CoffeeGreg

@camhigby performance art.

I just got off the phone with the California Secretary of State’s office. It looks like the state is conducting preliminary work for an investigation. They seem very adomant about tracking down the individuals responsible for orchestrating the fraud ring, and taking them down.

@Sassafrass_84 yep. I just don't have the patience.

Just a psa: I actually owe a lot of my account success on social media because I was a reply guy. Posting on just my timeline alone a few years back didn't get results. So, I learned to be one of the first to reply on large accounts. It took time and dedication. Not many have that luxury. My first viral comment ever was on Elon Musks' post a few years back, and he was asking how to improve X. I said to get rid of the p*rn bots. I was sick of seeing them everywhere. Sure enough, they are gone for the most part. Not spamming my replies or others that I can seee. I think that comment alone was 44k likes and many reposts. Even though the reply guy isn't the "in" thing anymore... I still do it. This is how you get account exposure. Most will say it shouldn't be like that, but it works. People naturally gravitate towards my page. The followers came. If you build it, they will come.

@tjbate2000 @RobManess @CynicalPublius trade with who? who is in power and has the ability to execute?

@TheCoffeeGreg @RobManess @CynicalPublius I think we trade Kharg for the uranium.

“We’ve decided to share the ocean with Iran, we gave them the bottom half.” — Pete Hegseth.

@jenvanlaar @nickshirleyy @BillMelugin_ Love it. I look forward to that article as well.

@ProfMJCleveland They're pros at that...

@ChiefEngineerCE Same as voting.

The self evaluation and target review is not a waste of time but it is an excuse for your manager or HR to screw you out of incentives. Do them.

@CynicalPublius Reminds me of AI. Right up to the edge.

RE: Lawyerly Thoughts I have retired from the law and placed myself in “inactive status” in my two licensed jurisdictions. This finally gives me the freedom to share my unvarnished thoughts on the law and lawyers in a way I have been unable to do so before. I’m thinking of writing a series of lawyerly musings posts that I can later combine into a full length article. This is the first one. I believe I have a unique perspective on the law, having completed a successful military career before I stepped into law school. This meant that I was not wide-eyed and bushy-tailed in law school like most of my full time program (much younger) peers, and my earlier perspectives as a military decision maker made me cautious about some principles that I questioned as potentially being flawed or dangerous. So let’s talk about one: “EVERY CLIENT IS ENTITLED TO ZEALOUS LEGAL REPRESENTATION.” This is a bedrock concept of the practice of law, and one that lawyers are justifiably proud of as it is an essential component of equal justice under the law. But it has its flaws in the modern era. I remember one summer in law school I was an intern in a public defender’s office. One of our cases was a mass rapist who had been terrorizing women in local parks. This guy had blackish eyes that glowed with a sort of deep evil that seemed to come straight from the pits of Hell—it was like out of a horror film. He was as guilty as guilty could be, but we were trying to get him off on a claim of a bad search and seizure of some critical evidence. We were zealously representing a deranged rapist. The guy needed to be locked away for eternity, but we were trying to get him off. I know most lawyers are comfortable with that and consider it righteous, but for me it was the event that convinced me that I wanted nothing to do with criminal law. But that’s small potatoes to what I think is the bigger, profession-wide problem of “zealous representation.” Whether you are a litigator or a corporate lawyer (like I was), “zealous representation” means taking the facts at hand and interpreting them in the way most favorable to your client. I have found that “most favorable” means taking facts and pushing them in a client-favorable way right up to the edge of the line of lying, but not crossing it. You’re not lying, but are you really telling the objective truth? Over time that thought process of twisting facts away from what most reasonable laymen would consider as “true” changes a lawyer’s brain patterns. If you do this enough, you might stop being able to do anything else. Your brain changes, and not in a good way. I often found myself lapsing into this, but thankfully there remained a little portion of my brain that was still an Army colonel, and I think that little voice held me back. What ends up happening to too many lawyers is that every moment of their lives starts to consist of looking for angles to twist whatever facts are at hand into the manner most favorable to them. That’s a slippery slope. That’s why words like “oily” and “sleazy” are so popular when describing lawyers, and why jokes that involve lawyers at the bottom of the ocean as shark food are so popular. The problem is that as long as you never step right over the line into lying, none of this is against legal ethics. I’m not sure how to fix this exactly. Perhaps continuing legal education needs to focus on the limits of “zealous representation.” Or perhaps every lawyer needs to be on watch to not lose their soul. There are so many excellent lawyers that none of this applies to, but there are just as many who have no problem going into total sleaze-mode to win for their client. But then everything they do in life becomes sleaze-mode, and they harm themselves, their families and society as a result. It’s a large-scale problem. Think of this: “It depends of what the meaning of “is” is.” -Slick Willard

@lamps_apple Maybe the US could do its own Belt and Road thing. It would only cost a few Learing Centers.

China invested over $120 billion in state loans to Latin America since 2005. Venezuela alone received nearly $60 billion. Total Chinese infrastructure projects across the region hit $130 billion through 294 projects. Annual China-LAC trade reached $518 billion in 2024. Huawei and ZTE built the surveillance backbone. CSIS identified four Chinese SIGINT sites in Cuba. The White House confirmed Chinese spy bases on the island. This was decades of strategic investment. This CSIS paper was published December 18, 2025. It outlines China's comprehensive strategy to expand that influence further... Belt and Road infrastructure, Beidou satellite systems, space cooperation, military diplomacy, energy investments, critical minerals access, and building an alternative world order that marginalizes U.S. influence. CSIS concluded that "great power competition in the region has only just begun." Sixteen days later, Trump captured Maduro. China's Latin America strategy was anchored by two pillars... Venezuela and Cuba. Venezuela was the western anchor of Chinese energy penetration... shadow fleet oil settled in yuan, ZTE building the Fatherland Card surveillance system to track voting patterns and ration food for 18 million citizens, Chinese companies embedded across oil and mining. Cuba was the intelligence platform... CSIS itself identified four Chinese signals intelligence sites on the island in its "Secret Signals" report, the White House confirmed Chinese spy bases in Cuba, and CSIS notes China has "more space infrastructure in LAC than anywhere else in the world outside of mainland China," with Huawei and ZTE forming the backbone of Cuba's telecommunications infrastructure. Both pillars are now gone. Venezuela's interim government is cooperating with Washington. On January 29, 2026... the same day the Trilateral Pact was signed... OFAC issued General License 46, which explicitly prohibits transactions involving persons located in or entities organized under the laws of Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, or China. That prohibition was extended and reinforced through six additional general licenses issued through March. The shadow pipeline that settled in yuan is dead by operation of law. Cuba is collapsing without Venezuelan oil subsidies... the $60 billion Chinese investment lifeline that kept the island functioning is severed at the source. The CSIS paper warns about China expanding "high-tech cooperation in information technology, AI, aviation and aerospace, new energy, new materials, biomedicine and integrated circuits." Venezuela's Orinoco Mining Arc... coltan, rare earths, bauxite, lithium, tin, gold... now sits under a government cooperating with Washington, with OFAC licenses explicitly blocking Chinese and Russian entities from participating in any oil, gas, petrochemical, electricity, or mining activity. The paper warns about China countering the "Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine" through "grievance-based unity" in the region. That grievance coalition just watched its two strongest members fall in weeks without China lifting a finger to help either of them. $120 billion in loans. $130 billion in infrastructure. Four spy bases. A surveillance state built by ZTE. All of it... anchored by two countries that no longer answer to Beijing. What country in Latin America looks at Venezuela and Cuba and thinks "China will protect me"?

@BaldingsWorld Many of them can't leave their area.

Fun fact: Approximately 60% of global population live in D+E

@data_republican Tell us more about how your pineapple is doing. My wife planted the cut top of ours.

@data_republican I don't have this. It's who you read, follow, and interact with.

Sometimes it's hard for me to scroll down through my For You tab. There seems to be an inordinate amount of suffering, loved ones near death, terminal cancer, kids dying, etc. I'm wondering if I'm seeing so many of these posts because I always try to pray and leave a little comment or emoji. Has anyone else noticed this? I want to pray for everyone, of course, but it's very sad sometimes.

4/4 Perpetual Fiscal Crisis as Leverage Tool California’s budget is structurally volatile because the top 1% (just ~176,000 filers) pays ~39–50% of PIT, heavily tied to capital gains. Past tax hikes like Prop 30 (2012) delivered only 40–55% of projected revenue long-term—Hoover documented a 42–48% spike in top-earner out-migration and 45–60% erosion of expected gains via flight plus income reduction by stayers. This tax repeats the cycle: short-term cash amid “federal cuts emergency,” then deeper deficits justifying future grabs (extensions, new levies). Proponents know the mobility risks (Newsom explicitly warns of tax-base flight), yet proceed—creating self-perpetuating shortfalls that empower “crisis” spending without spending restraint.

3/4 Voter-Base Realignment for Entrenched One-Party Rule Accelerating high-earner exodus thins the donor/counterweight class that funds opposition (e.g., billionaires already shifting ~$1T+ assets pre-ballot to Texas/Florida; Google founders reducing California footprint). IRS and Franchise Tax Board data show ongoing net losses of affluent households and $102B+ in AGI migrating out (2020–2022 alone), with spikes after prior hikes. Meanwhile, expanded dependency programs (healthcare, food assistance) swell the electorate reliant on state largesse. California’s top 1% already funds 37–50% of personal income taxes; their flight leaves a more uniformly progressive, program-dependent base—reinforcing the supermajority without needing broad reforms. Post-Prop 30 (2012) patterns preview this: migration rose, yet progressive policies entrenched further.

What if the powers in California want to force people out with laws and taxes? A chat with Grok. 1/4 Under the assumption that proponents (led by SEIU-UHW) foresee and accept wealthy exodus as a feature, the strongest, evidence-backed alternative motives—winnowed from speculation—are these three, supported by historical patterns, migration data, revenue volatility stats, and the union’s own track record:

@bennash I want a "sent while on the can" tag.

Where’s the “Made with Computer” tag? How am I supposed to know what’s real unless you label it for my caveman brain?

Company hiring illegals (call ICE) If you know your company is hiring illegals - report it. You see the cash-under-table deals, the fake papers, the guys who never show a green card or E-Verify. You watch American workers get passed over while the shop fills with unauthorized labor that undercuts wages and skips payroll taxes. You know at some point- they have someone that will work for less than you do... its only a matter of time. This is illegal employment, plain and simple. Call ICE anonymously and give them the facts: company name, location, shift times, how many, what you observed. ICE Tip Line: 866-347-2423 (24/7) Online form: ice.gov/webform/ice-ti… Whistleblowers are protected by law when you report documented violations. You don't have to play detective. Just pass what you see. Bookmark this. Follow for more Illegal Monday.

Florida just passed its own version of the SAVE Act, requiring proof of citizenship to register and tighter checks on who’s on the rolls. They took what the SAVE Act was supposed to do and built a state solution that would be federally compliant with SAVE, yet keeps control in Florida’s hands. For all those saying it’s “impossible,” “anti-voter,” or “too messy” to implement, Florida now offers a roadmap. thehill.com/homenews/state…