Al Vandelay

"We feel at once that the world desperately needs changing and that we are unequipped to change it. Kierkegaard tells us to begin by changing our own hearts."

@ErikaDonalds @PamBondi Disloyal! Trump wanted her out!

.@PamBondi leaves the Justice Department with a strong record of making America safe again: the lowest murder rate in over 100 years, 7 of 10 FBI Most Wanted captured, cartels disrupted, and human trafficking victims rescued. President Trump will choose the next AG to build on this legacy of law and order.

@VinceIovin43311 @AngoraGoatLady @bonchieredstate Integralism is fringe just like this sort of theocratic Christian Nationalism is fringe.

@Conservagator @AngoraGoatLady @bonchieredstate Integralism is not a teaching of the church. It is fringe element of Catholics. If you listen to many Evangelicals ( not really mainline Protestants) it is a leveraging tool for political gain. They are also quite clear they believe the US is a Protestant nation.

What's more likely? That Pete Hegseth forbid any Catholic services today because he hates Catholics, despite there being Masses every Monday-Friday under his tenure... ...Or that there's a more benign explanation for there not being one today? Be honest.

Israel breaks this chart in half. GDP per capita comparable to Germany. Housing costs higher than anywhere in Europe. One of the most educated populations on earth. TFR of 2.9, nearly double the OECD average. The correlation between income and fertility is real, but calling it a "self-defeating mechanism" confuses the map for the territory. Income is a proxy for a bundle of things that happen simultaneously when countries modernize: urbanization, female education, career optionality, contraceptive access, and a cultural shift from family-as-economic-unit to individual-as-meaning-unit. Israel has all of those inputs. And secular Jewish women there still have near-replacement fertility of ~2.0. College-educated Israeli women out-reproduce non-educated European women. The gap between Israeli and European fertility is actually wider among the educated than the uneducated. What Israel has that Germany, Japan, and South Korea don't: a shared sense that building the next generation is the point. Social solidarity so thick that grandparents live within driving distance of nearly every child. A culture where having three kids at 35 with a graduate degree is normal, not sacrificial. Sweden, Germany, and South Korea have all spent enormous sums on pro-natal benefits. Their TFRs: 1.42, 1.36, and 0.73. You cannot subsidize your way out of a culture that has deprioritized reproduction. The mechanism here isn't economic. It's existential. Countries that believe they're building something have kids. Countries optimizing for individual optionality don't. The "final boss" framing makes this feel like physics. It isn't. It's a story about what cultures decide matters.

@VinceIovin43311 @AngoraGoatLady @bonchieredstate It’s not so much bigotry as the working out of a radical political theology. The Protestant version of integralism.

@Conservagator @AngoraGoatLady @bonchieredstate Either way same denomination = same anti Catholic bigotry

@AngoraGoatLady @bonchieredstate Doug Wilson is in his denomination but not his pastor. Wilson pastors a church in Idaho. Hegseth is a member of a congregation in DC.

@bonchieredstate I don't care. But, his personal pastor is very anti-Catholic and has stated there should be no public celebrations of the Catholic Faith.

@Mark_McEathron He should take time off from politics and spend it working on his TV skills, doing podcasts and shows, and building up a bigger support base for 2032. I think he’d get bored in SCOTUS because you have to wait for cases to come you rather than being proactive

My unsolicited thoughts on the future of Ron DeSantis. He is his own man, and he alone will decide what he wants to do. So, anything myself or anyone else says is really mere hopium. The AG position would be a career killer for him. Democrats are going to take the House. This means years of impeachment proceedings. One or two of those might have constitutional merit, and if they do, he as a lose lose choice to make. Sacrifice my values and defend POTUS over the Constitution, by which he will lose conservative support. Or keep his values, get fired in MAGA disgrace, and lose MAGA support. The next option before him, run for Governor again in 2032. Looking at the current field for that office, he'd likely win in a landslide. Another option, and one I really like simply because I believe he'd be most happy doing it....sports commentary. I know, I know, we'd lose the greatest political mind in the Nation and it would hurt, but...I think he deserves his joy. I would be happy for him here. He's earned it. Of course, he can be a talking head and voice for the GOP for 2 years and run for POTUS. He'd face off against two very popular candidates in the Primary in Vance and Rubio. Trump's endorsement likely decides that primary. It's not likely to go to Ron. I still want him to run, and I still would vote for him if he did. Finally, the option that I believe he would have the biggest impact on America's future... The Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas and Alito are aging out. If RDS was an option to fill one of their seats, given his originalists approach to jurisprudence and scholarly ability to research legal issues, one of them might feel safe in retiring and enjoy their years with their family knowing their work could be trusted in his hands. This is the option that I would personally love the most. Ron DeSantis for Supreme Court Justice. Tell me that nerd would not love that job!?!

@RyanLEllis @ryanburge Most likely those evangelical megachurches would be credobaptist and so only count adults.

@ryanburge This is just converts and candidates. It doesn’t count infant and child baptisms. To be fair and to your point, it also doesn’t count all the dying Silent and Boomer Caths, nor the newly lapsed.

There are a couple of evangelical churches in Florida that added 2,000 new members last year.

From the ashes, a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.

@MarksRaw @BuenoForMiami It's not high enough.

@BuenoForMiami I’m pretty sure the US has the largest percentage of people in prison, many essentially work as slaves for private profit.

Maybe it’s time someone liberated the U.S. Just saying

@JeffDean09 @dan_themandan @bonchieredstate Doubt it. The voters are too addicted to noise and flash to vote for someone competent but boring.

@dan_themandan @bonchieredstate Patience my friend. Governor DeSantis will be POTUS by the time Mason is a scratch golfer and Captain of the FSU golf team.

This just isn’t true, and no matter how many times you guys say it, it won’t be true. DeSantis *lost ground* after Trump’s endorsement. Six months after, he was down double digits and still being far out-raised. It wasn’t until the June debate that he changed the race.

Habbamentum!

@NYCMayor Good Friday is not about our sacrifice. It is about Jesus’ sacrifice.

@PowerOwn45 Trump wants an AG who will act as his personal lawyer. He knows DeSantis has too many principles to do that. No chance he taps DeSantis for it. Also, it would elevate Jay Collins to governor of FL and harm Bryon Donalds' campaign.

The DeSantis as AG thing is really tricky. Yes, he would be exceptionally good at it. Yes, something like this could raise his national profile and increase his chances at becoming a formidable presidential candidate. On the other hand, Trump demands loyalty above everything. DeSantis is not going to do Trump’s bidding if it’s not on the level. And I think Trump knows that, which is why it would shock me if he asked DeSantis to take this job. It’s all probably a moot point because DeSantis isn’t the type Trump seeks, but if it does happen, I will cautiously applaud, hoping for the best while fearing the worst.

@bonchieredstate Leslie is a cheap grifter who's put all his eggs in the Bryon Donald campaign. If Donald manages to blow the race, Leslie is toast.

I try to stay out of these Florida slap fights these days, but this is a narrative that needs to die. DeSantis put in the work, and he went on to win by a far larger margin without Trump’s support in 2022. Just give him his credit and move on. Not everything is Trump. It’s cringe.

@TruthWins @FLDadReborn I thought by now you'd realize

@Conservagator @FLDadReborn I'm counting on you to have a change of heart.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is the greatest American band of all-time. You’re going to think they aren’t but you’d be wrong. 🎸🐊

@DarrigoMelanie @bonchieredstate A large percentage of the homeless people are homeless bc of mental illness and addiction. Are you planning to bring back forced institutionalization?

@bonchieredstate Ending homelessness for $20 billion is from his own Housing and Urban Development team, and the $25 billion is the estimate from Global Giving.

I don’t agree with Trump here, but the idea we could just “end homelessness and hunger” for $43 billion is insanely false. Like the kind of thing a crazy person in a subway makes up.

@TruthWins @FLDadReborn Take it easy.

@Conservagator @FLDadReborn You're all mixed up.

@TruthWins @FLDadReborn I wouldn't put them #1 but I'd also rank them above the Heartbreakers.

@FLDadReborn Look, whenever I think of the greatest American band, the name "The Eagles" gives me a peaceful, easy feeling. I won't back down from that position.

@Pickledfins @JeffSpicolisVan It’s an act. She donates to Democrats but discovered that MAGA is one of the easiest groups to con.

She is also the energizer bunny of Trump Leg Humpers. only downside to being blocked is I can't quote tweet the absolute crap out of her, which I would make a point to do daily if I wasn't. And no, I don't want DeSantis to be AG...I want him as far away from that shitshow as possible but she is absolutely batshit when it comes to her loving her some Trump

The #J6BettyCrocker blocked me 2 years ago? For letting her have it over her menopausal screed about DeSantis. Best block Ive ever earned. Id do it again too. 10/10 Stars Do Recommend