Christopher Stone

@mweinbach Recharged from 80 to 350 miles for about $18 today!

I love having an EV, haven’t looked at gas prices in ages Apparently they’re high again

@ImBreckWorsham May I suggest that much if this was because Trump inherited Obama’s economy and mostly avoided unsettling it.

I miss the OLD crazy kind of Trump. Mean tweets. Low gas prices. Affordable real estate. My 401K soaring. No new wars. What happened to that guy?

@kofiarhin_jnr @elonmusk The point js ultimately to select a representative capable of exercising good judgment.

@elonmusk That’s the frustrating part, what’s the point of voting if the people we choose don’t actually listen to us? It starts to feel like our voices don’t really matter.

We don’t live in a democracy if our elected leaders fail to implement the will of the people

Perhaps re-read Burke’s speech to the electors of Bristol: “Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament. If the local constituent should have an interest, or should form an hasty opinion, evidently opposite to the real good of the rest of the community, the member for that place ought to be as far, as any other, from any endeavour to give it effect.” press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/docum…

@_fat_ugly_rat_ Because they enjoy being Supreme Court justices.

Genuinely kind of shocked neither Alito or Thomas have retired yet. Why gamble with dems winning the Senate this year when you could retire now in your mid 70s and have a 100% chance of getting another conservative replacement.

@PollTracker2024 Is anyone buying that for a New York minute? He’s assessing whether the war has made his candidacy unviable.

WaPo: JD Vance is in a bind, supporting a war that could cost him politically People close to JD Vance concede that a long conflict will be a challenge for the next GOP nominee but say the vice president hasn't made up his mind about running. washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/…

Let them eat cake!

This is a great point from @mattyglesias today - the weakest 2028 Dem nominees are ones that swing voters perceive as too far left, but the left hates anyways. You want a candidate that doesn't create internal strife, but still codes as moderate to swing voters.

@aziz0nomics Is this sarcasm?

Very few realised how much opening a new front in Iran would help Ukraine and Zelenskyy, by the way.

Janet Mills seems to be a (much) older version of the candidate the Dems picked in 2020, who looked good on paper but ultimately lost. If you think the past is prologue, that points towards Platner. Also, Gov. Mills has released one very tepid statement on the war in Iran. Otherwise, it's been crickets. Her campaign website does not even have an ISSUES section -- it seems to be a never-ending stream of announcements about diner visits, inside-baseball endorsements from minor elected officials, humblebrags about how many counties she's visited, and gender-based appeals to female voters and no one else. It's almost as if she is afraid of talking about the issues. This is one of the most hamfisted campaigns I've ever seen. I couldn't create better conditions for another loss to Susan Collins if I tried. Maybe Mills will fine-tune her campaign, but there's no sign of that yet. I am not (yet) endorsing Platner or saying I agree with him on everything. An attack on a billionaire here and there does not add up to policy -- if you want Medicare for All, that means big tax increases on the middle class, and Platner (like many politicians) fails to understand this point. But launching a war of choice to the tune of $200 billion changes everything.

@shannonrwatts Boy, the Democrats have a big problem. They are choosing a very problematic but charismatic?? candidate and are probably going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory once again. It’s so frustrating and truly discouraging.

If you believe calling women “fat broads” and “horse-faced lesbians” disqualifies you from being elected to office, then so should engaging in racist and bigoted tropes, blaming women for sexual assault, and having an anti-Semitic tattoo.

@shannonrwatts @LordDerek_ This kind of shaming is a great way to ensure that no normal, imperfect people ever decide to run for office. You'll never get anything other than curated, anodyne candidates who have been running for something since that elementary school student council race in third grade.

@LordDerek_ No one is without sin but that doesn’t mean everyone should get to be in the Senate.

@shannonrwatts If you wanted to create a coalition of moderates and progressives in support of Platner, I can't think of a better way to do it than this line of attack.

@AdamJSchwarz So the US is Tojo now?

Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi's reaction as Trump says "Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Habour?" Undoubtedly the worst American diplomatic gaffe in post-war US-Japan history.

Reporter: Why didn't you notify Japan that you were going to attack Iran? Trump next to the Japanese PM: "Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Habour? You believe in surprise I think much more so than us."

I also think you’re overstating the case for “cities not reliant on cars” outside of urban cores. Yes, you can take the tube everywhere in Zone 1, and maybe in Zone 2, in London for example. Further out, people have cars - not as many per capita as the US, but it’s not this carless liminal space that so many transit zealots pretend it is. I once tried to get to the Costco nearest to central London — in Wembley — by transit. It was, in short, Not Fun. It involved a long Underground ride, followed by a long walk around a lot of industrial-ish warehouses (as it turns out, you can take a bus in that warehouse neighborhood as well, which I did on the way back, but there was still a 15 minute wait involved, unlike in Central London). There was an enormous car park right next to the Costco, and that’s what people were using.

@TrueStoneCold @culdesac Which is why they built it next to a light rail stop, so people can go elsewhere. This is how cities not reliant on cars function.

7 years ago, we got laughed out of the room. Now, leaders from all over the country are visiting Culdesac Tempe asking, "How can I bring this to my city?"

…and if the light rail doesn’t go to all the places people need to go? Or if there’s no easy way to traverse the last mile between the light rail stop and your destination? Or if you’re lugging bulky items? Put differently, how do you use light rail to get to Costco? Or is your solution to force everyone into more expensive grocery stores, such as Whole Paycheck Foods? 1/

A quick Google Maps search reveals several parking garages nearby that offer monthly rates. It would be revealing to do a study of how many Culdesac Tempe residents rent a parking space in one of those adjacent garages. If it’s a common practice, that means: 1. The residents aren’t embracing a “car-free lifestyle” so much as a car-free lifestyle in certain limited contexts (drinking more at the pub if you don’t have to drive home, making quick grocery store runs, walking for exercise, maybe a shorter commute if you’re lucky enough to work at an office in the light rail line). They’rerecognizing the clear benefits of a car in other contexts. Costco is still going to be cheaper than that boutique grocery store, for instance. 2. It also means that Culdesac is externalizing an internality. In other words, its anti-car crusade is elevating demand for off-site parking, presumably increasing prices for non-Culdesac parking garage customers. The same is true of all those Waymos that Culdesac residents are using. The way to correct this distortion while maintaining the walkability is to build an underground parking garage. Shockingly, that’s a very common setup. I’ve lived in a high rise in Arlington and a complex on the Peninsula that looked a lot like this one but that offered underground parking.

@TheLobbyistGuy @ianbremmer The Lobbyist speaks

@ianbremmer I would happily pay $10/gallon if it ment a hasty end to the terrorist regime in Iran

$4+ average gas price coming to the united states imminently.

This is probably the most important article of the month: an op-ed by Oman's Foreign Minister, who mediated the talks between the U.S. and Iran, in which he writes that the U.S. "has lost control of its foreign policy" to Israel. He repeats that a deal was possible as an outcome of the talks (something confirmed by the UK's National Security Advisor, who also attended: x.com/i/status/20341…) and that the military strike by the U.S. and Israel was "a shock." Interestingly, given he is one of Iran's neighbors and given that Oman has been struck multiple times by Iran since the war began (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Iran…), he writes that "Iran’s retaliation against what it claims are American targets on the territory of its neighbours was an inevitable result" of the U.S.-Israeli attack. He describes it as "probably the only rational option available to the Iranian leadership." He says the war "endangers" the region's entire "economic model in which global sport, tourism, aviation and technology were to play an important role." He adds that "if this had not been anticipated by the architects of this war, that was surely a grave miscalculation." But, he adds, the "greatest miscalculation" of all for the U.S. "was allowing itself to be drawn into this war in the first place." In his view this was the doing of "Israel’s leadership" who "persuaded America that Iran had been so weakened by sanctions, internal divisions and the American-Israeli bombings of its nuclear sites last June, that an unconditional surrender would swiftly follow the initial assault and the assassination of the supreme leader." Obviously, this proved completely wrong, and the U.S. is now in a quagmire. He says that, given this, "America’s friends have a responsibility to tell the truth," which is that "there are two parties to this war who have nothing to gain from it," namely "Iran and America." He says that all of the U.S. interests in the region (end to nuclear proliferation, secure energy supply chains, investment opportunities) are "best achieved with Iran at peace." As he writes, "this is an uncomfortable truth to tell, because it involves indicating the extent to which America has lost control of its own foreign policy. But it must be told." He then proposes a couple of paths to get back to the negotiating table, although he recognizes how difficult it would be for Iran "to return to dialogue with an administration that twice switched abruptly from talks to bombing and assassination." That's perhaps the most profound damage Trump did during this entire episode: the complete discrediting of diplomacy. If Iran was taught anything, it is: don't negotiate with the U.S., it's a trap that will literally kill you. The great irony of the man who sold himself as a dealmaker is that he taught the world one thing: don't make deals with my country. Link to the article: economist.com/by-invitation/…

There are probably nearby parking garages that offer monthly rates and that are happy to become de facto parking providers for this development. Still, the problem of imposing externalities remains. Parking presumably becomes more expensive for parking garage users unaffiliated with Culdesac because of the increased demand. There is also the issue of scalability. The independent parking garages can probably cope with a single development for 250 residents, but that’s not replicable city-wide. There are plenty of high-end, walkable apartment communities in the Phoenix area that offer underground parking to residents.

@TrueStoneCold @culdesac This. Anyone who enjoys outdoor s hobbies would need parking so they could leave on their days off. Trades people who use work vehicles would be similarly affected. I wouldn’t mind living there if they had an option to buy or rent parking nearby.

"I mentioned I drink raw milk from a cow I know, on a farm I trust, raised the way food was raised for ten thousand years before a government agency decided you were too stupid to make that call yourself. " 1. Pathogens don't care that you're up-close-and-personal with the cow. 2. What was human life expectancy 10,000 years ago? 3. "Reckless" is not the opposite of "free."

I don't need your permission to choose what I eat. That's it. That's the post. But since some of you apparently need more — let me explain this real slow. I mentioned I drink raw milk from a cow I know, on a farm I trust, raised the way food was raised for ten thousand years before a government agency decided you were too stupid to make that call yourself. The response? "You're dangerous." "You're going to kill someone." "How dare you say that publicly." Let me be crystal clear about something: I don't care. Not because I'm reckless. Because I'm free. This is the same country where you can legally smoke cigarettes, drink yourself into liver failure, eat fast food three times a day, and wash it down with enough high-fructose corn syrup to dissolve a transmission. All of that is perfectly legal. None of that gets a public intervention. But I drink milk from a cow I've personally vetted — and I'm a menace to society. You know what's actually dangerous? The idea that adults need a federal agency to decide what they're allowed to put in their own body. That's the thing that should terrify you. I'm not asking you to drink raw milk. I'm not telling you it's right for you. I'm not dismissing that there are people — immunocompromised, pregnant, very young — for whom it's a legitimate consideration. I am a healthy adult. I did my research. I know my source. I made my choice. The moment we accept that the government gets to override that — for our own good, of course — we've handed over something we're not getting back. And it won't stop at milk. It never stops at milk. One commenter told me "anyone raised on a ranch would never drink raw milk." Interesting theory. Completely wrong. Farm families have been drinking it for generations. Their kids have lower rates of asthma and allergies than city kids. The Amish have allergy rates so low that a doctor who set up a free clinic near their community couldn't find patients. But sure — the people closest to the source are the most afraid of it. Makes perfect sense. Here's the thing about freedom: it only means something when it includes choices other people disagree with. Easy choices don't need protecting. Comfortable choices don't need defending. Freedom exists precisely for the moments when someone looks at what you're doing and says "you shouldn't be allowed to do that." That's when it counts. Drink your ultra-pasteurized, hormone-disrupted, inflammatory dairy-flavored beverage from a factory farm if you want. That's your right. I'll respect it. Respect mine.

The FDA has announced at least 7 people have contracted E. coli linked to cheddar cheese made from raw milk.