Whitney Tilson

Dear friends, On an almost daily basis, I’m shocked/appalled/horrified/disgusted with what Trump and his cronies are doing to our country and the world. Just when I think they can’t go any lower and things can’t get any worse, they do. The best way to rein them in is to help Democrats win back the House and (as is looking more possible every day) the Senate. To that end, I’ve identified the ~2 dozen races that will decide the House and the half dozen for the Senate. I’ve been meeting candidates (there are so many great ones!), organizing Zoom and in-person events, and raising money. If you’d like me to keep you up to date on my latest campaign, I’d be happy to add you to the new “Flip Congress” email list I’ve just created – just send a blank email to: flipcongress-subscribe@mailer.kasecapital.com. Thank you! Best, Whitney

Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer is a whack job and disgusting human being. But I’ll give her credit for finally seeing the light about supporting Ukraine and realizing she had been duped by russian propaganda. Now how about you, Treasonous Tucker and Crazy Candace, Vapid Vance, and Weakass Witkoff??? x.com/i/trending/207…

Susan likes to travel about a quarter of the time, while I prefer about half so, sure enough, she flew home from Glasgow yesterday while I flew to Budapest to meet up with my parents, sister, aunt, and friend for another nine days in Europe. My flight was six hours later than Susan’s so I bought a ticket on one of those red double-decker hop-on/hop-off busses and toured Scotland’s largest city all afternoon. I visited the Glasgow Cathedral, the nearby cemetery/necropolis, the largest terra cotta fountain in the world, the shipbuilding museum, the transportation museum, and a historic tall ship. Here are some pictures:

Another reason I call these miracle drugs: GLP-1s benefit women in a way that no one is talking about Whether we like it or not, appearance — and weight — affects women’s job and relationship prospects. washingtonpost.com/food/2026/07/2… This is, sadly, very true: Diamond’s findings, though, are consistent with the other evidence on the price women pay for being fat. (Men also pay a social penalty for being overweight, but women have it worse.) The idea that GLP-1s are a tool for upward mobility touches on something that many public health authorities have been reluctant to talk about. While the health benefits of weight loss are real and substantial, some of the most important benefits have nothing to do with health and everything to do with appearance. “The whole focus has been very much on health,” Diamond said, “because that’s an easier conversation to have.” I think we should have the hard conversation. I have firsthand experience with how much appearance matters, because I used to be fat. ------------------ Here’s the Harvard study the article mentions: Women more likely to marry, land jobs after taking GLP-1s (current.fas.harvard.edu/stories/women-…). Key takeaways: • New economics research reveals that losing weight by taking GLP-1 drugs can have big impacts on women’s relationship and employment status. After 1.5 years on the drugs, single women increased their likelihood of marrying or moving in with a partner by as much as 28.6 percentage points. • For unemployed women, their chances of landing a job increased by 26.9 percentage points after 1.5 years on the drug. • Rebecca Diamond, Martin Feldstein Professor of Economics, noted that these outcomes occur in areas where women may be subject to other people's first impressions.

Hear, hear!

Susan and I drove from the Lake District of northwestern England back to Scotland today. In the pictures below, counterclockwise from the top left, you can see what we did. We started by visiting the charming town of Grasmere, which was the home and burial place of famed British poet William Wordsworth. Then we went to the historic house museum, Brougham Hall, followed by the historic Annandale distillery, where we learned how Scotch whiskey is made. Our final stop was the Lockerbie Garden of Remembrance, which commemorates the 270 people who were killed on December 21, 1988 when Pam Am Flight 103 was destroyed over Lockerbie by a bomb planted by Libyan intelligence officers. Susan’s second cousin was among those killed. We ended the day at the lovely Cameron House Resort on Loch Lomond. Here are some pictures:

I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying New Era. nytimes.com/2026/07/21/opi… I've said it before and I'll say it again: anyone (including this Brown University "scholar of genocide") who uses that word to describe Israel's justified war to destroy the terrorist organization Hamas and its tunnel system in Gaza - using civilians as human shields at every opportunity - is demonstrating extreme ignorance and/or antisemitism.  The only people seeking to commit genocide are Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the significant majority of civilians who support them - against all Israelis and Jews. Thankfully, Israel has been able to stop them - primarily by killing tens of thousands of bloodthirsty terrorists. Every sensible, civilized person should celebrate this - while at the same time grieving for the suffering of the innocent civilians the terrorists put in harm's way.

Jon Stewart was especially brilliant last night: Trump Crashes Spain's World Cup Moment & Jon Examines Team Trump's “Meritocracy" youtube.com/watch?v=nYoETt…

We ended our Backroads trip at the Glasgow airport yesterday and, from there, rented a car and drove two hours south into England, where we’re spending two days at the Armathwaite Hall Hotel, which used to be a privately owned mansion dating back to the 11th century. Today we hiked four miles along Hadrian’s Wall, which was built over six years beginning in AD 122 during the reign of Roman Emperor Hadrian. He (correctly) realized it didn’t make sense to try to conquer the Scottish “barbarians,” so he instead built the 73-mile-long wall across the entire country to keep the Scots at bay, forming the northern edge of the Roman Empire. (Fun fact for Game of Thrones fans: Author George R. R. Martin confirmed that Hadrian’s Wall directly inspired the Wall in his TV series.) We then visited the ruins of the Housesteads Fort along the wall. Here are some pictures:

Today Susan and I finished our Backroads hiking trip in the Scottish highlands and said goodbye to our 18 new friends. Here are some pictures from the last two days:

Well said: facebook.com/share/p/1EkjSb… One of the biggest mistakes people make when talking about Israel is believing they’re looking at a normal Western conflict. They are not. Before anyone assumes I’m defending every decision made by Israel’s government, let me be clear. I’m one of the current government’s strongest critics. I support Israel’s democratic opposition, and I sincerely hope the next election brings new leadership, fresh ideas, and a government capable of restoring trust, strengthening our democracy, expanding the Abraham Accords, reaching new peace agreements with our neighbors, and giving Israelis a renewed sense of hope. I believe Israel deserves far better leadership than it has today. But changing governments does not change geography. It does not change the ideology of Hamas, Hezbollah or the Iranian regime. It does not change the reality of the Middle East. This is where I believe many well-intentioned people in the West misunderstand Israel. Israel is a modern democracy with a vibrant civil society, an independent judiciary, free elections, a free press, and constant public debate. We argue. We protest. We criticize our leaders. That is exactly what democracies are supposed to do. But Israel also happens to exist in one of the most dangerous regions on Earth. This isn’t a conflict between Belgium and Sweden. It is a conflict with organizations that deliberately embed military infrastructure beneath civilian neighborhoods, celebrate martyrdom, openly call for Israel’s destruction, and treat the deaths of both Israelis and Palestinians as tools to advance their political goals. Hamas knew exactly what would happen after October 7th. They knew Israel would respond militarily. They also knew that much of their military infrastructure had been deliberately built beneath homes, schools, hospitals and civilian neighborhoods. Every destroyed building would become another viral image. Every civilian tragedy would become another propaganda victory. That wasn’t a mistake. It was part of their strategy. When people see the destruction in Gaza, many never ask what was underneath those neighborhoods: command centers, weapons depots, rocket launchers and an enormous tunnel network built over many years. After Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, removing every soldier and every Israeli community, many believed the violence would decline. Instead, Hamas violently seized power, transformed Gaza into a heavily militarized territory, fired thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians, and eventually carried out the October 7th massacre. None of this means Israel should be immune from criticism. No democracy should be. But criticism without context rarely leads to understanding. What troubles me even more is the extraordinary double standard. I have enormous respect for people who genuinely dedicate themselves to defending human rights. If someone consistently speaks about Sudan, Ukraine, Iran, China, North Korea, Russia, Afghanistan, the persecution of Christians in parts of Africa, political prisoners in authoritarian regimes, and yes, Israel as well, I will gladly listen. That is someone applying universal principles consistently. But when someone talks almost exclusively about Israel while remaining silent about countless other atrocities happening across the globe, it is fair to ask why. Why do so few people discuss the persecution of Christians in parts of Africa? Why is there relatively little international attention to the suffering of civilians in Sudan? Why is the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus rarely the subject of global demonstrations? Why do many conflicts disappear from public attention while Israel remains under an extraordinary level of scrutiny? These are legitimate questions. Many people commenting online have never visited Israel or the broader Middle East. They have never studied the region’s history or read Hamas’ founding charter. Instead...

Sacha Baron Cohen is the world's funniest man!  Ali G gets kicked out of Wimbledon instagram.com/reel/DaxYw4pCG… His 2 best bits ever: Interviewing David Beckham and Posh Spice: youtu.be/P842Tmi6lrc?is… His speech at Harvard's Class Day: youtu.be/GUCy75CA3Aw?is…

This is great news. But I wonder if our Rapist in Chief will try to block the extradition of his fellow rapists??? I wouldn't be surprised...  Tate Brothers Arrested in Miami as U.K. Authorities File New Rape and Trafficking Charges  nytimes.com/2026/07/18/us/… Excerpt: Romanian prosecutors had barred the brothers from leaving the country while investigations there continue, but last year they agreed to lift the travel restrictions. The move was the culmination of a yearslong effort by Andrew Tate to forge alliances with President Trump’s advisers and family members, a Times investigation found.

Run, don’t walk, to read this. It’s AWESOME! An Israeli is invited to dinner party of leftie morons – who are quickly identified by their use of the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza after 10/7 – and utterly DESTROYS their pro-Palestinian idiocy. The people who know nothing know everything Moral Clarity endures an insufferable anti-Israel dinner party. He offers a masterclass in dealing with pro-Palestinian idiocy. moralclaritynewsletter.substack.com/p/the-people-w… Excerpt: I tried, for perhaps the final time, to restore order. “Hamas is not a weather system,” I said. “It is an organisation with leaders, doctrine, funding, weapons, strategic objectives and agency.” “Agency under occupation is complicated,” Eleanor replied. “Everything becomes complicated the moment Palestinians might be held responsible for something.” “That is racist.” “No, racism is treating adults as morally incapacitated children because you find accountability aesthetically uncomfortable.” The table went silent. We had reached the blunt phase. I continued. “You claim to support Palestinians, but you refuse to expect anything from Palestinian leaders. No compromise. No restraint. No democratic standards. No protection of civilians. No abandonment of eliminationist ambitions. Nothing. You reserve all moral agency for Israel and all moral exemption for its enemies, then call this compassion.” Eleanor’s face hardened. “You are deliberately misrepresenting us.” “No, I have listened to you for two hours. You know less than nothing about the conflict. You do not know the wars, the borders, the offers, the withdrawals, the ideologies, the internal divisions, the legal terminology or the chronology. Yet each of you speaks with the serene confidence of a tribunal.” “That is insulting,” Theo said. “It is meant to be.” Beatrice gasped softly. I had broken the central rule of elite dinner conversation: one may be ignorant, malicious, sanctimonious or absurd, but one must never be impolite enough to notice. Oliver tried to intervene. “Let’s keep this civil.” “We have been civil,” I said. “That is the problem. Civility has allowed nonsense to masquerade as seriousness all evening.” Julian scoffed. “So anyone who disagrees with you is ignorant?” “No. Plenty of knowledgeable people disagree with me. None of them are at this table.” The tiramisu suddenly became intensely interesting to everyone. I turned to Julian. “You invoke international law without correctly explaining proportionality.” To Theo: “You call Israel a European colony while apparently unaware that most Israeli Jews are not descendants of colonial Europeans.” To Simon: “You recommend trusting an international system whose guarantees have repeatedly proved worthless when Jews were under threat.” To Marcus: “You think history is non-linear because you once watched an experimental film.” He looked genuinely wounded. To Nadia: “You believe emotional intensity is a substitute for knowledge.” Then to Eleanor. “And you treat every fact that complicates your worldview as a form of violence.” Beatrice stood. “I think this has gone far enough.” “So do I.” I placed my napkin on the table. “But before I go, let us clarify what happened here. You invited one pro-Israel guest into a room of people who share the same politics and called it dialogue. You introduced me by my position, then treated me as morally suspect for holding it. You recited accusations you could not define, cited history you did not know, invoked laws you could not explain and became offended whenever asked for evidence.” Nobody spoke. “You are not courageous dissenters. You are the local branch office of an international consensus assembled from newspaper headlines, dinner-party fashion and the intoxicating pleasure of condemning Jews for surviving incorrectly.” “That is outrageous,” Beatrice said. “No. Outrageous was Theo suggesting Jewish trauma produces aggression while sitting beneath a painting his family probably bought from a refugee.” Theo looked towards the painting. I had no idea where it came from, but by then accuracy had become less important to everyone, so I decided to participate. Simon stood as well. “You’re becoming hysterical.” “Hysterical? I am the calmest person here. I am merely no longer cushioning the information for people who consider contradiction a hate crime.” “You are proving every stereotype about pro-Israel people,” Nadia said. “You mean Jews? Which stereotype? That we eventually lose patience after being lectured by people who discovered the Middle East six months ago?” “You’re impossible.” “No. I’m inconvenient. There is a difference.” I picked up my jacket. The room watched me with the shocked resentment of aristocrats who had just discovered the footman could read. At the door, Oliver made one final attempt at magnanimity. “I’m sorry you didn’t feel heard.” “I was heard perfectly well. That is why everyone is upset.” “We may simply have to agree to disagree.” “No. You may have to agree to read.” He folded his arms. “Do you genuinely believe you’re the only person here who understands the issue?” “No,” I said. “I believe I’m the only person here who has made the vulgar effort.” Beatrice opened the door. The conversation, she said, had become unsafe. I thanked her for the meal. Outside, the night air was cool and gloriously free of moral vocabulary. I walked home reflecting on the strange burden of being pro-Israel in polite society. One is expected to arrive with evidence, history, nuance, empathy, military expertise, legal precision and a detailed alternative strategy for every available course of action. The other side need only arrive with adjectives. Colonial. Genocidal. Apartheid. Brutal. Each word is placed on the table like a royal flush. No definitions required. No chronology necessary. No awareness of competing claims. The accusation itself is treated as evidence, while any response is proof of callousness. The ignorance would be less irritating if it were accompanied by humility. Yet ignorance among the educated rarely travels alone. It brings status, vocabulary and the confidence of belonging to a moral majority. Its possessors do not merely lack knowledge. They regard knowledge as faintly disreputable, particularly when it interferes with the emotional clarity of their conclusions. By the following morning, I had received three messages. Beatrice said she was “holding space” for me but needed time to process my aggression. Nadia said she hoped I would one day reconnect with my compassion. Julian sent an article from a newspaper columnist who had never visited Israel. I replied only to Beatrice. I thanked her again for dinner and apologised for my tone. It had been unnecessarily restrained.

Andrew Sullivan - a Republican - perfectly captures the Malignant Toddler. We must not become inured to his madness and his behavior, which on an almost daily basis would have gotten any other president impeached, removed from office, and jailed for corruption, among other things. Excerpt: ... and the mad king sputters in the half-destroyed lair formerly known as the White House. Speaking of whom, some brief notes on the current scene as the heat dome hovers … He’s Still Out Of His Mind We’re used to it, of course, but it still demands repeating. The president is mentally unwell — a delusional, malignant sociopath incapable of absorbing any reality that is not pure wish-fulfillment. We have never elected anyone to that office as inadequate to it as this man. The stream of consciousness we were subjected to last night is merely the latest of a series of humiliations for a country dumb and desperate enough to re-elect a global laughingstock. Have I said this before? Yes, I have said this before. It remains a fact we are currently doing our best to ignore. For appearance’s sake. He provided no new evidence of any fraud. Yes, foreign countries have tried to influence our elections. So what? His claim — that China somehow successfully rigged 2020 — makes no sense, and has no serious documentation. But the result, of course, is the continued delegitimization of the core procedures of democracy, an unforgivable dereliction of duty by a president, and something he does entirely to assuage his own ego. There really is nothing more to this than Trump’s conviction that elections he wins are always fair, and elections he loses are always rigged. Trump is not hard to understand. We have a toddler as POTUS. And he decides to bore us with this self-centered bullshit even as the war he vowed never to fight reignites because Vance was too incompetent to draft an enforceable MOU to get out of it. And so the global economy slides because Trump simply couldn’t concede that Obama got the best deal from Iran available all those years ago. The price of one man’s insatiable ego: $100 billion of taxpayers’ money, and $85 a barrel and climbing. open.substack.com/pub/andrewsull…

Today Susan and I did another beautiful hike in the Scottish highlands. Here are some pictures:

Today Susan and I did an 11-mile hike in the beautiful Scottish highlands. Here are some pictures:

The world’s most powerful man is also among the world’s dumbest… Every day he embarrasses and harms us. Inside the 24-hour sprint to convince Trump to drop his plans to toll Strait of Hormuz cnn.com/2026/07/14/pol… President Donald Trump shocked Gulf allies and many of his own aides with his plan to impose a toll on the Strait of Hormuz, touching off an international scramble to convince him to reverse course on his demand, several sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The abrupt announcement on Monday came despite months of warnings from Trump’s own advisers not to pursue the idea, for fear it would undermine the US’ own war aims — as well as validate Iran’s purported plans to charge fees in the strait, which the administration repeatedly characterized as illegal. But as he surveyed the intensifying struggle over the strait that had drawn the US back into full-fledged war, a frustrated Trump pressed ahead anyway. “The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’” he wrote on Truth Social Monday morning, vowing to charge a 20% toll on all cargo shipped through the strait. The surprise directive sparked a 24-hour sprint within the administration and across the Middle East to decode the specifics of a proposal that Trump had seemingly come up with on the spot. And while he reversed his plans on Tuesday, the episode further underscored the freewheeling, transactional nature of Trump’s approach to foreign policy, even in the midst of a prolonged war that he has no clear idea how to bring to an end.

Wow. Wow. WOW!  This video reinforces my decision to take reta.  Retatrutide Is More Than a Weight Loss Drug — It's a Disease-Fighting Drug youtube.com/watch?v=3U7ZBe…

This morning Susan and I met up with 15 other Americans in Inverness, Scotland and started this Backroads trip (our 12th) over the next six days: Scotland's Inverness to Isle of Skye & Oban Hiking & Walking Tour (backroads.com/trips/WSLI/sco…). Today we visited Cawdor Castle, did a three-mile hike along Upper Loch Torridon, and then I went for a three-mile trail run in the hills above our hotel. Here are some pictures:

Seth Meyers has been away for three weeks, so last night he recapped what he missed - it's both hilarious and terrifying: youtube.com/watch?v=xCfQIe…