Glen Osmond

The arguments about Iran are so polarised that no one wants to admit that several things are true at once: You'd be a fool not to have serious reservations about the idea of a regime change war, especially in the Middle East. You'd also be a fool to allow terrorist-funding lunatics to develop nuclear weapons. Neither the people condemning these strikes, nor the people cheering them on know how this is going to work out. So far, Trump Administration interventions have been extraordinarily successful in achieving valid objectives within a highly limited scope. The strikes on Iran during the 12 day war achieved destruction of several nuclear facilities. The Venezuela operation decapitated the hostile regime and replaced Maduro with a non-hostile leader. Both also achieved significant "don't fuck with us" deterrence globally. However, it is not remotely clear at this moment in time whether something similar can be achieved in Iran. I understand and fully empathise with the people who think regime change is not going to work in Iran and you'll end up with the same as what you had or worse. And I understand just as much the people who celebrate an evil dictator being killed and Iran's nuclear and military assets being degraded further. The thing we do not know, and the thing that will determine whether this has all been worth it, is what the future leadership of Iran will look like. This seems to me to be the biggest risk Donald Trump has taken at any time in his first or second term. If it pays off, the reward both domestically and globally will be huge. If it doesn't and things go south, it could derail his Presidency and define his legacy like Iraq did for Blair and Bush. Very few people have any idea which of these scenarios is more likely and one thing is for sure: none of them are talking about it on social media because they're all sitting in command bunkers, not on X. I hope the people of Iran are released from living under tyranny. I hope the peoples of the Middle East can live in peace. I hope the takeaway for any would-be terrorist is the realisation that October 7 might not have been such a good idea. I hope that with the Middle East stabilised, the US can turn its attentions to the theatres that really matters to the security of the West: Russia and China. Whether any of that happens remains to be seen and it seems the hardest thing for anyone to do is to not express an opinion before the smoke has cleared.

@compliantvc @drewfallon12 You’re using a yellow pad to track your investments?

@drewfallon12 Trusting a computer with sensitive financial information? My head is spinning thinking of all the privacy laws this violates

Introducing Fin: The world’s first AI Chief Financial Officer. Fin outperforms humans 100% of the time. RT + Comment “FIN” and I’ll send you an AI agent that saves 6-7 figures/year.

@TuckerCNews Can’t happen soon enough. Who even thinks they’re real ads? They’re cover for payments to networks to keep the good coverage coming wink wink.

BREAKING 🅱️ RFK Jr is preparing to ban Pharmaceutical Ads on TV.. Thoughts?

@elonmusk @DOGE @USTreasury Thank you

To be clear, what the @DOGE team and @USTreasury have jointly agreed makes sense is the following: - Require that all outgoing government payments have a payment categorization code, which is necessary in order to pass financial audits. This is frequently left blank, making audits almost impossible. - All payments must also include a rationale for the payment in the comment field, which is currently left blank. Importantly, we are not yet applying ANY judgment to this rationale, but simply requiring that SOME attempt be made to explain the payment more than NOTHING! - The DO-NOT-PAY list of entities known to be fraudulent or people who are dead or are probable fronts for terrorist organizations or do not match Congressional appropriations must actually be implemented and not ignored. Also, it can currently take up to a year to get on this list, which is far too long. This list should be updated at least weekly, if not daily. The above super obvious and necessary changes are being implemented by existing, long-time career government employees, not anyone from @DOGE. It is ridiculous that these changes didn’t exist already! Yesterday, I was told that there are currently over $100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious. When I asked if anyone at Treasury had a rough guess for what percentage of that number is unequivocal and obvious fraud, the consensus in the room was about half, so $50B/year or $1B/week!! This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately.

Donald Trump was elected by Americans to defend the interests of Americans. The question we, as Europeans, must ask ourselves is, are we ready to defend the interests of Europeans?

For my British and European friends who are "shocked" and "surprised", here are 10 reasons you didn't see this coming. Read this short post and then read the replies from our American friends who will confirm what I'm saying. 1. Americans love their country and want it to be the best in the world. America is a nation of people who conquered a continent. They love strength. They love winning. Any leader who appeals to that has an automatic advantage. 2. Unlike Europeans, Americans have not accepted managed decline. They don't have Net Zero here, they believe in producing their own energy and making it as cheap as possible because they know that their prosperity depends on it. 3. Prices for most basic goods in the US have increased rapidly and are sky high. What the official statistics say about inflation and the reality of people's lives are not the same. 4. Unlike you, Americans do not believe in socialism. They believe in meritocracy. They don't care about the super rich being super rich because they know that they live in a country where being super rich is available to anyone with the talent and drive to make it. They don't resent success, they celebrate it. 5. Americans are the most pro-immigration people in the world. Read that again. Seriously, read it again. Americans love an immigrant success story. They want more talented immigrants to come to America. But they refuse to accept people coming illegally. They believe in having a border. 6. Americans are sensitive about racial issues and their country's imperfect history. They believe that those who are disadvantaged by the circumstances of their birth should be given the opportunity to succeed. What they reject, however, is the idea that in order to address the errors of the past new errors must be made. DEI is racist. They know it and they reject it precisely because they are not racist. 7. Americans are the most philosemitic nation on earth. October 7 and the pro-Hamas left's reaction shocked them to their very core because, among other things, they remember what 9/11 was like and they know jihad when they see it. 8. Americans are extremely practical people. They care about what works, not what sounds good. In Europe, we produce great writers and intellectuals. In America they produce (and attract) great engineers, businessmen and investors. Because of this, they care less about Trump's rhetoric than you do and more about his policies than you do. 9. Americans are deeply optimistic people. They hate negativity. The woke view of American history as a series of evils for which they must eternally apologise is utterly abhorrent to them. They believe in moving forward together, not endlessly obsessing about the past. 10. America is a country whose founding story is one of resistance to government overreach. They loathe unnecessary restrictions, regulations and control. They understand that freedom comes with the price of self-reliance and they pay it gladly.

@MrMonies28 Tell me how she doesn’t get her own shoe.

@Barrieshepley Germany should be sending Knibb a thank you card for that generous bike tow.

German Laura Lindermann was my pick for the win 1/2 through the bike course. USA's Taylor Knibb was the game changer by pulling Laura up to Beth Potter and turning it into a 3 woman run for the medals. Laura was brilliant stocking Taylor till the final gold sprint. A+ racing

@Tratnikstan With Pog pulling at the front down the stretch, wondered if anyone else was also thinking this same thing

Pogačar after Narvaez beat him on stage 1 of the Giro

Peak Pogacar. Will take a photo with a fan, but first correctly advises them to not lean the frame against a stone wall...he's right! It's a visceral thing, painful to observe, like nails on blackboard....

The @New_Pal_Golf team is STATE BOUND after finishing in the top three in today's regional at Edgewood GC in Anderson. The Dragons will be one of 18 teams competing in the State Finals Sept. 29-30 at Prairie Vew GC in Carmel.

i will never again eat a danish unless sepp wins

Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz was a Polish pole vaulter who competed during the 1970s and 1980s. His most famous moment came during the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. In the final, Kozakiewicz was competing against the heavily favored Soviet athlete, Konstantin Volkov, in front of a hostile home crowd. When Kozakiewicz cleared a height of 5.78 meters (18.9 ft), breaking the Olympic record, the Soviet crowd responded with boos and jeers. In response to the hostile atmosphere, Kozakiewicz raised his arm with a rude gesture known as the "Kozakiewicz gesture" towards the crowd. This gesture was seen as a defiant and bold response to the unsportsmanlike behavior of the crowd. His gesture further fueled the tension and made him even more of a hero in Poland, while at the same time making him a target for criticism from the Soviet media and officials. After the Olympics, the Soviet ambassador to Poland demanded that Kozakiewicz be stripped of his medal over his "insult to the Soviet people". The official response of the Polish government was that the gesture had been an involuntary muscle spasm caused by his exertion.

@TWiStartups @msft4startups @Azure @github @OpenAI My application is in. Thanks for the constant flow of podcasts and insights into investing trends. Particularly enjoy any AI market revelations.

the @msft4startups Founders Hub provides SIX FIGURES in benefits, including: - up to $150K in @Azure credits - free access to @github's enterprise tier - free @openai credits - and more open to all, no funding required: aka.ms/thisweekinstar…

the ultimate goal of startup design: "solve someone's problem in an enjoyable way." creating a beautiful design BY ITSELF is just art your designs need to serve a purpose! simple, impactful, dynamic @scott_bair from @lunourstudio breaks it down:

The fact that we lifted a pregnant woman robed in red high above our chief religious festival and the aliens didn’t come and take her suggests it’s probably just Chinese drones after all.

Vowing to bridge the GOP divide, freshman New York congressman George Santos says he’s been Speaker of the House before and is ready to step into that role again

About Respecting IRONMAN’s History slowtwitch.com/Opinion/About_… via @slowtwitch

USA fans chanting “It’s called soccer” ahead of #USAvsENG 😂 (via @GregBishopSI, @SInow)

Every day kids are asked to not give up and to keep trying at school. I just wanted to let the Education Secretary, @GillianKeegan, know that I won’t give up until every kid who needs it has access to a free school meal. #FeedTheFuture

@kausmickey Side question @kausmickey, are you starting a go fund me so when can get you your coveted blue check? Best, concerned parrot room follower

P.S.: What if Musk published a non-vague list of limits in each of the key categories:1) These are the fighting words you can't use--like the FCC's famous 7 dirty words; 2) This is the high bar for "provably false" and how we'll implement it; 3) just drop the "hate speech" ban.??

This by @DavidSacks seems like the beginning of progress on the content moderation problem. Would only ban speech unprotected by the 1st Amendment, but there's some trickiness ... 1/ link.medium.com/5sykMDVPzub