Kristen Vala

what i find so exhausting is that the Musk-ownership era of this platform is just explicitly tweaking the knobs toward whatever serves the broader interest of him/his cohort/politics. reach/discourse couldn't be more distorted here & yet all the free speech maximalists lap it up

@TexasAnCap Is this only for mobile websites? What about those of us who never use social media on our phones and mainly use the internet on a laptop/desktop the way god intended?

Any website that forces you to install their app is a website not worth visiting.

Anyone remember when the Democrats came up with a great bipartisan Border Bill to thwart illegal immigration? Then Trump told the GOP not to vote on the measure because a victory for the Democrats (Feb 2024) would not help him get reelected. It's never truly been about immigrants. It's always been about political perception. When it comes to America First, it's always been Trump First.

“Shadow studies” are such a great encapsulation of NIMBYism. In a superstar city, a new building can only exist if it’s not made out of matter, no one can see it and the new people who live there will not make any sound or use any city services. NIMBYism is just misanthropy.

When I’m eating shared nachos I’m always thinking 3 nacho moves ahead of my opponent.

Not only does Mexico City protect its bike lanes well with very inexpensive barriers, but they also blink at night to be extra visible. Protected bike lanes don’t have to cost a fortune.

@ConnorPatrick @okman918 @Jimmyking35 Tech required for trains has way less variables than whats required for thousands of individual vehicles all going in different directions on non-uniform streets and terrain while surrounded by peds and bikers. The more complex, the higher the trust required to get it right.

@KrisVal @okman918 @Jimmyking35 Do we have reason to give drivers the benefit of the doubt? In a perfect world, all drivers would be banned and we would go back to emphasizing efficient, reliable mass transit. But even then, you’ll be “trusting the programmers.”

Keep Waymo out of Philadelphia

@okman918 @Jimmyking35 They are only as safe and reliable as the tech that programs them. Some of us don't trust the programmers. Do we have reason to give silicon valley the benefit of the doubt on this product? Even right now, Waymo's policy is to block bike lanes in order to do drop offs.

@Jimmyking35 Cars kill 100s and injure 1000s of people in Philadelphia every year. The data is very clear that Waymo’s are significantly safer. No amount of cringe feelings about Waymo or weird hiccups like what you are quote tweeting are worth the hundreds of lives of our fellow citizens.

We must never have any cycling infrastruture anywhere because someone may want to move a fridge in a blizzard.

I really wish Google Maps and Yelp had a filter on the “breakfast” search term called “pastries don’t count”

Childless discourse is funny because the predictions of misery are very clearly supposed to be a punishment. “I was actually born infertile” “Oh well I wasn’t talking about you! Just those selfish people that deserve to die alone and be eaten by cats”

imagine if twitter had a "nah somebody already tweeted that.…. try again" feature😭😭

@longbutthair @lha1tham The supposed "unattractive" don't even have to call themselves pretty/hot. They just have to not outwardly hate themselves while exuding happiness and people actually get confused and angry about this.

@lha1tham And this might be a hot take but I also don’t mind when ppl who are considered “unattractive” think they’re pretty

why is it treated like a crime to consider yourself attractive why do yall want everybody to be miserable and to think of themselves as ugly

This is actually fucking crazy

This is the most blatant, in-your-face corruption I have ever seen in my lifetime. Dropping a $10B IRS lawsuit for a $1.7B taxpayer-funded "weaponization" fund — overseen by a Trump-controlled commission — is just the latest scheme. Look at the scale of what else is happening: - The Trump family crypto venture (World Liberty Financial) accepted a $500M investment from a UAE official days before the inauguration. Now, that same official is securing deals for 500,000 of Nvidia’s top AI chips — exports that were previously banned by bipartisan agreement due to concerns about technology leaks to China. - Since Jan 2025, the Trump family has pivoted into defense tech. Companies like Powerus and Foundation Future Industries — directly linked to the President's sons — have landed over $735M in government contracts. Vulcan Elements (where Don Jr. has a massive equity stake via 1789 Capital) secured a $620M Pentagon loan. Most of these companies are brand new or have zero history in the sector. The GOP-controlled Congress needs to do something, NOW. If they continue to refuse to act on such obvious corruption, it should be assumed they are all benefiting from this. WTF else are we supposed to think at this point?! @SenateGOP @HouseGOP

Let me get this straight. Trump sued his own IRS for $10 billion. His own Justice Department is now considering settling that case. And one of the terms on the table is that the IRS drops all audits of Trump, his family, and his businesses PERMANENTLY. He’s using the full weight of the federal government to protect himself and his family from accountability and potentially pay himself BILLIONS of your tax dollars. nytimes.com/2026/05/12/bus…

How many of you turn off the volume whenever trump is on so as not to have to hear his horrid voice?

JUST FUCKING PLANT TREEEESSSSSSSS They are what make cities LIVABLE Here’s San Antonio’s river walk today. It’s the most “meh that’s nice” tourist spot, and yet San Antonio is the EIGHTH most tourist visited US city because of it. TREEESSSSSSSSSS

Of for god sake, the unusual investment offer is a damn bribe. It’s a bribe.

It’s wild that Joe Biden is responsible for all the problems a year and a half into Trump’s term but but got no such timeframe when he inherited a crisis that was completely botched by Trump.