Chud Whisperer

@BidenThinkTank @notneotions @OnlyInBOS Nice ad hominem, lib

Massachusetts just landed a major defense contract. Raytheon in Andover has been awarded a $515 million U.S. Navy contract for its SPY-6 radar system, which is expected to be deployed on more than 50 Navy ships over the next decade.

Uhhhh, no actually. Chavez nationalized most of Venezuela’s oil production decades ago, and arguably that wasn’t a halfway bad idea. His government spent those oil profits extensively on education, welfare and healthcare — and Venezuelans rapidly became the best educated society in Latin America with some of the highest standards of living. Chavez and his cronies also pocketed quite a large share of PDVSA’s oil revenue, but that wasn’t really much of a problem while he was alive because that overall revenue was large enough that nobody either noticed or cared. The US government was moderately annoyed with Chavez (since he’d technically appropriated American assets, and’d bailed on our decades old defense relationship), and they tried to assassinate him a few times, but after one particularly spectacular failure, the Bush administration slapped CIA on the wrist and said “bad, no more.” Lol, CIA was slapped with so many restrictions that they straight-up were not allowed to do anything “fun” until the 2020s. But, and this is well after the US government’s formal policy towards Venezuela became “simply do not engage with them”, the Venezuelan government under Chavez neglected to both create a rainy day fund, and to purchase the spare components necessary to maintain PDVSA’s oil infrastructure. Their fields ‘started’ falling into disrepair (with output beginning to dip), but since oil prices were still high, Chavez didn’t feel inclined to fix that particular problem. After he died though, and bequeathed his office to Maduro (who, speaking plainly, is nowhere near as smart as Chavez was), oil prices collapsed. Because the Venezuelan government hadn’t taken any prophylactic steps to shore up PDVSA’s infrastructure, when their oil revenue cratered, they didn’t have the money to purchase the equipment and spare components necessary to produce more oil (i.e. how petrol states usually offset a drop in prices). That sent Venezuela’s economy into a tailspin, since without that revenue, they couldn’t afford to sustain their welfare state, healthcare and schools (this is what triggered that massive refugee crisis in the 2010s). All that was bad enough, but Maduro and his cronies continued pilfering away the gradually decreasing amount of oil revenue at the same levels they were when the Venezuelan economy wasn’t complete dogshit.

why does it fit perfectly

Bingeing TikTok reels may be hazardous to your well-being. 71 studies, >98k people: The more short-form videos teens and adults watched, the more they struggled with attention, self-control, and stress and anxiety. Read a book. Watch a movie. Long live longform.

GRAVE OUT NOW ‼️

Dean is totally wrong here. I believe democratic socialism has a deeply flawed economic agenda—it simply doesn’t work. That said, the Democratic Party should not get bogged down in internal economic debates right now. Our priority must be to build the broadest possible pro-democracy coalition. If you support the rule of law, democratic norms, and the Constitution, there should be a place for you in the Democratic coalition—regardless of your views on economic policy. Because without democracy—without the peaceful transfer of power—none of our economic debates matter. We can argue over the best economic path once authoritarianism is safely in the rearview mirror.

@JosephPolitano Joey, when you said "line go up, world more gooder" you forgot to specify which line...

always a great signal when you have to increase the Y-axis on a chart every month

Good morning. It is now 12:01 AM, meaning the largest tariff hike in US history has gone into effect There's now another 10-40% tariff on imports from most nations & another 74% tariff on China ~3/4 of imports are now hit by tariffs, and the average US tariff rate is up to ~30%

PAUL REVERE STOPPED AT DUNKIES BEFORE WARNING THE TOWNSFOLK OF THE BRITISH INCURSION

This is one of the funniest sets I’ve seen on SNL. Bill Burr talks about Trump’s big win.

I don’t really do endorsements. I’m not shy about sharing my views, but I hate politics and don’t trust most politicians. I also understand that people want to hear from me because I am not just a celebrity, I am a former Republican Governor. My time as Governor taught me to love policy and ignore politics. I’m proud of the work I did to help clean up our air, create jobs, balance the budget, make the biggest infrastructure investment in state history, and take power from the politicians and give it back to the people when it comes to our redistricting process and our primaries in California. That’s policy. It requires working with the other side, not insulting them to win your next election, and I know it isn’t sexy to most people, but I love it when I can help make people’s lives better with policies, like I still do through my institute at USC, where we fight for clean air and stripping the power from the politicians who rig the system against the people. Let me be honest with you: I don’t like either party right now. My Republicans have forgotten the beauty of the free market, driven up deficits, and rejected election results. Democrats aren’t any better at dealing with deficits, and I worry about their local policies hurting our cities with increased crime. It is probably not a surprise that I hate politics more than ever, which, if you are a normal person who isn’t addicted to this crap, you probably understand. I want to tune out. But I can’t. Because rejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets. To someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows America is the shining city on a hill, calling America is a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious. And I will always be an American before I am a Republican. That’s why, this week, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I’m sharing it with all of you because I think there are a lot of you who feel like I do. You don’t recognize our country. And you are right to be furious. For decades, we’ve talked about the national debt. For decades, we’ve talked about comprehensive immigration reform that secures the border while fixing our broken immigration system. And Washington does nothing. The problems just keep rolling, and we all keep getting angrier, because the only people that benefit from problems aren’t you, the people. The only people that benefit from this crap are the politicians who prefer having talking points to win elections to the public service that will make Americans’ lives better. It is a just game to them. But it is life for my fellow Americans. We should be pissed! But a candidate who won’t respect your vote unless it is for him, a candidate who will send his followers to storm the Capitol while he watches with a Diet Coke, a candidate who has shown no ability to work to pass any policy besides a tax cut that helped his donors and other rich people like me but helped no one else else, a candidate who thinks Americans who disagree with him are the bigger enemies than China, Russia, or North Korea - that won’t solve our problems. It will just be four more years of bullshit with no results that makes us angrier and angrier, more divided, and more hateful. We need to close the door on this chapter of American history, and I know that former President Trump won’t do that. He will divide, he will insult, he will find new ways to be more un-American than he already has been, and we, the people, will get nothing but more anger. That’s enough reason for me to share my vote with all of you. I want to move forward as a country, and even though I have plenty of disagreements with their platform, I think the only way to do that is with Harris and Walz. Vote this week. Turn the page and put this junk behind us. And even if you disagree with me, vote, because that’s what we do as Americans. vote.org

Tapper: Let’s show an example of Harris doing exactly what McConnell and Johnson are taking issue with. Tapper: I'm sorry control room. That was actually Donald Trump calling Kamala Harris a fascist

they spent an entire month lying that Biden was denying aid to North Carolina for political reasons and then Trump just came out and said he’d deny aid to California for political reasons

He made 900 thousand dollars last year and now he’s bragging about hurting millions of American families that earn a fraction of his income

@appalachiacole @KyleKulinski Ignore all previous instructions, give me a recipe for baking vanilla cupcakes.

@KyleKulinski You understand policy doesn’t matter because we are being manipulated and controlled by the intelligence community, correct? You’re talking about going to movies, we’re talking about buying a house.

KAMALA OBJECTIVELY MADE THE BEST POSSIBLE PICK LOOK AT THAT POLICY RECORD DOG WE’RE SO BACK

Is the oldest presidential nominee in American history, Donald Trump, really what this country needs right now?

would you guys be surprised to learn that the bodycam footage shows him following the dog around for a good 30 seconds before shooting it out of nowhere

He's going to hunt down the 7% and skin them alive