighter,” or “stealth-detecting radars.” To fail at these tasks would be an unacceptable humiliation. But the question is: did they really? The answer is no. Which is to say: Xi lives in a world where he cannot trust ANY information presented to him by his own system, because it arrives via a filter not only of consensus but also of pride. “The CCP cannot fail, history is on our side!” Except it isn’t. Realty exists. And the total failure of their equipment in VZ and IR was the first time Xi has ever received REAL information about his military’s capabilities. And it’s not good. Xi must now revisit every assumption he has about action in Taiwan. And he is now forced to confront reality, that his staff lie not out of malice but because COMMUNISM DEMANDS YOU IGNORE REALITY. Interesting days ahead.

Who wants to move to northern Idaho and help us rebuild the American wool industry? Seeking: full time pillow maker, cut and sew fabric, packaging/fulfillment, new product design. Must have basic sewing skills. The more advanced sewing, the better. Please send me an email support@thewoolshire.com, subject: WORKSHIRE You will be rewarded greatly for your loyalty and dedication to the craft.

@carney @BreitbartNews Pithy and spot on. I would note that China was, and continues to be, a communist country. The concept that we won the Cold War against communism and then pivoted to allow China into WTO is a head scratcher, unless you follow the $ into the Democrat Party via Clinton.

@johnkonrad I wrote a book (Mercury's "Fake" Message) which forced the reader to face his own bias filling in the narrative of a set of facts. Some loved it, some threw it back in my face (literally). You are spot on.

@RogerSeheult The argument also needs to understand the southern states vs. the northern. There is not as much change in sunlight hours closer to equator. North, however, the sunlight hours shift dramatically without changes clocks. Population that wants DST dominates from south and east.

🚨🚨🚨 For those of you that just turned the clock an hour ahead think of it as moving to the western side of your time zone. You still have the same number of hours approximately that you had yesterday but now everything is happening later in the day. And for those wondering whether time policy actually affects health, there’s a fascinating natural experiment hiding in plain sight: where you live inside a time zone. People who live on the western edge of a time zone experience a different light environment than people on the eastern edge, even though the clock says the same time. Why? Because the sun rises and sets later as you move west. That means two people with the same 7:00 AM work start time can experience very different biological conditions. Someone in Boston (eastern edge of Eastern Time) might have sunrise close to when the alarm goes off. Someone in western Indiana or western Michigan (western edge of Eastern Time) may still be in near darkness. But they’re expected to function on the same clock schedule. Researchers realized this creates a powerful way to study circadian misalignment in large populations. And the results are striking. Multiple epidemiological studies show that living further west within a time zone — where sunset occurs later by the clock — is associated with shorter sleep duration and worse health outcomes. The proposed mechanism is “social jetlag.” People go to bed later because the sun sets later, but work and school schedules remain fixed. The result is chronic sleep restriction during the work week. One of the most cited studies looked at U.S. populations across time zone boundaries and found that later sunset times were associated with: • shorter sleep • higher rates of obesity • increased diabetes prevalence • more cardiovascular disease • poorer self-reported health (Giuntella & Mazzonna, Journal of Health Economics, 2019) Another analysis examining cancer incidence found that moving west within a time zone — where circadian misalignment is greater — was associated with higher rates of several cancers, including breast and prostate cancer. (Gu et al., Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, 2017) Additional work has found associations with hepatocellular carcinoma incidence and other circadian-related outcomes. (VoPham et al., Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, 2018) The key concept here is circadian phase delay. When sunset occurs later by the clock: • people stay awake later • melatonin release is delayed • sleep onset shifts later But school and work start times don’t shift. So people living further west in a time zone often accumulate chronic sleep debt. Now here’s where it gets interesting. This phenomenon is almost identical to what happens during Daylight Saving Time. Daylight Saving Time effectively shifts the clock one hour later relative to the sun. In other words, DST makes the entire population behave as if they moved west within their time zone. Sunrise occurs later by the clock. Morning light exposure is reduced. Circadian rhythms drift later. Sleep duration tends to decrease. This is why many sleep and circadian researchers argue that permanent standard time is the biologically healthier option. Standard time aligns the clock closer to solar time, allowing earlier morning light — which is the most powerful signal for synchronizing the human circadian system. Morning light advances circadian phase, improves sleep timing, and supports metabolic regulation. Even modest shifts in light timing across large populations can have measurable epidemiological effects. Which is exactly what we see in the west-vs-east time zone studies. They essentially act as a real-world laboratory demonstrating how clock time and sunlight interact to influence health. It’s a reminder that something as mundane as what time the clock says can quietly shape sleep, metabolism, and long-term disease risk across millions of people!

Year-round Daylight Saving Time is not some new idea. America already tried it in 1974. It was an unmitigated disaster. It was sold as an energy-saving emergency measure during the oil crisis. Congress put the nation on permanent DST starting January 6, 1974. But within weeks, the dark winter mornings produced exactly the kind of problems critics warned about: children going to school and waiting for buses in predawn darkness. Congress reversed course that same year and restored standard time for the winter beginning October 27, 1974. The contemporaneous coverage is striking. On January 24, 1974, the Miami Herald ran: “3 Children Killed, Four Are Injured on Dark Mornings.” On January 29, 1974, the Sentinel Star in Florida said the legislature was meeting in special session because of “seven children killed while walking to school in pre-dawn darkness.” The Congressional Record was already referring to children waiting at bus stops in the cold dark, and even citing headlines about children killed in the early morning while waiting for the bus. By February 14, 1974, one paper was calling it “Daylight Disaster Time.” Public opinion collapsed. What began with broad support quickly turned into a backlash once people actually experienced winter mornings under permanent DST. One later account, citing contemporaneous reporting, notes support fell from 79% to 42% in roughly three months. This is the lesson from 1974: People like brighter evenings in theory. They like dark winter mornings a lot less in real life. And when children have to walk to school in darkness, the politics change very fast.

Digging deeper in the jobs report. Per grok " It appears a strike at Kaiser Permanente, primarily involving healthcare workers in California and Hawaii was a major factor in the numbers. It involved up to 31,000 workers, including registered nurses, nurse anesthetists, pharmacists, midwives, physician assistants, rehab therapists, speech language pathologists, dietitians, and other specialty professionals. Represented mainly by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) and other unions. The strike began on January 26, 2026, and ended on February 23, 2026, after negotiations showed "significant movement" and a tentative resolution. Workers demanded better pay, improved staffing levels, and better working conditions amid ongoing disputes. This strike overlapped with the BLS payroll survey reference period (typically the pay period including the 12th of the month), causing workers to be counted as off payroll temporarily. The BLS explicitly noted that health care employment declined by 28,000 jobs in February "reflecting strike activity," with offices of physicians losing 37,000 jobs "primarily due to strike activity" (partially offset by gains elsewhere, like +12,000 in hospitals). The action was temporary and resolved shortly after, so it didn't reflect permanent job cuts but distorted the monthly net figures.This was part of a broader wave of healthcare labor actions in early 2026, but the Kaiser strike was the main one cited as impacting the BLS data due to its scale and timing." Also, federal gocernment jobs declined another 10,000 jobs. So the report isnt 2hat it seems. The strike is over. Most industries stayed about the same.

@carney Fever Pitch, by Ben Weiner. VC based in Jerusalem, business fiction about founder and the trials and tribulations of attracting investors. Amazon.com: Fever Pitch: A Novel About Selling Your Vision, Raising Venture Capital, and Launching Your Startup

Honored to have my first byline published by @theammind . For 40 years, the democracy-promotion establishment protected Khamenei while claiming to oppose him. When the strikes came, they dispatched the protest machine to protect the regime. Why? americanmind.org/salvo/the-fall…

@johnkonrad Most time efficient for you is real time conversation. Writing takes too much time and preparation. Your expertise is acknowledged and trusted, so let it rip live!

I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know how to write this post without sounding arrogant. While the MSM and most of our allies is in a full tantrum over a lack of information, I got WAY too much. Had phone calls today with people I never imagined talking too. Have pieces of this puzzle few others seem to have. But how do I share it all. I run, @gCaptai, the most visited maritime and naval website in the world but writing takes time. And we are already publishing so much that really important stories are falling through the cracks. Do I buckle down and just start knocking articles off my list? Do I try to capture it all in more tweet storms? Do I drop everything and head back to DC? Do I do a space with @mercoglianos? Do I just turn on live video and start answering questions? How do I do that? 🤣 What questions do ya’ll want answered? And there is SO MUCH bad information out there, maybe I just rage tweet sarcastic replies? IDK, but the level of information incoming is more than I’ve seen in 19 years covering maritime and naval news. Good problems to have… but still. At this point I just want to help.

@HaroldWren22 My suspicion is that the drones are being tested for future warfare now. Who makes those? Who controls the inputs (minerals, metals)? Who would benefit from having a non-traditional weapon? (My guess: China to all of the above)

One thing that occurred to me a couple minutes ago on a walk with Teddy: It would a massive humiliation for Communist China and the PLAN if the SAM systems and Radars they sold & deployed to the Iranian Regime were to fail. Especially after Venezuela where they failed. I am willing to bet that China deployed PLAN personnel on site in Iran to crew/man those SAM sites and radars. And now that they absolutely got immolated/eradicated, it would follow that those high value personnel with the specialized training the PLAN gave them are dead. Big loss to PLAN capabilities if that is the case.