Financial Animal

@coldhealing This is a comically stupid instance of the false alternative fallacy. God obviously hasn't read Aristotle.

Ladies, your future husband should be in mild ai psychosis talking to God through a large language model

@footieuk @DrJStrategy /3 But to compare "rent free bases" (another perverse incentive) to the trillions US taxpayers have poured into Europe over the last century is absurd.

@footieuk @DrJStrategy /2 I have opposed that spending as it creates perverse incentives: if we've got bombs, we might as well drop them.

For the record. Sec of War sets the record straight. The Era of Free Riding is over. Welcome to the new great game. The era of free riding is over. For three decades, US power underwrote global security, open sea-lanes and cheap energy while allies and rivals alike built comfortable welfare states, outsourced industry, and moralised about American politics. That world died in the Strait of Hormuz, where Washington’s refusal to automatically reopen the oil spigot made clear that US protection is a choice, not a law of nature. The new organising principle is the New Great Game: a contest over energy, chokepoints, data and money in which America seeks to de‑risk, not decouple, from China. That means reshoring or friend‑shoring critical production, hardening maritime power, and modernising dollar rails so that capital, not just carriers, projects strength. Countries that continue to assume someone else will guarantee their security, energy and growth will find themselves squeezed by tariffs, supply shocks and conditional protection. Those that invest in productive capacity, real defence and credible alliances can share in a new peace dividend: lower geopolitical risk, faster innovation and rising living standards. The message from Washington is blunt: contribute, or be treated as a bystander. Welcome to the New Great Game.

@tedfrank @bencampo @jbarro @TPCarney And Ted Kennedy's grotesque description of Robert Bork as a coat hanger salesman wasn't "hardball?" All process arguments are in bad faith.

Absolutely. Olive branches that were ignored: 1) Not making a stink over the Ginsburg nomination despite a more damning paper trail than Bork. 2) Not making a stink over the Breyer nomination. 3) GW Bush agreeing to nominate a controversial Clinton appellate pick Republicans blocked in his first batch of nominations in 2001. 4) Bipsrtisan agreement to withdraw several Bush nominees instead of ending the filibuster (only for Dems to renege next presidency). 5) Not making a stink over the Sotomayor nomination. 6) Not making a stink over the Kagan nomination. Let’s look at Dem escalations: 1) 1981-84: Even as Mondale was down by double digits in the polls, Dems refused to move on dozens of Reagan nominations just in case. The ABA is used as a partisan tool to smear several conservatives who become brilliant judges. 2) The unprecedented smear campaign to block Bork. 3) The unprecedented defamatory smear campaign to try to block Thomas. 4) Blocking numerous mainstream GHW Bush appellate nominees, including the moderate Roberts. 5) Trying to filibuster Alito (Obama voted for that filibuster). 6) Schumer—in 2007!—announces the Schumer Rule. GW Bush will not be allowed to fill a Supreme Court seat in the last two years of his second term when he doesn’t hold the Senate. 7) Breaking the bipartisan agreement to keep the filibuster for appellate nominees to fill seats Dems filibustered to hold open during Bush. 8) Trying to filibuster Gorsuch, and then slow-walking every nominee. 9) Defaming Kavanaugh with a blatantly false smear campaign. 10) Repeatedly threatening to pack the Court. 11) Slap on the wrist for an attempted assassination of a justice, after an unprecedented leak of a draft opinion, followed by slow-walking the dissent to increase the risk to the justices’ lives. Basic game theory says it’s Democrats’ turn to offer an olive branch if they want to stop the tit-for-tat, but their current m.o. is more escalations.

Remove conservative justices and pack the courts! The guy is a radical interested primarily in grabbing power, to wield it against the other side. This is sadly, what partisans on both sides seek.

@MS2PZ The federal government, regardless of who's in charge.

Be Honest: Who, in your view is the greatest enemy of the United States? A. Russia B. Islam C. Democratic Party D. Iran E. Trump

@rjb77ca @sahilkapur @malonebarry "...installing billions in real jobs" And they vote.

@sahilkapur @malonebarry This poll is stupid. Trump is installing billions in real jobs For Americans!

👀 Reuters/Ipsos poll: Trump’s approval rating on the economy has sunk to 29%. Lower than Biden’s lowest rating. Far lower than Trump’s first-term lowest.

@RepOgles That is the most cringe thing I have ever seen. And the US was not built on Christian principles. The US is a product of the Enlightenment and the triumph of Reason over mysticism. And they rule us.

This is a battle of good vs evil. We must reaffirm that our nation was built on Christian principles. ✝️ Join Us 🇺🇸

@TheSpectator This: "Trump’s tariffs ... can... be justified as a daring attempt to improve the lives of America’s lower and middle-classes," is nonsense. Cash welfare and a sclerotic welfare state could be justified for the same reason. Tariffs are stupid.

@Peoples_Pundit Yeah. Maybe. He was also the first candidate to be lucky enough to run against a vegetable.

Notice how people who seek to minimize Trump's win in 2024 always neglect to mention the conditions in which he won that election? Say, for instance: Him winning despite 91 felony indictments, a civil trial abused to claim he was a rapist, being the only modern Grover Cleveland, having the entire power infrastructure in the western world against him, being a target of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world for nearly a decade, being incessantly attacked by a hateful and corrupt media constantly trying to convince half the country that he was akin to one of the worst mass murderers in history, nearly being murdered himself by someone who believed them, and the fact a Republican can only win the popular vote by making historic gains with non-whites? Not to mention omitting the reality of the popular vote win reflecting those shifts once thought impossible. Ofc it's historic. It was more like a miracle when you consider it in context.

@SenSanders You sound like a guy who got to keep his plan.

People are angry at a health insurance industry which denies people the care they desperately need while Big Pharma makes billions and billions of dollars in profit. The time is long overdue to guarantee healthcare to every man, woman, and child in this country.

@POTUS Politicians would do far better for themselves if they were just honest, even at the margins. Your presidency has been a disaster, mostly because you are a fabulist, a grifter and a liar of unimaginable proportions.

America is stronger under my Administration. Our alliances are stronger and our adversaries and competitors are weaker. Join me as I lay out how we advanced American leadership during my presidency and the opportunities we have created for my successor. twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

@harryjsisson Yeah, no. Newsom may be the biggest purveyor of misinformation in the political class. Now excuse me while I finish my French Laundry breakfast.

🚨BREAKING: California Governor Gavin Newsom just released a new website to combat misinformation being spread about the wildfires in LA. This is huge. Please rely on this website and its accurate information—not Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

@RBReich No! As usual, you're wrong. People are falling behind because of INFLATION, which is caused by profligate, irresponsible government, for which you are an untiring advocate. Your class warfare nonsense is so eighteenth century.

Why do so many feel like they've fallen behind? It's not because of immigrants, trans people, the “deep state,” or any other bogeyman trotted out by the GOP. It's because big corporations and billionaires have rigged markets and siphoned off most of the economy's gains.

@politvidchannel "Legal experts say. . . " Gawd you're an idiot. And you'd be arguing for the exact opposite if Trump had run as the Democrat he'd been for his entire life.

BREAKING: Congress can cancel Donald Trump's inauguration and stop him from taking office because The Constitution provides that an oath-breaking insurrectionist is ineligible to be president.

@bookkeepPLUS The Texas ice storms and these SoCal fires are both government failures but are qualitatively different.

Did they blame DEI for the dismal response to the ice storms in Texas? Did they demand that Abbott resign? Or do we only blame DEI and Liberals for natural disasters that happen in blue states?

@SenAdamSchiff Russia, Russia, Russia.

Jack Smith did his duty. And the public deserves to see the product of his work and that of his team. Before Trump can follow through on his promise to bury it.

@AesPolitics1 The reaction can be partially explained by the Newson & Cali environment regime that made it impossible to manage forests and other land with controlled burns and its failure to impound water during rainy years. And then blaming the whole thing on climate change.

I don’t understand the hate for Gavin Newsom. This is one of the worst natural disasters seen in decades. Nothing would’ve stopped it.

@RBReich Doubtful, although you may be right. But the Trump policy is a REACTION to Biden's mindlessness. You people should have used your heads.

Trump has pledged to carry out his mass deportation plan once he takes office. He also threatened to end birthright citizenship and deport American citizens with undocumented family members. This would be a humanitarian catastrophe and an economic disaster.

@SenSanders The real minimum wage is ZERO, you imbecile.

American workers are more than 400% more productive than they were in the 1940s. But all of the economic gains are going straight to the top. Workers deserve more. It’s time for a 32-hour work week with no loss in pay.