t.linky
15.2K posts

t.linky
@t_linky
Flannel , Cube and Pepe enthusiast.
Katılım Aralık 2016
2K Takip Edilen2.2K Takipçiler

@GrantPaulsen JaKobi Lane will be the steal of the draft. The kid is dynamic.
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Here are some of my WR thoughts as the Commanders get ready for day 2.
The best of the rest will mostly be gone before they pick. I don't see any shot that Denzell Boston (WSH), Chris Brazell (TEN), or Germie Bernard (AL) get to them. Chris Bell (LOU) will likely be long gone, too. All would intrigue me.
The more likely names include --
Ted Hurst, GA State
** 6-3, 206; Ran a 4.42 at that size
** 96th % height with 99th % broad jump and 78th % 40-time
**
Skylar Bell, UCONN
** 6-0, 192; 4.40 40-time is 84th %
** 97th % vertical jump and broad jump
** Went from Wisconsin to UCONN
** Huge production; 101 for 1278 last year
Bryce Lance, NDSU
** Big (6-3), and very fast (4.3 40 time)
** Brother's an NFL QB
** Competition wasn't great last year
Not sure if he'll be there, but would be interesting if Notre Dame's Malachi Fields fell.
** 6-4, 218; huge
** Ran a 4.5, big bodied guy
** Local ties: Charlottesville area
** Started at UVA
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t.linky retweetledi

I have two stacks on my desk. The left stack is financial disclosure forms from members of Congress. The right stack is waivers for members who filed their financial disclosures late.
The right stack is always taller.
On Wednesday morning, I watched a soldier get arrested on CNN.
I am a Disclosure Analyst for the House Ethics Committee. I have held this position for eleven years. My job is to receive the forms, verify their completeness, and file them. I do not investigate. I do not flag. I do not refer. I file. I have a lanyard. The lanyard says ETHICS.
The soldier's name is Gannon Ken Van Dyke. He is thirty-eight years old. He was stationed at Fort Bragg. He was Special Forces. In December, he created an account on a prediction market called Polymarket. On January 2nd, he bet $32,500 that the president of Venezuela would be removed from power. On January 3rd, he helped remove the president of Venezuela from power. He collected $409,881.
He has been charged with five federal crimes. Commodities fraud. Wire fraud. Unlawful use of confidential government information. Theft of nonpublic government information. Unlawful monetary transaction. The Department of Justice called it "the first-ever insider trading prosecution on event contracts."
I watched this on the television in our break room. Then I walked back to my desk and processed a late financial disclosure from a member of the House Financial Services Committee who purchased $250,000 in bank stocks eleven days before his subcommittee held a closed-door hearing on proposed capital reserve changes.
The filing was forty-seven days late. The STOCK Act requires disclosure within forty-five days. The penalty for late filing is $200.
I waived it.
I waive most of them. In 2021, fifty-four members of Congress and senior staff violated the reporting rules. The fines were minimal. Most were waived. I have a form for the waiver. The form has a box that says "Reason." I write "administrative delay." In ethics, "administrative delay" means the member's office forgot and then remembered when a reporter called. My approval rate is one hundred percent. In any other field, that number would trigger an audit. In mine, it is called thoroughness.
Let me show you what I processed this year.
January. A senator on the Armed Services Committee sold defense contractor shares worth $1.2 million. Three days later, his committee received a classified briefing that the Iran campaign had exceeded its projected cost by 340%. The stock dropped 8%. He filed the disclosure sixty-one days late. I calculated the fine. $200. His chief of staff asked if it could be waived. He did not ask what the senator traded on. Nobody asks that. The form does not have a field for it. I waived the fine. The senator's portfolio returned 23.4% in 2025. The S&P 500 returned 16.8%.
February. A representative on the Energy and Commerce Committee bought pharmaceutical stocks worth $400,000. Two weeks later, her committee advanced a bill that would extend patent exclusivity for the exact drug class she purchased. The stocks rose 14%. She filed on time. There was no fine. There was no investigation. There was nothing to investigate because buying stocks in companies regulated by your own committee is not illegal. It is legal. The STOCK Act made it legal by making it disclosed. In Congress, disclosed means legal. In my office, legal means filed.
March. A member whose spouse manages a portfolio worth $9.2 million reported forty-three separate transactions in a single quarter. Twelve of them were in sectors directly affected by legislation the member co-sponsored. The timing on eight of those twelve was within a two-week window of committee action. I logged all forty-three. None were flagged. We do not flag. We file.
I asked my supervisor once what would happen if I flagged a filing. She said we do not have a form for that. I never asked again.
In 2020, I processed 847 disclosures. In 2023, 1,211. In 2025, 1,614. The number of enforcement actions in each of those years was zero. The numerator changes. The denominator does not.
I want to tell you about the soldier again.
He made $409,881. He tried to delete his Polymarket account by calling customer service and saying he lost access to his email. He moved his profits into a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He used his real identity. He placed thirteen bets. Every single one was connected to an operation he personally participated in.
In my eleven years, I have processed disclosures from members of Congress who traded on:
Pending FDA approvals they learned about in committee.
Defense appropriations they voted on.
Trade policy they negotiated.
Pandemic response measures they drafted.
Interest rate decisions they were briefed on before the public.
None of them have been charged. None of them have been investigated by the Department of Justice. None of them have been referred to the SEC. The STOCK Act has produced zero prosecutions since it was signed on April 4th, 2012.
Fourteen years. Five hundred and thirty-five members. $635 million in trades last year alone. Zero cases.
My daughter asked me once what happens when someone breaks the rules. I told her we write it down. She asked what happens after that. I said it depends. She was nine. She is twenty now. It does not depend. Nothing happens after that.
The soldier made $409,881 and faces decades in prison. Nancy Pelosi entered Congress in 1987 with a portfolio worth approximately $785,000. It is now worth $133.7 million. That is a return of 16,930%. The Dow Jones returned 2,300% over the same period. Professional fund managers who beat the market for three consecutive years are considered exceptional. She has beaten it for thirty-seven. If a hedge fund produced those returns, the SEC would subpoena the records on a Thursday. She produced them from a building with a chapel and a gift shop.
She announced her retirement last year. No investigation was opened. No disclosure was flagged. Her filings were on time. In my office, on time means compliant. Compliant means closed.
I want to tell you about the fine.
$200. That is the maximum penalty for violating the STOCK Act's disclosure requirements. $200 for a member of Congress whose portfolio gained $4.7 million in a single quarter. I calculated what $200 represents as a percentage of $4.7 million. It is 0.004%. I could not find a comparison that made it meaningful. It is less than the price of the parking pass in the Rayburn garage. It is less than lunch at the members' dining room if you order the crab cakes, which I am told are excellent though I eat at my desk.
Since 2012, thirty-one bills have been introduced to restrict congressional trading. I keep a list. The list is longer than the STOCK Act itself.
On March 5th, 2026, a representative from Michigan introduced the thirty-second. He called it the "No Getting Rich in Congress Act." The bill would prohibit the President, Vice President, members of Congress, and their spouses from trading individual stocks, cryptocurrency, futures, and commodities while in office.
The bill was referred to committee. The committee has not scheduled a hearing. The committee is chaired by a member whose spouse executed $2.1 million in trades last year.
The bill will be reviewed. In my office, reviewed means read. Read means acknowledged. Acknowledged means a status has been assigned. A status is the absence of an action that has been given a name so it looks like one.
The soldier used classified information to make $409,881 on a prediction market. He has been charged with five federal crimes. The Department of Justice announced the case on the same day I processed three disclosures from members who traded on committee knowledge worth a combined $3.8 million.
The difference between the soldier and the members is not what they did. It is the building they did it in. He did it from Fort Bragg. They did it from the Capitol. He used a prediction market. They used the New York Stock Exchange. He bet on a military operation. They bet on the legislation they write.
He did not write the law. They did. They wrote the STOCK Act. Then they funded its enforcement at zero dollars. Then they set its maximum penalty at $200. Then they gave my office the authority to waive it. Then they traded $635 million.
The soldier flew to Caracas. He breached a compound. He put his body between a mission and a bullet. The people who ordered the operation were in a building with a credenza and sparkling water. They did not go to Caracas. They went to their brokerage accounts. The soldier made $409,881 and is now in federal custody. The people who knew what he was going to do before he did it made more and filed less. His prosecution is not a failure of the system. It is the system. One conviction per decade, at the lowest level, so the briefing slides can say enforcement exists. The $409,881 is not the crime. It is the cost of making $635 million look supervised.
In my field, we call this self-regulation.
The soldier's Polymarket account has been frozen. His military career is over. He will spend years in federal prison. My office will process every congressional disclosure filed this year. Every trade logged. Every $200 fine calculated and waived. The system is immaculate.
Fourteen years. Zero prosecutions. $635 million a year. A 16,930% return.
I have not leaked a document. I have not filed a complaint. I have not deviated from the process one single time. The process was written by the people whose forms I process.
As long as the disclosures go up and the cases don't, my performance review says I am meeting expectations.
My lanyard still says ETHICS. In eleven years, nobody has asked me to define the word.
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@MatrixMysteries A single slice of Sicilian pizza with burrata is like $30 at eataly. It’s a hella pricey cafeteria style food hall.
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@FBI @NewYorkFBI Not the flex you think it is. This badass patriot bet on himself and won.
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CASE UPDATE from @NewYorkFBI: The Justice Department announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a U.S. Army soldier, with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction.
Read more: justice.gov/opa/pr/us-sold…

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@CieloBonit Im not defending the tramp but fwiw Michael is amongst the most popular names for Italians.
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@FBIDirectorKash @TheJusticeDept I think it’s wrong to single out a soldier when our politicians have done far worst insider trading. $200k salaries turn into 8-9 figure wealth. I’d look into that before I arrest a soldier.
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This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation.
Thank you to our agents, Intel teams, and great partners @TheJusticeDept who protected our war fighters.
Investigation ongoing.
Bill Melugin@BillMelugin_
BREAKING: DOJ announces it has arrested a US Special Forces soldier who took part in the raid that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro after the soldier allegedly pocketed $400,000 by betting more than $30,000 on Maduro’s removal on Polymarket. Name: GANNON KEN VAN DYKE
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t.linky retweetledi

So is the DOJ going to arrest members of congress for insider trading? Because if not this seems awfully hypocritical. Just saying.
Bill Melugin@BillMelugin_
BREAKING: DOJ announces it has arrested a US Special Forces soldier who took part in the raid that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro after the soldier allegedly pocketed $400,000 by betting more than $30,000 on Maduro’s removal on Polymarket. Name: GANNON KEN VAN DYKE
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@ribzoftiktok Yes. It’s more common than you might think.
I modded my Weber Smokey mountain. I added a metal door, casters, lid hinge and vent handles.
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@Hot_Pepper76 The list is trash. RHCP at 48? Very disrespectful.
Oasis 13….cmon now. They arent even top 200. U2 at 3…gimme a freakin break.
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@UncleOldFax Who is your target audience? Do you believe your post are effective?
Seems like a waste of time.
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@mooodoc When I began wrenching in the 80’s if you had anything from HF in your toolbox you got teased and heckled. Now I see a lot of techs with icon sets and toolboxes. Lots of tekton, capri, and gear wrench too. Times have definitely changed. Not me though. All snap on, Matco and Mac.
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Random thought as I was coming out of Harbor Freight this afternoon.
I think Harbor Freight's stuff looks better these days because everybody else's stuff has gotten so crappy.
I mean, there's still the "high end-real mechanic-buy off the truck-sign away a kidney" stuff, then there's everything else made in Chinar. Not much middle ground
They've lasted long enough to become a huge player
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@GoKnights_Go @DavidPiotrowski try to evict a shitty tenant or squatters that take possession of your property. You’ll soon understand.
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@t_linky Fucking awesome. Man I wish I could just hang out with you and your garage and help. Ha! So cool
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