Chimp Panzee

@cafedujord Stay the fuck out of our town.

Santa Cruz is one the most beautiful places in California, with one of the most temperate climates in the state. In a sane world, it would have a high speed rail connection to silicon valley and hundreds of thousands of residents. Instead, its population is declining.

@RobertMSterling If you have a fake job you should save a bunch of money. The fact that they cant find another job proves how fake their skills were.

I feel terrible for anyone who loses their job. I’m not trying to kick anyone while they’re down. But these USAID and NGO workers are the least sympathetic unemployed people I’ve ever seen. EVERY person in this story was making well into six figures: USAID employee: $175,000 USAID contractor: $127,000 USAID-funded NGO employee: $272,000(!) USAID advisor at the DOD: $195,000 USAID contractor: $200,000 There were 16,000 employees at USAID, and the New York Times was only able to interview one making less than $175k. Worldwide, there were an estimated 280,000 contractors. ALL of these people were getting paid from our tax dollars. Many were making 2-4x the wage of the average American taxpayer ($65-70k per year). Yes, USAID did some good work, especially during the Cold War. And, yes, many of the agency’s employees were hard-working Americans, with good intentions and love for their country. Again, we should take no joy in seeing thousands of people lose their livelihoods—this is not a case of justifiable schadenfreude. But it’s not sustainable for an agency with so little accountability to manage tens of billions of dollars per year, enriching tens of thousands of NGO-industrial-complex managers living in the DC/Maryland/Virginia metroplex in the process. Even the NYT acknowledges that “there was bloat and waste in the agency and a need for reform. Much of the $35 billion [USAID] managed in 2024 went to Washington-based contractors, not directly to people in need overseas. The success of many projects was hard to measure.” Every last dollar that went to these highly paid employees was funded by an American taxpayer, the vast majority of whom make far less money than the people laid off from USAID. We have the right to demand accountability, and we have the right to expect that these funds will be spent in our interest, not theirs. USAID and its thousands of employees, contractors, and NGO beneficiaries ignored that principle, and they eventually paid the price with their careers. I wish them all nothing but the best, but I won’t mourn that they will no longer be making $200k per year on the backs of American workers.

@ToddLlewellyn No yard should be illegal.

People want affordable housing but they also don’t want this…

@TastelessAlex Bad take. Local communities should decide what happens in their community. Its one of the basic principals of democracy and self determination. If you cant afford it - Leave.

California needs to adopt a simple state wide zoning code and if cities aren't building enough housing, they lose zoning and permit approval control and are forced to adopt simplified state zoning.

@Scott_Wiener They want houses aka Single Family Homes in a nice residential neighborhood with trees. They dont want an ugly, overpriced 1 or 2 bedroom in an 5 story stucco prison.

It’s not rich people leaving California. It’s working class folks. And it’s all about the cost of housing due to decades of under-building. Once they leave, they can afford housing & their finances improve. We must continue the fight to build more homes. It’s essential for California’s future,

@YIMBYLAND Im sure it had nothing to do with interest rates. 🤡

Perfect example of how Inclusionary Zoning can kill ALL new affordable housing when pushed too far.

@maxdubler @georgeminn51833 How many kids can you raise in a $4000/mon 1 bdrm apartment?

@georgeminn51833 Schools are closing for want of students to teach.

Zoning changes, housing gets built. These lots used to be a few dozen single family homes.

We've built an efficient, wealthy society of abundance. But you wouldn't call it civilization. Maybe something like Post-Civilization. It doesn't have any connection to beauty or patterns of the past that humanity has passed on over time

@nickshirleyy @RobBonta this is absurd

🚨 Here is the full 40 minutes of my crew and I exposing California fraud, Minnesota was big but California is even bigger... We uncovered over $170,000,000 in fraud as these fraudsters live in luxury with no consequences. Like it and share it, the fraud must STOP. We ALL work way too hard and pay too much in taxes for this to be happening. These fraudsters have been able to defraud American taxpayers for years without any pushback from the public and politicians. It is time to EXPOSE IT ALL and end America's fraud crisis.

@mattbaran Ill take the park every day of the week. High Housing costs are primarily driven by demand side issues.

Would you rather have a bigger park (that you have to pay for), or have your housing become more affordable?

@SteamboatLion @Pdzielinski @UrbanCourtyard Thats a lie. Its just the cheapest thing to build.

@Pdzielinski @UrbanCourtyard Sadly because in most places in US that's all zoning allows.

Part of my project is pushing Americans to dig past the detached “modern farmhouse” and ask what a truly urban aesthetic actually is in contemporary America. When I first noticed, in the mid-2010s, that affluent people with abundant choice were building single-family mansions in a faux-rural “modern farmhouse” style inside a fairly dense CITY neighborhood, I was incredulous. It's like the neighbor growing corn in their front yard. Taste and rights aside (yes, it's fun that people have different tastes, and, of course, it's their property, they can do what they want if it doesn't harm others etc etc), don't people want to have a more clearly URBANE dwelling? Cities differ from the countryside in deep, structural ways. Urban life is organized around proximity, specialization, and service-based work ... not land, production, or self-sufficiency. People in cities are not growing food or managing acreage. they are trading time for convenience and private space for shared infrastructure. An urban aesthetic should express the urban lifestyle! It should GENERALLY favor compact, low-maintenance housing; shared walls and party walls; mixed-use buildings; and streets designed to maximize everyday convenience rather than pastoral fantasy. When we import rural imagery into urban contexts, we’re refusing to take cities on their own terms. Farmhouses are for farmers. Cities deserve an architecture that reflects the life of people who live in cities!

@StatisticUrban You will never have nice cities in the US as long as it costs 10x as much to build public transit, and the default “high density” construction is the contemporary midrise trash going up all over America.

Look at how moderate San Diego is compared to Boston. Cooler summers, much warmer winters. It could’ve been paradise. A city better than NYC. It has very nearly the perfect climate for a walkable, transitable city. But no, it’s mostly a NIMBY-filled car-dependent sprawl.

@AdamNMayer Disagree - it is excessive, dosent fit into the neighborhood, and ruins the scenery of the most beautiful city in America.

Objectively, it’s a stunning proposal—but the Pac Heights gentry on that hill will spare no expense dragging it through legal purgatory until it’s dead.

@DaveHcontrarian @outlieroptions David, respectfully, I am not interested in simple formulas and methods, just a deeper understanding of your process. Unfortunately many of the individuals interviewing you are not that market savvy and they ask very surface level CNBC-esque trash questions.

@cigaretteorgasm @outlieroptions I already have lots of people on X and elsewhere duplicating my forecasts without providing a scintilla of credit. Accept what I provide or leave.I provide a lot of teaching here but most of you are wrongly focused and miss it. You want simple formulas or methods.There are none.

For those have not seen it yet,here is my latest interview with Erik Smolinski @outlieroptions recorded 4/17/25.We discussed the tariffs,the overall Trump agenda,the rate outlook,the likely recession & bust,the final run to S&P 8000,the metals & oil. youtube.com/watch?v=6Sp4eF…

@DaveHcontrarian @outlieroptions Any reason why you won’t provide more insights into how you forecast? I’ve listened to 5+ of your interviews and would love to understand more of your reasoning/ thought process. Outside of sentiment and the major indices I cant pick up on your process.

@cigaretteorgasm @outlieroptions No & No.

@DaveHcontrarian @JrMiningGuy @DaveHcontrarian thoughts on the growth of private credit?

For those who haven't seen it yet,here's my latest interview recorded 3/12/25 with Kai Hoffman @JrMiningGuy where we talked about the coming final parabolic run to the top,the subsequent bust & bear mkt & big commodity cycle to follow.Also discussed the metals & oil. youtube.com/watch?v=pAzX-b…

@Ortho_Enjoyer @tulpapilled Disgusting

@tulpapilled There's a middleground, you know. Ever heard of 4-5 story buildings with a simple yet beautiful design?