Cecil Battiste

@CreativeDeduct If you told him, years after he lived, that the federal government in the USA would be carrying $38T in debt, he would surely not be surprised. If you told him that only about half of adults pay income taxes he, once again, would not doubt you.

Frédéric Bastiat captured the essence of modern politics in a single sentence: “The State is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.” Once the state becomes the primary mechanism for distributing resources, politics stops being about protecting rights or creating the conditions for voluntary cooperation. It becomes a contest in which every group attempts to extract wealth from others through taxation, subsidies, regulation and welfare. Farmers demand agricultural subsidies. Pensioners demand higher benefits. Students demand free tuition. Corporations demand bailouts and protection from competition. Each group frames its demands as a matter of justice or necessity, while ignoring that the money must come from someone else’s labour and property. This creates a deeply corrosive dynamic. Instead of producing value through trade and innovation, people invest time and resources in political activity designed to redistribute existing wealth. The result is not greater prosperity, but higher taxes, expanding bureaucracy and a culture of dependency, victimhood and resentment. The state transforms society into a zero-sum game. When everyone is encouraged to view government as a source of unearned benefits, the moral and practical foundations of a free society are steadily undermined. The fiction eventually collapses under the weight of its own contradictions.

What else do you need to know

@RobSchneider Yup. Some things are worth fighting for. Luv your comedy and bravery to be MAGA in Cali, Bro.

We CANNOT have these Middle Ages miscreants and their Sharia Law garbage in the Land of the Free United States of America.

@SeminoleKJ Biggest play in Nole history … one of anyway!

Just a little drawing I did in MS paint. No biggie 😏

Everything the left wants to do to America suddenly makes sense when you realize they have zero respect, love, or appreciation for this country. This explains everything. Every American needs to read it.

Thank God the gaslighting gatekeepers are dead or dying. May it be a slow and agonizing death. The publicity and propaganda wing for democrats. No one with a brain listens to them.

Senator Mitch McConnell has now been hospitalized for three weeks. The gravity of this situation cannot be overstated, especially given that his wife, Elaine Chao, appeared in China just days after his hospitalization to meet with high-ranking Chinese officials. The question now is about national security: if Senator McConnell has been unable to independently perform his duties, what safeguards exist to ensure classified intelligence briefings, defense appropriations information, or other sensitive congressional matters could not be accessed, discussed, or shared by individuals operating behind the scenes? And given the timing of Chao’s meeting with China’s vice president, what exactly was discussed?

What Mamdani doesn't get, & will never get, is that America's greatness lies in the fact that people like him--who revile America, detest its values, & strive to destroy its economy--are not herded into jails or gulags or frogmarched to face shooting squads but get, instead, to run for and win elections. America's greatness lies in its limitless tolerance of obnoxious, ungrateful wretches who spit in its face. America is wasted on Mamdani. Think of the many millions of people the world over who would trade places with him in a heartbeat--and actually be thankful to be in America.

@peterschweizer This is really informative, thank you!

There have been 4 major revolutions in the past 250 years: American, French, Russian, and Chinese. Only one led to individual rights and prosperity. The others led to mass death and tyranny. The US revolution was unique because it said two things: 1. Our rights come from God not from the govt. 2. Humans are power -hungry so we need to limit govt power. So the next time someone attacks the nation of one revolution that succeeded and recycles the the idea of those that miserably failed, you can ask them: are you ignorant, or malicious?

"There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism-by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide." — Ayn Rand

“And what about our sins? Slavery was the original sin, and I won’t sand it down. The founders knew it. Jefferson knew it, and he owned slaves — the hypocrisy was staring right at them, and they kept kicking the can down the road. But here is what a poisoned telling of our history leaves out: the New England colonies began rejecting slavery before England itself did. And when the reckoning finally came, hundreds of thousands of men died on battlefields to make other men free. “As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,” read the original lyrics of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. That’s propitiation. One man suffers so others go free. A nation that will bleed that much to right its own wrong is not an evil nation. It is a great one, straining toward becoming a more perfect one. We had a black president. We had a black vice president. Our Secretary of State is the son of Cuban refugees. Anyone telling you the story that nothing here ever gets better is selling you something.” ewerickson.substack.com/p/the-greatnes…

@grok @FloridaMain91 @BillionsTiffney @BillionsTiffney Sarah Fields will see you in court. Keep yapping. It is easy to yap on Twitter. Save it for court.

Sarah Fields has alleged in her defamation lawsuit vs. Tiffney Billions (and others) that Tiffney's harassment/stress caused her inability to produce breast milk. It's her unproven claim as alleged damages. Related legal filings call it a tenuous allegation, citing her own drug use history as a likely factor instead. No public medical evidence or court ruling confirms causation. Part of the ongoing Karmelo Anthony case dispute.

After being confronted at trial and remaining mute, Sarah Field, the woman who brags of trying every drug under the sun continues her psychotic behavior of stalking and harassing black women. In her weak ass public lawsuit she blames me for her inability to produce breast milk

Many have asked for updates regarding my civil suit and how they can help. In answer to those questions, yes, I have filed a civil suit against Tiffney Billions (Karmelo’s advocate), Charleston White, and Drew Anthony (Karmelo’s father). Charleston White and Tiffney Billions have accused me of illegally obtaining “private information” and documents from the Collin County Courthouse. In an interview viewed over 800,000 times (not counting clips shared across the internet and clips still being shared today), Charleston White claimed I was a prostitute and a meth addict, alleging that I sold my body for meth. I have been called a “white supremacist,” a “child abuser,” and a “racist bigot.” Tiffney Billions doubled down even after being served, calling me a “drug addict,” stating that I “live in a shack,” claiming I’m on my “fourth baby daddy,” and saying that the harm done to my daughter by my ex-husband, who is now in prison, was my fault for leaving her with him. In reality, the opposite is true: I fought tooth and nail to escape our abuser 12 years ago, and I put that man in prison. Victim-blaming is her specialty, considering she views Karmelo Anthony as a “victim” while demonizing the child who was m*rdered. She also made all of these false claims after being confronted about her criminal conviction for stealing from the elderly. This disgusting attack on me, my family, and the Metcalfs must end. The Metcalfs are closely watching this lawsuit. Soon, it will be their turn to go after these people. Tiffney’s and Charleston’s statements are a vile attempt at intimidation and a deflection from my reporting on this story. The real victim is Austin Metcalf. They know this, and the only way they can distract from actual information and evidence is to personally attack the reporter covering the case and blame everyone else for Karmelo’s actions. Drew Anthony is also being sued for his involvement. Tiffney Billions is an advocate for the family, and Charleston White stated that he had “just talked to the father” directly before making these false statements about me on a public platform. Because of these lies and defamatory remarks, my family has been targeted relentlessly by them and by those who listen to them. The rumors are now so widespread that it is impossible to block every individual who continues to call me a “meth head” and an “abuser.” We have been threatened to the point of having to obtain security. We were swatted and targeted by CPS. No investigative journalist should ever have to endure that level of stress while reporting on a high-profile case simply because people hate the truth being reported. All defendants have been served. Charleston White has already been held liable in court by a Texas judge, and we are awaiting a prove-up hearing. Tiffney has a deposition scheduled for July, and we are awaiting a hearing involving Drew Anthony. My wonderful attorney is CJ Grisham. He is the BEST.

Mamdani got the whole American dream in eight years. Came here as a kid, got citizenship in 2018, now he runs the biggest city in the country. And on America's 250th birthday he sat down at George Washington's desk and told us everything wrong with the place. I'm not even angry. I'm disappointed. Here's the picture he painted: He mocked the people who supposedly think America "becomes less the more people it welcomes." Said it belongs "only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin." Called our streets a place where "masked agents" are "terrorizing" people. Said the country's wealth was built by "calloused, dirt-streaked hands" and then left to rot. Looked out from Washington's desk and called the Americans who built this economy "small" and "weak." Okay Mamdani. You hate it so much, why'd you come here? Let's put that picture up against the actual country. He's a Muslim kid born in Uganda and he's the mayor of New York. A guy back in his own birthplace said it plainly: over there he'd have had to claw his way in. Here we held the door open. We've got the most diverse Congress in our history. It was never about skin color, no matter how many years the left spent forcing that story onto a country that kept proving them wrong. A machine that grinds immigrants down? Nearly half the Fortune 500 was started by immigrants or their kids. 231 companies. Apple, son of a Syrian. Google, a kid who came over from the Soviet Union. Amazon, son of a Cuban. Put them together and they out-earn Japan, out-earn Germany. That's not a country grinding people into the dirt. That's a country handing them the keys. It's been and always will be the land of opportunity. And more people want in here than anywhere else alive. 53 million immigrants live here, the most of any nation on earth. We're 4% of the world's people and we hold 17% of the world's migrants. Every year since 2007 you ask the whole planet where it'd go if it could go anywhere, the answer comes back the same. America. Number one. The line to get in wraps around the globe. Here's the line he won't draw. I will. Legal immigration built this country. The strivers. That's the front door working the way it's supposed to, and I'll defend it all day. You need to earn your spot, respect our laws and customs. But that's not what we're running anymore. Four years of Biden's open border blew the doors off. The foreign-born share of this country just hit 15.8%. An all-time high. Higher than Ellis Island, more than triple what it was in 1970. The Census Bureau didn't expect that number until 2042 and we smashed past it. And on top of it, a record 14 million people here illegally, who cut in front of every single person who did it the right way. The front door built America from Ellis Island to today. The fence is a different thing. Pretending they're the same is how you end up calling every American who wants a secure border a bigot. And we've earned the right to standards. This is the most wanted country on the planet. We get to choose who walks in. You want in? Build something. Contribute. Earn it. Nobody's owed anything. You come illegally, you commit crimes, you steal from taxpayers, you should get deported. That's not terrorizing the streets. Mamdani walked through that front door in 2018. He of all people should be defending it. Instead he stood at Washington's desk and spent his speech blurring the line between the people who came the right way and the ones who broke in. The man even admitted out loud that America is exceptional. Then spent the rest explaining why it isn't. On the one day the whole country stops to celebrate itself, he reached for the darkest story he could find. That's not a man who's lost about America. That's a man who's angry at the country that gave him everything he has. You don't like it here? Nobody made you come. Nobody's stopping you from leaving. But you won't. They never do. Because there's nowhere else on earth that hands a person this much of a shot. This country took him in and made him a mayor. He owes it. It doesn't owe him a thing. We're not perfect. We're the best odds a human being has ever been handed. 250 years old, the richest and freest country alive, and the whole world is still clawing to get in while nobody's trying to leave. They hold America to a standard they'd never hold anyone else to, then act shocked it falls short. It's nonsense. Respect the country. Especially when it's the reason you're standing at that desk at all.

@TJ_Pittinger Amen, Brother.

There's something special about the world experiencing the USA during our 250th Birthday and learning that this truly is the greatest place on the planet. 🇺🇸🌎🥹

@michaeljflynnn Expecting her to do what? I hope it’s not geometry because geometry is hard.

Me and my wife are expecting a little girl in 2027!!!

Notice the opening. "When we gain power." Not when we are trusted to restore liberty to the individual, not when we earn the right to protect a free people, but when we gain power. That is how a man thinks who sees government as a weapon to wield, not a servant to restrain. Then read the method: "through executive action." He proposes to reshape the entire labor economy by decree, bypassing Congress, the branch that actually makes law. That is not a republic or even a democracy. It is rule by pen, the tool of a man who cannot win the argument and so skips the legislature entirely. And the substance is force. "Tie federal contracts to union recognition" means using the taxpayer's money to coerce workers and employers into an arrangement they never chose. @RoKhanna calls it standing up for the working class. It is standing on their necks and calling it help. A free man does not need you to "gain power" over him. He needs someone to defend his right to his own life which means to leave him free to produce and trade and keep what he earns.

Palisades has been abandoned. Job sites are having their tools and materials stolen, random vehicles prowl the streets. The only time Karen Bass had a police presence here was to harass fire victims with seatbelt tickets when they came in to mourn their losses.