David Gustafson

@MsMelChen Singapore IS authoritarian. It’s clean and shiny, but only asians would tolerate the lack of personal freedom. Reminds me of Thailand when the military tightens up control.

On the Hungarian elections: Hungary under Fidesz was a de facto one-party-dominant state in much the same way Singapore has been under the PAP for over 60 years. They are both electoral democracies and not the cartoon “autocracies” that the Western globalist elites describe. Both Fidesz and the PAP are parties that win elections repeatedly, often with supermajorities, because they actually govern for their citizens rather than chasing every globalist fad. One could argue that they've consolidated power through constitutional changes and media influence; voters, however, keep re-electing them because they deliver results and the alternatives look worse (until now). Lee Kuan Yew’s PAP model - strict laws, media self-censorship, meritocracy over Western-style “rights,” emphasis on order and national identity - is the exact template critics say Orbán copied. Yet Singapore gets polite editorials calling it “efficient or enlightened authoritarianism.” Meanwhile, Hungary gets called an autocracy and a threat to Europe. The usual suspects are screaming about "autocracy" because Orbán went against the grain on the European open border consensus - they built a border fence in 2015, slashed migration, boosted family subsidies, and told Brussels to go screw itself on gender ideology and refugee quotas (and paid a steep financial penalty for it). The domestic results are clear - lower illegal migration than peer countries, low crime, a cohesive society, and attempts at demographic recovery. So basically, none of them are really cheering for "democracy." They’re just cheering their team winning. How can they call it an autocracy when there have been fair elections, high turnout, and Orbán conceding when he lost? Now that the opposition won in a landslide with record turnout, it’s suddenly “the people have taken back their country!” It appears that democracy is whatever defeats anti-immigration, nationalist conservatives in Europe. I mean just look at the hypocrisy on display here: > Hillary Clinton, who once called half of America “deplorables” and cheered color-revolution-style operations abroad, suddenly loves “democracy” (also russigate, anyone?) > Gavin Newsom runs California like a one-party fiefdom with sky-high homelessness, crime, and out-migration, yet lectures Hungarians about “free press and human rights" lol > Alex Soros whose family foundation has funded opposition groups across Eastern Europe for years, celebrates “rejection of foreign interference” with an EU flag emoji (hahahah) > Tim Walz calls it “a big win for freedom.” The same guy who oversaw government overreach in his state during covid and who believes in policing misinformation and hate speech I personally disagree vehemently with Orban's foreign policy positions but to keep calling Hungary an autocracy is exactly what the woke did with the word racist. They've diluted it to the point of futility. It means nothing anymore. Small countries like Hungary and Singapore prove you don’t need perfect Western liberal checkboxes to succeed. You need competent governance, cultural cohesion, and the willingness to make unpopular decisions and stick to them. Voters in both places have repeatedly validated that approach. They are not "autocracies." If you keep using that word it will come to mean nothing. The Western commentariat only freaks out when the “wrong” party does it - and only when it’s a European country that refuses to dissolve its borders and heritage on command.

@amazingmap It’s not a network. Nothing connects. Every country border stops the ride and is a new trip. So expensive and unpopular they’ve had to limit air travel to protect the rail operators.

The scale of Europe’s high-speed rail network has no equivalent in the United States. Europe has tens of thousands of kilometres of lines designed for speeds above 200–250 km/h, linking major cities across multiple countries. In contrast, the U.S. has no true high-speed rail network by those standards, with the fastest services on the Northeast Corridor reaching around 240 km/h on limited sections. This difference comes down to geography and investment patterns. European cities are closer together and more densely connected, making high-speed rail more viable, while U.S. transport has historically prioritised highways and aviation over rail. The result is that high-speed rail is a central part of intercity travel in much of western Europe, but remains limited and fragmented in the United States.

High-speed rail coverage across Europe

@RyanRadia @nikitabier @NateSilver538 Most of those are likely games only.

@nikitabier @NateSilver538 About 1 in 12 U.S. households has an NYT digital subscription

It's not my data. The source is Cluvio, which is linked to in the article. I'd link to it in this tweet, but ironically, that would kill engagement. And I know that traffic is hard to count. Especially for a private company. But if you have more accurate data, then publish it.

@BasedMikeLee Birthright Citizenship isn’t the problem. Congress created a problem in the Refugee Act of 1979. Congress could actually fix that without, but you are too ineffective to pass any meaningful immigration reform. You love the broken system and raise money on it.

The Constitution isn’t a national suicide pact It doesn’t compel us to encourage illegal immigration with universal birthright citizenship

@DaneMiller_SWS I thought getting to the final four meant winning your bracket games. You couldn’t even win your PAC games.

As it turns out, all it took for Arizona to get back to the Final Four was leaving the Pac-12. No more playing the Washington State’s and Oregon State’s of the college basketball world. Playing in the Big 12 elevated the program to where it needed to be.

@nickgillespie @JMchangama This is like suing soapbox makers for harm caused by the words of speakers. Speech is protected, so any tools or acts necessary for the exercise of speech should also be protected.

'comparing social media to tobacco is questionable: The scientific consensus on smoking’s harms is unanimous and no one claims smoking has benefits. Neither is true for social media.' Jeff Kosseff and @JMchangama wsj.com/politics/socia…

Just dangerously insane. Deport 30% of the population? The entire Hispanic/Latino population is 65 million. Who are the other 35 million? Its like white supremacist fan fiction. These are the armed fanatics who were given police power in our cities.

@stevesi And you paid for it. I recall tickets from Seattle to DC round trip were nearly $1000 in 1975. That would be $6000 today. The middle class could not afford to fly.

Before airline deregulation it was common have an empty row when flying. No extra purchase necessary.

@RandPaul When did you turn into an authoritarian?

Nearly 25% of SNAP benefits go toward soda, chips, and snack cakes. My Nutritious SNAP Act stops taxpayer dollars from subsidizing junk food that can lead to chronic disease and empowers states to set their own nutrition standards. Common sense shouldn't be this controversial. reviewjournal.com/opinion/editor…

@BillMelugin_ Maybe ICE should have done their job and picked him up as required by the Laken Riley Act, instead of raiding construction sites, farms and Home Depots. That’s exactly why this law was passed, but DHS seems uninterested in following it.

BREAKING: DHS confirms that the suspect in custody for murdering Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman in Chicago is a Venezuelan illegal alien who was caught & released at the border by the Biden administration in May 2023. DHS says he was also released from local custody after a shoplifting arrest in the sanctuary city of Chicago on June 19, 2023. DHS identifies the suspect as Venezuelan national Jose Medina-Medina. Medina-Medina is accused of approaching Gorman while she was walking in a park with friends early Thursday morning. DHS says Medina-Medina came up to her while wearing a mask and armed with a gun. As she attempted to flee, he fired his gun and shot her. Gorman was shot and pronounced dead at the scene. DHS statement: “Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life. She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “We are calling on Governor Pritzker and Chicago’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this criminal illegal alien from jail back into American neighborhoods.”

@RandPaul The SAVE act is flawed. It’s not about photo id. It’s a total takeover of voting by the federal government. Auditing of voter roles. Elimination of mail in voting. Strict documentation requirements - more than is required to drive or own a firearm. Scrap this one and try again.

80% of Americans support requiring photo ID to vote. That's not a partisan issue. That's a mandate. I've been fighting to pass the SAVE Act because only American citizens should be deciding U.S. elections. It's that simple.

@CBSNews And here in the US, FCC Chairman Brandon Carr is also threatening to shut down broadcast of vital news and information.

People in Iran with Starlink internet devices are facing severe punishments from Iran's paramilitary force known as the Basij. cbsn.ws/4sNxGBD

@reason Airlines use futures and options to hedge against volatility in fuel prices. Delta runs their own refinery to reduce costs. I’m sure Delta is not yet feeling cost pressure from this war, but wants consumers to feel the price pressure.

Fuel costs will add $400 million to Delta's costs for the month of March alone, the airline's chief executive Ed Bastian said yesterday. reason.com/2026/03/18/fli…

@RepThomasMassie @RepCohen I don’t like government interfering in the market, but I also see dozens of nuisance cases against chemical companies that could end up eliminating a chemical that is safe, effective, and a critical component in food production. A lot of juries are being misled by bad science.

If we’re Making America Healthy Again, government shouldn't be promoting glyphosate and providing liability immunity for corporations making it. Thank you to @RepCohen for cosponsoring the No Immunity for Glyphosate Act.

@reason Hey Democrats. This is how we got Trump and MAGA. Because every time you get some power you start on performative crap to appease your base. This is the D equivalent to the SAVE act. An offensive solution to a non problem.

Virginia is poised to become the 11th state with a ban on "assault weapons," an arbitrarily defined category of politically disfavored firearms. reason.com/2026/03/11/vir…

@jrouldz @stevenfiorillo It’s not armed robbery if the gun isn’t loaded. Quite the defense.

@stevenfiorillo Lots more handwaving from both sides of political aisle and again no mention that: - Mamdani is Mayor of NYC - taxes are levied by the state not city - Mamdani has 0 control over taxes - this proposal has a ~0% of passing NY legislature All just wasting time fanning flames

As a lifelong, taxpaying New Yorker, I am extremely worried about the ramifications of the estate tax proposal on New Yorkers if it gets signed into law. I want to be clear up front; this isn't about politics for me. I'm not fighting for the billionaire class, and I'm certainly not one of them. What I am is someone who understands basic math, economics, and business, who has watched what happens when states push tax policy past the breaking point. Here's what's on the table right now: a proposal to reduce New York’s estate tax exemption from $7.1 million down to $750,000, an 89% cut while increasing the top rate from 16% all the way to 50%. This is embedded within a batch of revenue ideas sent up to Albany to try and plug a $5.4 billion hole in the city budget. I want to discuss who this estate tax actually hits, because it’s certainly not the ultra-rich. The ultra-rich weren’t exempt as only the first $7.1 million avoided estate taxes. A $750,000 threshold in the New York metro area is not reasonable. The median home price in New York City hit roughly $809,000. In Nassau County you're looking at $820,000. Suffolk County sits around $675,000. Westchester is $754,000. If you bought a house in the city, Nassau, or Westchester and you spent 30 years paying off that mortgage like a responsible adult, congratulations, you're now above the estate tax threshold. What’s even better is that you hit the threshold before even factoring in your 401k, life insurance, savings, a family business, or other investments. This isn't a tax on the wealthy it’s a tax on a retired couple in Bayside who paid off their split-level. It's a tax on the family that runs a deli in Astoria and owns the building. When you force those families to come up with 50% of the value above $750,000 after someone dies, what do you think happens? They sell. They liquidate. The house goes, the business goes, and the generational wealth that took a lifetime to build disappears in a single tax event. Family businesses which are the backbone of employment in neighborhoods all over this city get gutted. According to the State Department of Taxation and Finance's own numbers New York's tax structure is incredibly top heavy as millionaires paid 44.6% of all personal income tax collected in 2024. The top 200,000 filers covered 51.9%. The bottom half of all earners paid 0.2%. Think about how fragile that makes us. You don't need a mass exodus. You need a few thousand people to change their mailing address to Palm Beach or Austin and the budget math falls apart. Here's the part that really gets me though. The biggest victims of "tax the rich" policies aren't the rich. The rich utilize their resources and leave once they have had enough because their resources make them mobile. The people who get crushed are the ones who stay such as teachers, firefighters, nurses, and the small business owner. They can’t simply pick up and go. The harsh reality is that when the wealthy leave and the tax base shrinks, the city still needs the same amount of money to run the subways, pay the cops and keep the lights on. So where does it come from? It comes from everyone left behind as they are forced to pay higher taxes, and higher fees. What may bother me more is the double taxation piece. The money in someone's estate didn't just appear from thin air. They earned it and paid income tax. They invested it and paid capital gains. They bought property with it and paid property taxes every single year. They bought things and paid sales tax. Every dollar in that estate has already been taxed multiple times over the course of a lifetime. Now when they die the state wants to take half of everything above $750,000? At what point does it stop being a tax and start being confiscation? That's a genuine question I have because if you work your whole life, play by every rule, pay every tax along the way, and the government still takes half when you die what exactly was the point of saving any of it? A $750,000 threshold doesn't catch billionaires it catches the middle class. It catches people who were never wealthy, they were just disciplined. They bought a house, they didn't sell it, they put money away for retirement, and they wanted to leave something for their kids. Punishing that with a 50% tax rate sends a very specific message: the state believes your assets belong to it first and your family second. I don't care where you fall politically that should bother you. I'll say this very simply. When you tax people to the point where they feel targeted, they leave. When they leave the burden falls on everyone who can't. When that burden gets heavy enough, more people figure out a way to go. That's not theory, that's exactly what IRS data and Census numbers have been showing us for half a decade straight. New York is standing at a fork in the road right now. One direction is more punitive taxation with an increasing dependence on a shrinking pool of high earners who increasingly have one foot out the door. The other direction is putting forward competitive tax policy, fiscal discipline, and creating an environment where building wealth and creating jobs isn't treated like something the government needs to punish. I know which path leads somewhere good. I just hope the people making the decisions figure it out before there's nobody left to tax. @amitisinvesting @BillAckman @chamath @patrickbetdavid @PBDsPodcast

@DonLDay What a disgusting money grab. GBAD doesn’t have much revenue, and it’s needed for their charter. Maybe BSU should see if they can take over revenue from Boise School District, or possibly fire district levies? To save money try firing the consultants who hatched this plan.

BSU floated bill to funnel some hotel tax to universities, away from Boise Centre's owner & other Idaho auditorium districts - BoiseDev boisedev.com/news/2026/03/1…

@RepThomasMassie My wife tried two times to get a star card. They told her she needed an updated SS card to match her married name. Then they didn’t like her marriage license - didn’t have the right seal. None of this matched the Idaho web site. She gave up. Easier to get a passport.

Did you ever study the Dewey decimal system and use the “card catalog index” to find a library book? When you get a Real ID, they don’t ask for much information about you. Real ID is your index card. They already have your book. They just need to unequivocally link YOU to IT.

@noahhermanyt This segment of the laptop market is very competitive. Apple is late to the game, and short on specs. The case is nice, but I don’t see it making waves. The anti-MSFT fanboys are loving this, but the buyers at this price point don’t care about that stuff.

the costco laptop section is wild now 💀 $589 #MacBookNeo solid aluminum optimized polished premium vs $599+ plastic garbage poor build quality windows bloat crappy screens “b-b-but it has more ram!” ☝️🤓

@Strangeland_Elf Right. You don’t have kids. After school sports can’t be done in the morning.

I mean they do. If you have to be at work by 9 there is nothing stopping you from waking up at 5 or 6 to “use” the sunlight. Forcing everyone to wake up an hour earlier so you can “use the sunlight” after work is just a tad ridiculous.