Sammy

DAMN. Former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, goes scorched earth on the current Democrats leading the state. Says they have no clue how bad their policies are for the economy.

During the Biden administration, H-1B visa holders were buying houses with 97-100% financing. 97% would come from the FHA, with the rest coming from state first-time home buyer programs. Zero money down. Thanks to programs that were supposed to be helping low-income American families buy their own homes. FHA loans to non-permanent residents quickly grew to represent 6% of mortgage issuances. The percentage was undoubtedly higher in places like the DFW area, where H-1B visa holders are disproportionately concentrated. I don’t have anything against people in America on H-1B visas. I’ve said it before—and I’ll say it again—that I’ve found many of them to be great people on an individual level, and I wish them all nothing but the best. Individual immigrants—especially those here legally—are not at fault for flawed US immigration policy. But this might be the most radicalizing thing I’ve ever seen. Not only are American workers forced to compete for jobs, they’re also forced to compete in the housing market against people bringing 0-3% of a house’s cost to the closing table, versus the 10-20% most people have to pay. First, companies import mass numbers of H-1B visa holders, largely in "back office" white-collar fields like IT and accounting. This essentially imposes a lower ceiling on domestic wages in these job categories. Next, these workers—who are generally concentrated in certain geographic areas—create more demand for housing (especially in good school districts), driving up home prices and the cost of living. Then, to top it off, they don’t even have to save up money for a down payment. They can close on a $500k house with $0-15k plus a 97% FHA loan. Meanwhile, ordinary American families are forced to come to with $50-100k for the same down payment. I don’t care how you feel about Trump or what your preferred immigration policies are; there’s no defending this. It screws over hard-working American citizens several different ways over, and it’s yet another reason why I will always be glad Trump won and Kamala Harris lost in 2024.

Watch a team of humanoid robots running a full 8-hr shift at human performance levels. This is fully autonomous running Helix-02 x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

@nntaleb @octonion 👍

@Sammy8424 @octonion Yes I simplified by not accounting for the triple. Just take first author as random variable (order is not alphabetical but by seniority). Otherwise I need to run on computer.

My paper has 14 references; each paper has 3 authors. Authors are ordered alphabetically by paper, references are ordered alphabetically by first author, and initial letters of surnames are uniformly random. What's the expected initial letter of the first surname for entry 14?

@nntaleb @octonion Aren't you ignoring the 3 author minimum step? Would bring the first-author initials towards 7-9. Ordering 14 of those early values then pushes the last one only up to maybe P not Z?

@octonion 14 iid uniform draws from the alphabet ({A,\dots,Z}). If (M) is the maximum letter, then \mathbb P(M=m)=\frac{m^{14}-(m-1)^{14}}{26^{14}}, with (A=1,\dots,Z=26). \mathbb P(M=Z)=1-(25/26)^{14}\approx 42%. The expectation is around X and the miat likely is Z

NEW: Lynnwood, WA councilmember Isabel Mata: “To me, a pride flag is way more relatable than an American flag. I would not raise an American flag at my house because I wouldn't…I wasn't even born here. But I would raise a pride flag."

Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! facebook.com/DonaldTrump/po…

Unbelievable. Washington State Supreme Court has stripped the people of Washington State their people's veto by referendum. We now understand this a kangaroo court. The argument that the state income tax was an emergency doesn't hold any water. @AGOWA argued this was required because it was a revenue bill. But for 20 years, Washington lawmakers almost never used the referendum-blocking clause on tax bills. Then, in 2025, every single emergency-clause tax bill used it — and the practice carried into 2026. This is a sham. thereflector.com/stories/washin…

No one is more Right-wing than a blue-state conservative. Unless you've seen first hand, up close and personal, the damage that the far-Left is capable of causing, it's all theoretical. I spent the first 25 years of my life in Portland, Oregon. I have seen, with my own two eyes, the real world consequences of far-Left political ideology. Neighborhoods - destroyed. Crime rates - skyrocketing. Small businesses - gutted. Homeless population - through the roof. Illegal aliens - everywhere. Housing costs - stratospheric. Public parks and playgrounds - littered with used needles. Sidewalks - covered in graffiti and human feces. Your old friend from highschool - overdosed, dead. Take it as a warning from me -- we can NEVER let these people win.

@PrimmTime @garrytan Yeah I love this place! Want it to be amazing. I don’t personally understand why you guys keep voting for people who make it measurably worse in most all important metrics… but I’m hopeful there will be a tipping point and they will be forced to get their act together.

@Sammy8424 @garrytan Like every state WA has lots of problems but has consistently ranked top ten in states to live in over the last decade. I know very little about the state climate stuff, gas tax is certainly regressive tho so not a fan seattletimes.com/seattle-news/d…

I guess the Seattle SuperSonics aren't coming back after all. Washington’s proposed millionaire tax is already spooking the NBA. It’s just one part of a tax stack that would hit founders and small businesses harder than anywhere in America. garryslist.org/posts/washingt…

@PrimmTime @garrytan The climate scam is maybe our worst though. Disproportionately affect working-class households through elevated prices for gas, heating, and goods. No oversight. They reported 7.5 million tons of C02 reduction, until the right challenged it, and they said wait yeah, 78,000 😂

@PrimmTime @garrytan I just mean state. WA taxpayers fund billions, but most important things get measurably worse. Crime rates (personal, property). Education/K-12 test scores Housing affordability Student homelessness Chronic homelessness Climate measures Best part is you can only blame Dems.

@PrimmTime @garrytan Ultimately we have a fraud and spending problem. And it will run us into the ground. There’s almost no denying it at this point. So I truly believe this convo doesn’t matter at all. They will continue to waste no matter if it’s rich or poor people, and things will get worse.

@PrimmTime @garrytan This was a great piece. I’m assuming your disagreement is you just think this experiment is worth trying. Which is fair. Just know 11 states have tried it since 1960 and it hasn’t gone well But I hear you. I hope we can break that trend.

@PrimmTime @garrytan But talking to my democrat voting in laws and their friend group, it was eye opening, this definitely was the last straw. Millions leaving. Huge net negative. Even left wing rich people don’t like giving the giving the government 50% of their $.

@PrimmTime @garrytan Ultimately we were an attractive place to work/have a business for tax purposes. And now we are around the least attractive. We’ve been lucky to be propped up by Microsoft, Boeing, then Google/amazon etc. and we will see if that stays! It’s a fun experiment by the left.

@PrimmTime @garrytan I don’t know who said it would kill the economy. I know people who said prices would go up (they have), businesses would struggle (they have) & automate… Minimum wage has virtually nothing to do with GDP in a tech heavy state especially, so yeah whoever said that is not smart.

@Sammy8424 @garrytan With the increased minimum wage conservatives have said repeatedly it would kill the WA economy but clearly that didn’t happen

@PrimmTime @garrytan Read the sentence above, if you want to use that argument. Moving from high tax to low tax either way. And read the passage above, now it’s higher incomes leaving. You can’t be in complete denial of this. My liberal in-laws are leaving because of ours. It’s real.

@Sammy8424 @garrytan

@PrimmTime @garrytan Ouch… maybe your data was bad? This is terrible for the taxpayer. Sad.

@Sammy8424 @garrytan My man millionaire migration is a myth! Data shows the same in Massachusetts. Bigger problem is WA needs to stop being a donor state to poor red capitalist states. The top donor states are almost all blue states