often uncommon 🏴‍☠️

I believe in American exceptionalism. The founding ideals of the USA are worth lifting up and aspiring to, regardless if we ever truly achieve them. We can claim the ideals and constantly work to reach them. Where we fall short should not be the focus. soundjudgments.com/p/where-i-stand

Photo 1: A man that claims he’s fighting the Oligarchy. Photo 2: A man that’s the Oligarchy.

Anyone who has traveled internationally knows that the most racist place in the world is not in the United States

Fascism is when some houses have a flag.

The same people who support endless regulations and strict enforcement for legal businesses somehow have no problem with a tent restaurant opening on a public sidewalk regulation free. Here’s a short list of why that’s a problem. 1. Health Inspections. When you have a business in LA you have to pay for the proper health and food safety certifications and pass inspection repeatedly, often times at random. You can be shut down and lose everything if you do not comply and meet the standard. This includes proper sinks and sanitation of every corner, these tents don’t even have a sink to clean anything. 2. Lawsuits. You can be sued into oblivion by scumbag attorneys because the toilet paper roll in the bathroom wasn’t the proper height for a wheelchair customer they sent in to hit you with a lawsuit. Permits and Licensing. Legal businesses have to pay thousands in permits, licensing fees, zoning approvals, signage approvals, fire inspections, and endless bureaucratic hoops before they can even open their doors. 3. Taxes. Legitimate businesses pay sales tax, payroll tax, business tax, workers comp, unemployment insurance, and accounting fees while illegal vendors operate entirely in cash and contribute nothing. 4. Labor Laws. Restaurants and shops have to comply with minimum wage laws, overtime rules, mandatory breaks, workers compensation requirements, and employment paperwork or face massive penalties. Rent and Property Costs. Legal businesses sign expensive leases, pay utilities, insurance, maintenance, and security every month whether business is good or bad. 5. Insurance Requirements. Legal businesses are expected to carry liability insurance, food safety coverage, workers comp, and other policies because if something goes wrong they are held responsible. 6. ADA Compliance. Small businesses can spend enormous amounts modifying bathrooms, entrances, counters, ramps, and parking to comply with accessibility laws while illegal operations ignore all of it. 7. Fire Code Compliance. Restaurants and stores must install fire suppression systems, emergency exits, extinguishers, alarms, and pass inspections. Tent operations with propane tanks on sidewalks face none of these standards. 8. Environmental Regulations. Businesses are fined for improper grease disposal, waste handling, recycling violations, water runoff, or air quality issues while illegal setups dump trash and wastewater directly into public spaces. It is hard to explain to someone paying six figures a year to operate legally why they should compete against people operating tax free, permit free, inspection free, rent free and consequence free, and they decided right next to you was a great spot. These ideas are slowly chipping away at any remnants of a high trust and high functioning society.

Great question. I’d like to think that I’ve never purposefully turned in a bad performance. My personal work ethic is, no matter how the movie or show turns out, the least I can do is my best. Oftentimes, that’s the only thing we have control over.

No national car tax!

"Had Massie prevailed in his primary, would you have campaigned for his Democrat opponent in the race or would you have endorsed Massie as the GOP candidate?" "How would you explain that to your Dem colleagues if Massie's seat was the difference between a "Speaker Jeffries" and a "Minority Leader Jeffries." Two questions she should have asked.

We put a couple satellites on Flight 12 so that we could see Starship while the satellite deployed and drifted away, we used Starlink to connect with the satellite to get this view, and what a view it is 🤩🚀

Matt Yglesias is a blogger. He is guy with a bachelor’s degree who posts his opinions about things on the internet. His standing is exactly the same as Roman Helmet Guy’s, which is: His writing is influential to the extent people find it persuasive. We no longer live in a world where some people are arbitrarily designated as the good and important opinion-havers, and those people become the columnists and are real thinkers and intellectuals, while everyone else is just the schmucks on the “letters to the editor” page. The walls of Old Twitter’s garden have been torn down. Vox has been sold for scrap to Rupert Murdoch’s second-favorite son. Anyone can put on a Roman helmet and build a platform now, and their opinions are just as good and can be just as influential as Matt Yglesias’s or Nick Kristof’s.

Starship flip and landing burn at the end of its twelfth flight test

Americans who have given what Abraham Lincoln called “the last full measure of devotion” occupy a special place in our nation’s history. As we commemorate America 250 by celebrating the birth of freedom represented by the Declaration of Independence, it is important to point out that not a single Founding Father believed either the Declaration or the Constitution (created in the decade following the American Revolution) guaranteed the perpetuation of a free society. They all understood that creating a framework for a republican form of government was necessary but not sufficient to ensure the preservation of individual liberty. The American experiment would require hard work — and each generation of Americans would have to do its part when freedom was at risk. No group has given more in service of this experiment than those who we honor on Memorial Day. Without their sacrifice, the preservation of a constitutional system would be impossible — and there would not be a celebration for America 250. They fought the good fight, they finished the race, they kept the faith. And we will be forever in their debt.

I had a professor at Cal State Long Beach who constantly trashed America as racist, oppressive, and irredeemable. He mocked the Constitution, capitalism, and virtually every American institution. At the end of the semester, he gave an emotional story about how his mother crawled through sewer pipes to reach America. So I raised my hand and asked: if America is this irredeemable, oppressive country, why did she risk everything to come here? And why are neither of you interested in going back? He didn’t answer the question. Instead he called me disrespectful. That’s because much of this ideology is not rooted in reality testing. It’s institutional theater rewarded by academia, media, and activism. The system incentivizes moral denunciation of America while simultaneously depending on the opportunities America uniquely provides.

Reporter: “If everything you say is true, how does being part of that network justify being shot?” Vice President JD Vance: “Well, being part of the network doesn’t justify being shot, but ramming an ICE officer with your car—that justifies being shot. Not a good thing, by the way, but when you force somebody to engage in self-defense, it’s almost a preposterous question.” “You guys are meant to report the truth. How have you let yourself become agents of propaganda, of a radical fringe that’s making it harder for us to enforce our laws?” “You just asked me a question that presumed this woman died while engaging in legitimate protest. She tried to run somebody over with her car, and the guy defended himself.” “Next question!” #thinblueline #lawenforcement

@LucasSa56947288 Rep. Thomas Massie has not filed to run for Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District in 2028 (or anywhere else). fec.gov/data/candidate…

🚨BREAKING: Rep. Thomas Massie has filed to run in 2028 for the House seat he just lost to GOP primary challenger Ed Gallrein

Those 2.3 million democrats who voted in the primary on March 3rd cannot vote in the runoff on Tuesday. However republicans need to show up and vote for Ken Paxton to defeat John Cornyn. Everyone needs to show up.

Look at her.

Adults defending this should hide in shame.

Texas Republicans CANNOT let Democrats decide the GOP runoff. If you support @KenPaxtonTX, you need to SHOW UP and vote on Tuesday.

Correct. Diversity is not our strength. Merit is.