Luke

@huffpuffshelb @dub_dee This is the entire reason why you should open carry en masse during protests! It acts as a deterrent from allowing shit to spiral out of control like that. Let them know that we the people refuse to let tyrants rule over and kill us. They’ll think twice about it if they see guns

I’m officially convinced. It was a hoax. The Trump Administration recruited a leftist Kamala Harris voting Trump hater to participate in a staged assassination that would include the shooter getting shot at and then locked in federal prison for the rest of his life. The Kamala Harris voter agreed to this plan, that works against his political and personal interests, because he’s just like a really generous guy. Meanwhile the Trump Administration, despite dastardly planning multiple assassination hoaxes, decided to keep their patsy alive and a permanent liability to them, rather than just killing him like they could have easily done. They did this because they also are really strangely generous in a very odd and specific way. So in summary we have a plot where all parties involved are working against their own interests with no real discernible benefit to any of them. There is no evidence of this plan and it doesn’t even make any intuitive sense and the motives for everyone are unclear if not insane, but still I believe it because I’m a very smart person.

The Mailbox Test, like the breakfast test, is an excellent way to tell who you can allow to wield power in your society. Goes like this: If someone is hurt trying to destroy someone else's stuff in order to take pleasure from their pain, do you sympathize with... The aggressor because he got hurt? Or with the guy who owns the stuff, because he wasn't the aggressor? You can have people in your society who fail the Mailbox Test. That's okay... they can work at hospices, or shelters for orphaned kittens, or something. But you cannot allow them to vote, or otherwise wield political power. Because if you do, they will open the gates of the city to the enemy. I am personally tired of everyone pretending that people who enjoy ruining things for random strangers are just kewt smol beans who are only aggressive because of all the complex socioeconomic factors and lack of resources. They knew someone would be hurt by what they did. They knew that someone had done literally nothing harmful to them. And those two ideas, in combination made them feel pleasure. And they went and did it. That is the sign of a rotten soul. Defending ourselves and our property is not just a right, it's a moral obligation. Otherwise, we just kick the can down the road for someone else to deal with, someone who may not be able to defend herself. I don't care if a vandal breaks his arms trying to destroy my stuff. Because I value my stuff more than a vandal's arms. And the fact that he tried to destroy somebody else's stuff shows that he, too, values his arms less than the opportunity to hurt somebody. We cannot allow such people inside the city, and we cannot give the keys to those who would open the gates for them.

Checked every box ✔️

Well, credit where credit is due…

Brandon Hagel is the first player in @TBLightning history to post a playoff Gordie Howe hat trick (Goal, Assist, Fight). Hagel with a smile: “I never really would have expected that to be honest…whatever it takes to win…obviously a good feeling just that we won tonight.”

HAGEL HIT SLAFKOVSKY WITH THE "NIGHTY NIGHT" TAUNT IN THE PENALTY BOX 😱

OH YEAHHHHH!!!!!!

Am I the only person who is miffed by the increasing censorship of entirely unoffensive words like "kill", "shooter", or "drug"?

There's a physicist at Stanford named Safi Bahcall who modeled this exact principle and the math is wild. He calls it "phase transitions in human networks." When you're stationary, your probability of a lucky event is limited to your existing surface area: the people you already know, the places you already go, the ideas you've already been exposed to. Your opportunity window is fixed. When you move, your collision rate with new nodes in a network increases nonlinearly. Double your movement (new conversations, new cities, new projects) and your probability of a serendipitous encounter doesn't double. It roughly quadruples. Because each new node connects you to their entire network, not just to them. Richard Wiseman ran a 10-year study at the University of Hertfordshire tracking self-described "lucky" and "unlucky" people. The single biggest differentiator wasn't IQ, education, or family money. Lucky people scored significantly higher on one trait: openness to experience. They talked to strangers more, varied their routines more, and said yes to invitations at nearly twice the rate. The "unlucky" group followed the same routes, ate at the same restaurants, and talked to the same 5 people. Their networks were closed loops. No new inputs, no new collisions. Luck isn't random. Luck is surface area. And surface area is a function of movement. The lobster emoji is doing more work than most people realize. Lobsters grow by shedding their shell when it gets too tight. The growth requires a period of total vulnerability. No protection, no armor, soft body exposed to the ocean. That's the cost of movement nobody posts about. You have to be uncomfortable first. The new shell only hardens after you've already moved.

During World War II, Hitler was convinced that Americans lacked the will to fight and that any who did would be quickly overwhelmed. When early reports arrived from the battles in North Africa, German observers noted that Americans fought differently from the Europeans. Rather than charging aggressively and risking heavy infantry casualties, U.S. forces relied on overwhelming firepower—staying at a distance and expending vast quantities of artillery with little hesitation. Thanks to unmatched industrial production and logistics, fresh supplies were always available. This approach allowed relatively smaller American units to wear down much larger and well-entrenched enemy forces. In contrast, German and other European doctrines often emphasized aggressive maneuver and were sometimes more willing to accept high casualties to achieve objectives or preserve key equipment. This material-heavy American style surprised many Germans, including Hitler, who had long dismissed U.S. soldiers as soft and lacking in fighting spirit. He believed soldiers were cheap and expendable; he discovered too late that Americans fought to conserve lives by expending machines and ammunition instead. It was one of many reasons for Germany’s defeat—perhaps the hardest for some foreigners to fully understand. Americans place a high value on the lives of our soldiers. Equipment and shells could always be replaced.

All this talk about American myth and American fantasy, but @wayofftheres reminded me we already have the perfect example:

🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨 Billy Butler received 88% of over 32,000 votes and is now officially the 61st member of the Hall of Pretty Good!

Texans discovering via translated tweets that a sizable contingent of Japanese people are our spiritual brethren

idk what switch someone at X accidentally hit but my timeline is full of Japanese people talking about American BBQ, cars, and hating communists Japan is, and always will be, our greatest ally

@0xQuasark I was initially skeptical of this. Upon doing further research on it and reviewing the literature, this absolutely needs to be put on a fast track towards FDA approval! The mortality risk is extremely low when performed in a monitored and controlled medical facility.

Howard Lotsof was 19 years old and addicted to heroin when he took ibogaine in 1962 for fun. He came down 36 hours later with no withdrawal symptoms and no craving for heroin. He tried it on six addicted friends. Five of them had 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁. He spent the next 48 years trying to get it approved as medicine. He died in 2010, still waiting. His early data has since been replicated. It is now considered the most promising addiction treatment ever discovered.

Let’s go to Gene Steratore who has no idea what’s going on

This is sad. I know as a politician these companies are going to spend a billion dollars against me for saying it but 🤷🏽‍♀️ Pervasive gambling is not good for society. It turns life into a casino, traps people in addiction & debt, surges domestic violence, and fosters manipulation.

@RantyAmyCurtis @TheDemocrats policies ⬇️

They tried to put Daniel Penny in prison for years.