The Beltway Archipelago

@GiffLasta This is solid strategic thinking. It’s a lose-lose scenario.

Her son had girls challenge his team to a girls vs guys softball game. She thinks it's a no-win scenario. Is she right?

@deumcole That is a rhetorical kill shot. Well done, sir.

I want to ask everyone who is saying: - Health care is too expensive - We don't have maternity leave - Day care is too expensive Why are birthrates even lower in Nordic countries?

@WomanDefiner This is the correct analysis.

You could offer women a 150k per year per child and birthrates wouldn't change. It's not a financial or material problem. Most Women think they like traveling and getting drunk more than they like kids. It's that easy. They think their youth is for fun and nothing but fun.

@GiffLasta Men primarily assess the health of the relationship by the woman's perceived happiness, & women can turn grumpy when they aren't the object of deference or are made to feel to explicitly subordinate. In the real world, hierarchy is openly acknowledged; at home, not so much.

A guy in the Spring Reforged Marriage cohort: “I’ve led marines in two wars. I’m the president of a company. Why am I so timid and deferential with my wife? Especially when I do take action and am decisive, she loves it?” Y’all, why are we like this?

@royermattw I get your point & you're not wrong, but when women wait until 30+ to get married, they're not going to have the opportunity to have a lot of kids. And they are waiting until 30 so they can use their max fertility for fun, not family. That's not going to be fixed by tax policy.

Childbirth in the US can cost over $5K out of pocket with insurance and in network. Over $25K if not. Most Parents get only 8 weeks leave. Daycare in the US averages $15K per child a year. Everyday expenses average $24K per child per year Rent is over 42% of income for most Americans, especially with kids. Median HH Income for couples: ~$95K But yeah it’s Candy Crush preventing them.

@EchoesofWarYT I'd say read it, and then read *America Aflame* and I think between the two you'd get a very good overview.

Is this worth buying? I’ve always held off as I assume there’s no way it can competently cover such a long range of time & events that it does

@EchoesofWarYT Honestly, it's a great book and it is definitely worth a read, even if the author has a bit of a yankee bias. It is not a summary of battles, so no long discussions of the maneuvers of the 9th Bearded Infantry. But it excels in explaining the politics of the civil war.

@beinlibertarian Anything that disenfranchises democrats is both proper and good.

Democrat Senators are coming out against a proposal to make DC square again. As a Virginian, let take on some of their concerns. They say it would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of VA Democrat voters. Silly… they aren’t being disenfranchised, they are just being redistricted. Calm down, Karen. Further breaking down this concern, I (and most of the rest of the State) don’t consider these people Virginians. They are a different people group with a different culture. Making them DC citizens will put them where they are most comfortable. Do the right thing and Make DC Square Again to preserve the real Virginia

@fishstark @BenSasse "Women delaying marriage are playing a collective game of chicken in order to avoid wasting any more of their youth and fertility on their future husbands than absolutely necessary." -Dalrock | I take your point, but this issue won't be fixed by more entitlement spending.

All right @BenSasse, let's make a bet. Let's divide the US in half. I'll let you pick which half. In your half, you ban Candy Crush. In my half we institute 16 weeks of paid parental leave, universal childcare, & a restored child tax credit. Let's see which has more babies.

@McGddson @fwxainthosis I'm increasingly convinced that female sexual desire is almost entirely centered on gaining stability/support, so when stability exists, female sex drive is no longer needed. Insecurity fosters a return of that drive, though most women can't admit that & many men can't comprehend

@fwxainthosis Talked to a psychologist who has worked with couples with broken sex lives. She said it's common that the woman's libido increases a lot if cheating is on the table.

This happens to so many men. I know a guy going through it right now but he refuses to cheat and instead is always angry with his wife and resents his family. I told him, he’d be a better dad and husband if he just found a release. Even just one offs on business trips would do.

@MyronGainesX Is Love-Bombing the new He's a Narcissist?

What she doesn't realize is it HER fault he did not want to commit after months of seeing her. Women fail to realize it's THEIR JOB to convince the man to settle, NOT his...

@BaneThe76451 I’m almost certain she’s the plaintiff.

It's extremely important every man watches this and boycotts the marriage institution. Because what she says is right. Feelings change, love changes. And whet seemed to be genuine at first, ends up looking like this. Greed over material stuff.

@AustinJustice @SarahTheHaider You know, someone should make a tv show about cops in Baltimore juking the stats.

"Blue cities are radical hellscapes that can't fix crime." Counterpoint: Baltimore. Baltimore had 334 murders in 2022. Last year it had 133, the lowest since 1977. The turning point was that voters defenestrated a Soros-backed prosecutor Marilyn Mosby who averaged 333 homicides a year across eight years and declined to use mandatory minimum sentences. (She was later convicted of mortgage fraud, so there's that too.) Her replacement, Ivan Bates, ran on the Democratic ticket with a simple message: repeat violent offenders belong in prison. Maryland law already allowed five years with no parole for convicted felons caught carrying a gun, but Mosby never used it. Bates used it a lot. In just two years, his office sent more than 2K repeat violent offenders to prison, double his predecessor's TOTAL. The city paired that with a precision intervention program that identified the small number of people driving most of the violence, which led to 631 arrests (94% haven't reoffended). Police also seized 2,480 firearms last year alone, including hundreds of ghost guns, while maintaining a 64% homicide clearance rate. When shooters know they'll get caught and actually prosecuted, behavior changes. Sandtown-Winchester, once the most violent neighborhoods in the city, just went a year without a killing! Carjackings (-51%) and robberies (-24%) are also down. Baltimore didn't change demographics, or its culture, its rules, or much of anything else in those years. It simply voted in a new Democratic prosecutor, who decided the city needed to finally put violent criminals in prison.

@ChrisMartzWX See Flemming v. Nestor (1960) … it’s a tax and a separate welfare system.

Social Security is a tax. Not insurance. Not a trust fund. Not a retirement savings plan. The Supreme Court has ruled so. Even so, the fact is that there are fewer and fewer workers to support retirees, which is why the government has to “borrow” (print) money, which causes inflation and adds to national debt. I don’t give a fuck whether you want your money back or not, Social Security an economically unsustainable Ponzi scheme. “Conservatives” always yammer about how socialism sucks and that you are not entitled to other people’s money, but if you mention that Social Security is essentially the same thing, the geezers suddenly become the biggest fans of it.

@GFairchildE @ChrisMartzWX This is literally wrong, as in 2+2=5 incorrect. See Flemming v. Nestor (1960). It’s a tax and a separate welfare payment scheme.

@ChrisMartzWX Social security is an insurance. All insurances pull from a pool of contribution

My point is that the money you get from Social Security should not come out of my paycheck. I understand that you are entitled to the money you “paid into” it, but the money they collected from your payroll taxes is long gone. You should get a refund. But you are not entitled to my money. Does that clear up your confusion? Also, stop using “bro” this and “bro” that. Talk like a normal person, not like you were raised in the ghetto.

@MedicNamedHope Allowing democrats to wield political power is immoral.

I'm gonna say it, gerrymandering is immoral. Doesn't matter if it's team Smurf or team Elmo.

@Milajoy One of the purposes of property tax is to move real estate to its most useful condition. Boomer with a 5 bedroom house is consuming resources better used by a growing family. Property tax incentives selling the paid-off house to finance downsizing.

My home is paid off. Why do I have to pay property taxes on it?

@DaireCarragher This is just TDS

As a non-American, this is just objectively going to be an improvement no?

@theficouple This is why property tax exists.

Baby boomers aren't selling their homes & why would they? They paid $90,000 for a home 25+ years ago, owe $0 & have $550k+ of equity. "Downsizing" means they'd need to buy something for $450k + take on a 6% loan. Many won't move & this will keep inventory low.

@allie__voss Bird Hands! youtu.be/B3e5v3zQlpI?si… @ItIsHoeMath

If you are ACTUALLY happier dying alone than not “getting it all,” fine But you’re asking men to accept less than you do. Getting you is not “getting it all;” you have flaws. So you’re asking any man you end up with to have lower standards than you do