Impact Trends

@Haironfire22 @aakashgupta Most of what government does -- not just in Maryland -- could disappear and citizens would be better off as a result. The Key Bridge rebuild is a great example of government competence, and why it shouldn't be touching infrastructure projects.

@aakashgupta I insist that the Japanese be contracted to build this. It will be done in a year.

There is no bridge to repair. The Dali destroyed it on March 26, 2024. The whole 1.6-mile Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River within seconds and six construction workers died. What's happening now is a complete rebuild from scratch. The replacement is a different bridge entirely. Cable-stayed design with a 700-meter main span, twice the original. Taller deck to clear modern container ships. Federally mandated vessel collision protection that didn't exist when the 1977 bridge was built. Reproducing the original design would be illegal under current federal code. The Fort McHenry shipping channel, which was the actually urgent priority, reopened to full traffic 11 weeks after the collapse. The Port of Baltimore never lost a year of operations. The original Key Bridge took 5 years to construct, 1972 to 1977. Here's where it went sideways. Projected cost climbed from $1.7B to $4.3-5.2B in 18 months. Maryland terminated Kiewit's contract on April 28 because Phase 2 bids came in unacceptably high. Sean Duffy's DOT forced the rebid. After 14 months and $73M of design work, 30 of the roughly 1,000 required pilings are driven and a new contractor search starts this month. Compare Italy. The Genoa San Giorgio bridge (1,067 meters) was rebuilt in 15 months for €290M after the Morandi collapse killed 43 people. Renzo Piano donated the design. Italy invoked emergency powers to skip standard procurement and finished the entire structure before Maryland finished designing theirs. The original Key Bridge cost $60M to build in 1977. The replacement will cost $4.3-5.2B. Inflation accounts for roughly 5x of that gap. A larger span and modern collision protection account for some more. The remaining 10x is what American infrastructure procurement costs in 2026. The bridge is just where you can see it.

@jesseproudman Government does only one thing well: tax productive citizens to punish them. The only thing government *should* focus on is shutting down 90% of what it does in order to give citizens as much freedom as possible. Seattle is getting what it voted for: job crushing taxes.

What if the government focused on the things it can do very well and left well alone the things it can’t? I wonder what that would do to our deficit?

@wayne8863381622 @LizMair This is the modern Democrat party: dominated by socialists, communists, and National Socialists (Nazis). All acceptable because Trump. A pathetic lack of moral values in order to cling to power.

@LizMair None of these people have ever actually listened to him=he is impressive and relatable in the same way as Mamdani, who these same people spent months hating on and loving them some sex pest Cuomo.

Think Graham Platner isn’t actually a Nazi sympathizer if you want to but I don’t know how *anyone* concludes *anything* other than he’s too big of a jackass to be allowed in the US Senate. He either is a serious person and all this stuff deserves to be treated seriously or he’s just a dipshit too online Internet weirdo who shouldn’t be entrusted with legislating even the name of Post Offices. Seems pretty simple to me.

@JMSchattke @Devon_Eriksen_ There's no need to take the Iranian islands (Kharg included) if the piers, docks, and warehouses can be wrecked. Physical occupation is the wrong lens. The goal is causing as much damage as possible until the bad behavior voluntarily ceases.

@Devon_Eriksen_ The next step of "breaking stuff" is taking the Iranian islands, and churning their coast so no watercraft survives. Not even a rowboat. Then destroying any boat trailer that shows up.

Bobby Henderson once joked that there's an inverse relationship between global temperature and number of pirates. He thought he was coming up with a laughable example of specious thinking. Of how correlation doesn't imply causality. But the joke's on him. Because the causal relationship is real. And it's why the United States is perpetually at odds with Iran. Confused yet? Let's put the pieces together. Carbon emissions are caused by industrialization of the world. Technological advancement. Making stuff. To have this advancement, you need trade. Ideally, global trade. You need to bring the raw materials and fuel to people who make stuff, and the stuff you made to the people who extract the raw materials and fuel. To have that, you have to kill pirates. That's why, throughout the modern era of global trade, there has always been a global superpower. Because the ecological role of a superpower, in the biome of the global political landscape, is to shoot and blow up anyone who threatens global trade instead of participating in it. This is currently America. Now, global communist movement likes to call this a sort of mafia operation, with pages and pages of arguments that basically all sound like "something something petrodollars", as if you would expect to run markets in anything but the currency of the dominant power. But the difference between a "government" and a "mafia" is that a government shakes you down with a promise to protect you from someone else, while a mafia shakes you down with a promise to protect you from... what they'll do to you if you don't pay them. Which means that domestically, the United States federal apparatus is a mafia. But internationally, it's a government. But who are the pirates? Pirate, in abstract, means anyone who profits by attacking trade, as opposed to facilitating it. This includes not only literal pirates, but anyone who tries to threaten trade to get their way. And this is a tempting option for third world countries. Depending on where they are located, and what capabilities they have, those who aren't fairing as well in the global trade game as the major players are always faced with a certain temptation... the temptation to say "break me off a special deal, a better deal, or I'll stop playing the game and flip the table instead." The job of America is prevent this, by counter-threats as a first line of defense, and by shooting anyone who thinks it's a bluff, and calls. This is why the clash between the US federal government and the dictatorship of Manuel Noriega became inevitable the moment a traitor in that government decided to give the Panamanians our canal. The temptations of the canal as an extortion tool could be resisted for a while, especially when incentivized by American bribes, but the third world is generally, almost by definition, governed by its greediest and most corrupt members. Eventually, no matter how big the bribe, they want more. And eventually the global superpower, the de facto world government, the grand protector of global trade, must switch from the carrot to the stick. Now, Iran's history is a bit more complicated due to an incident where the US used a stick called "Operation Ajax" when it was far too early, when it was time for the carrot instead. But what's important for the sake of this discussion is that, in a era of cheap drones and other anti-ship weapons which are good enough to take out undefended merchant vessels, there's not a lot of difference, tactically, between the Strait of Hormuz and the Panama Canal. Either one represents a potential table-flip, and all the players of this game know it. So the choice the United States has is to roll up its sleeves and sort the problem out with violence, which will temporary create the very problem it seeks to prevent in the long run, or to continue to give concessions until eventually the Shi'ite loonies who run Persia right now get bold enough to demand something that simply cannot be given. In other words, to kick the can down the road. Now, Israel always wants to fight, whether or not there even IS a victory condition, because, having dispelled stereotypes about Jews being wimps, they now seem busily engaged in dispelling stereotypes about Jews being smart. But the US fed, the actual responsible party, has tougher choices to make. Not because Iran is actually capable of fighting back. No one can fight America. Not China, not Russia, and certainly not the Persians. This war is basically a UFC fighter pushing a drunk off a bar stool. But there's a difficulty. Smashing everything Iranian that large enough to show up on a spy sat doesn't actually replace the Shi'ite loonies with somebody who will play nice with global trade. It just breaks stuff. It the past, the solution to this problem has been liberal hegemony, euphemistically called "regime change", meaning the act of trying to export liberal democracy using military force. This doesn't work, because the US military, while unstoppable, is not designed for, or suited for, this role. It's not a police force, it's not an internal security force, and to forcefully impose order on the third world, you need to things American soldiers won't do, like assassinations and torture. Marines are amazing in a stand-up fight, but they can't do the job of the TonTon Macoute. The current US administration is smarter than this. Not geniuses, mind you, but at least functionally possessed of the institutional equivalent of a triple-digit IQ. The paradigm that they seem to be operating under is "punishment beating". They're not trying to control what they can't control, which is what leader the Persians actually follow. They're just resolved to break stuff and hurt people until the misbehavior stops. It remains to be seen whether that will work.

@DesireeAmerica4 Don't insult chess players, or even gamers, by showing Bob Ferguson next to a game. Playing games requires creativity, strategic thinking, and intelligence. Ferguson is a moron. A dunce cap would be more representative of his Millionaire Tax bill.

The state of Washington just learned a $100M lesson: You can’t tax people who have private jets to leave. ​Governor Ferguson pushed a 10% “Millionaire Tax,” and the response was instant. ​Starbucks? Nashville. Boeing? South Carolina. ​Sorry Bob, but your chess moves don't work when the pieces leave the board. Now what will happen to Washington?

@jonathanfired @PNWConservative Katie Wilson didn't earn her money, it was gifted by her parents. Someone who earns millions has developed goods or services that people want and are willing to pay for. Seattle screwed its local businesses making them uncompetitive through taxation and excessive regulations.

@PNWConservative She’s been a millionaire her entire life and never gave it up.. but from within that security, she wants to tear down the functioning of society.

Kommissar Katie Wilson…. “…. Do you deserve to make a million dollars, John?” AWKWARD laugh…… This woman fell down the stupid tree and hit every branch.

@realfullpro @BoringBiz_ What Ken Griffin was asking was the candidates vision, drive, and his insights as to how the candidate viewed the industry he was being hired into. The candidate literally responded that he had no vision beyond collecting a paycheck and no view on the industry.

@BoringBiz_ for those who needs an explanation, he's asking, how much money can you make for me if i gave you a $10 million account to run? He doesn't care about your vacation plan

This is the type of person you have to be to get hired at Citadel Ken Griffin once asked a Harvard graduate with a Citadel offer letter what he would do if he had $10 million in his bank account The young man replied that he would quit his job to travel and climb the highest peaks around the world Ken Griffin responded by saying that Citadel was not the right fit for him

@ASN_2_AZ @ChrisVanHollen What you don't understand is Chris Van Hollen knows a lot about Israel. He chooses to support Democrat Nazi candidates such as Graham Platner, and says they "should have second chances." thehill.com/homenews/senat…

@ChrisVanHollen You should be ashamed to call yourself a senator. Obviously you know nothing about the history of Israel. You are such a disgrace having margaritas with a criminal wife beater . I pray MD maps will be redrawn and you are out forever

Watch: This is the result of the Trump Admin giving a blank check to the Netanyahu govt’s ongoing settlement expansion and its complicity with settler violence against Palestinians.   We cannot look away.

@TheGreatLander Please consider an article on how tax compression affects socialist cities such as Portland, Seattle, and NYC. wweek.com/news/2025/10/2… Its when falling property values cause tax rates to exceed constitutional limits, forcing a reduction in taxes levied by local government.

"Seattle's economic decline sure appears to be accelerating. The election of a clueless "democratic socialist" mayor, who, like so many of these people, has never done an honest day's work in her life, seems to have hit the TURBO button on that decline." Elite Skyscraper Club Now Closing Amid Seattle Downturn redstate.com/wardclark/2026…

@ChrisVanHollen Sen. Chris Van Hollen believes Nazi's like Graham Platner “should have second chances.” thehill.com/homenews/senat… Literally the pro-Nazi supporter from Maryland. What a time to be alive, to see Democrats expose their true colors.

Trump & Republicans' refusal to extend ACA tax credits means Marylanders are now paying more for their healthcare & getting less.   As thousands take lower coverage, costs rise, making it harder to afford care, & creating a vicious cycle.   All so billionaires could get a tax cut. marylandmatters.org/2026/04/28/tho…

@CarlLately @moshespern You should know that a NYC government can cut spending to statutorily balance its budget. Problem solved without the communist mayor trying to use the tax code to steal from New Yorkers. You'd know that if you actually gave a fuck.

@moshespern States and municipalities are statutorily required to balance their budgets. Cities and states cannot carry debt. Only the Feds can. You’d know that if you actually gave a fuck

For far too long, City government has stood idly by while New York homeowners fall victim to criminal deed theft schemes.   Those days are over. We're creating the City's first Office of Deed Theft Prevention. If you think you or someone you know may be a victim of deed theft, visit nyc.gov/deedfraud for support now.

@strangeland71 @Swave_Sway @NYCMayor @CMChiOsse Deed theft by Zohran Mamdani stealing from landlords by warping the tax code is a real issue.

Is deed theft really an issue? And why is it always framed around race? It’s purposefully divisive. The day that Mamdani starts by saying something like “For far too long we have allowed repeat criminals and dangerous vagrants to prey on New Yorkers because of lax bail laws and lenient judges…” then I’ll start listening to him.

@James_9341 @NYCMayor @CMChiOsse Advocating for @nayibbukele as NYC Mayor would be a fantastic outcome. NYC would have the World's coolest dictator as Mayor, and a revamped Rikers Island as the CECOT NY soon to follow.

@NYCMayor @CMChiOsse El Salvador went from one of the most unsafe countries in the western hemisphere under socialism to one of the safest when they got rid of it. NYC is heading to 3rd world status.

@NYCMayor @CMChiOsse Going to punish Letitia James, or is this Office of Deed Theft Prevention just aimed at regular citizens?

@Llamacavalry @Crime_In_NYC That's only part of the answer. If the Judge(s) which let the kid put six prior times were given the same jail sentence as the repeat offender, the Judges wouldn't be so quick to release the offender.

@Crime_In_NYC But he is a sweet, baby Aladdin who was just trying to mind his business (with a gun) when this happened! Try him as an adult. He has 6 priority, and a shooting to boot.

The 15-year-old male shot in his back on a Queens subway train fell to the ground “with a look of tremendous shock and pain” — only for the shooter to erase that look by viciously pumping a second bullet into the adolescent’s face, prosecutors said as they charged the gunman’s accomplice. The grisly details of the shooting — which was recorded on an MTA surveillance camera on the blood-soaked subway car — were recounted at a Thursday night court arraignment, at which the gunman’s 16-year-old alleged accomplice was ordered held without bail as the case continues. The apprehended suspect, whose name is not being released because he is underage ["he's only a child! 🎻"], was nabbed Wednesday afternoon for Monday’s clash on a Manhattan-bound A train at it was approaching the 80th St. station in Ozone Park. The "teen" had the gun the shooter used on Monday and is also being charged for shooting and wounding the same victim back in February. Prosecutors charged the "teen" with multiple counts of weapons possession for carrying the gun. He’s also charged with criminal mischief. The 15-year-old victim was shot during the 6 p.m. clash on the Queens subway train. He remains paralyzed in Jamaica Hospital on a ventilator to assist his breathing, according to relatives worried he may never fully recover. Queens Assistant District Attorney Kevin Timpone said the 16-year-old defendant and the shooter were riding the train when the victim — who recognized the "teen" from the prior shooting — ran up and started fighting with him. As the three brawled on the packed rush-hour train, the shooter “lifted the pants leg of this defendant, removed a firearm, pointed at the back of the (victim) and fired,” Timpone said. When the victim fell to the floor of the train car, the shooter “pointed the gun at (the victim’s) face and fired again and fled the area together with this defendant,” the prosecutor added. “At this point, the complainant became immobile and had streams of blood spurting out of (him).” The bullet that hit the 15-year-old male in the back “lodged in his spine,” Timpone said. “At this point in time, he is paralyzed from the waist down because of the actions of this defendant walking around Queens County with a gun used in this shooting on his ankle.” The 16-year-old suspect has been arrested six other times, including the prior shooting involving this same victim. After he was arrested for shooting the 15-year-old victim in the leg in February, he was enrolled in an Intensive Community Monitoring Program that required him not to leave home, except for going back and forth to school, and to keep “an exemplary school attendance record.” However, he was only in school eight days during the month of April, Timpone added. The "teen" is facing attempted murder charges for the February shooting, officials said. Law enforcement sources say the 15-year-old victim has been linked to multiple robbery patterns and has a criminal record that includes numerous arrests. nydailynews.com/2026/05/02/boy…

@DrunkenVintner @TheAliceSmith I get it. You're a socialist or communist. I'll just wait for the claim its not real socialism, just like every other time it fails.

@ImpactTrends @TheAliceSmith Oh shit Mamdani has been in office for 5 years? Thats crazy, time really flies.

Zohran Mamdani promised New York an unending flow of free stuff when elected as mayor. Now, four months later, the city is broke. Here’s an exhaustive list of all the economic lessons the Left will learn from this living case study:

@DrunkenVintner @TheAliceSmith You can look uo the 5-yr stats yourself. Its not that difficult.

@ImpactTrends @TheAliceSmith Still havent come up with any numbers....can you point to anything that says people are leaving or is it just an assumption?

@JREHaliburt @BlizzardArmsLLC @LoganDobson MD politicians lied. They constricted electricity production to inflate energy prices. foxbaltimore.com/news/local/wes… Maryland, which already imports the majority of its energy, has lost 6,000 MW of electricity since 2018, while adding only 1,600 MW

@ImpactTrends @BlizzardArmsLLC @LoganDobson It has everything to do with data centers because most places where was built already they clearly promised electricity wasn't going to go up, and that was a lie If they can't stop lying then people will ban them Theh have q choice to stop lying

Imagine you run a 24 hour hamburger joint. You do pretty well. You sell 1000 burgers a week for $10 each, netting $5 on each. But almost all your money is made during “peak” hours when demand is highest — lunch, dinner. You net $5000 a week. Then a big change. A 24 hour factory opens across the street. The workers at the factory don’t have a set lunch hour, so they just run out for burgers whenever they feel hungry, roughly evenly distributed throughout the day and night. Burger demand surges — a little bit during those peak hours, but also at all hours of the night, mid-afternoon, early morning, all times you previously weren’t selling many burgers and your staff was mostly sitting around. With the surge in demand, you’re now selling 2000 burgers a week. You cut the price to $8 per burger (to encourage more factory customers), so you now net $6000 per week. Demand went way up, but you cut prices and are making more revenue and profit. At this point you might think I’ve told you a story about hamburgers. I’ve actually told you a story about data centers and electricity prices.

@DrunkenVintner @TheAliceSmith The crisis isn't just about *today*, its tax base compression and what happens in the future. As capital moves to other states NYC jobs aren't created and eventually municipal workers get fired. Waiting to see the impact of the Texas Stock Exchange on NYSE from July onward.

@ImpactTrends @TheAliceSmith Id love to see the stats on how many billionaires have fled the city and somehow extracted enough tax money from the budget over the last 4 months to cause this crisis

@seattletimes Its going to be hilarious when the Seattle Times is forced to leave Seattle due to communism, or face bankruptcy. That's now on the cards thanks to Katie Wilson and the new income tax on millionaires. @seattletimes deserves the outcomes it advocated voters to support.

They say a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson saying "bye" to the wealthy upset about taxes is not the kind of truth Seattle needs right now, writes columnist Danny Westneat. #Echobox=1777738154-2" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">seattletimes.com/seattle-news/p…