Brian K

wiffle wiffle wiffle

[Alex Kirshner @alex_kirshner]

This is a national tragedy. It was inevitable after 2020 and Megyn's probably lying here, but if you get to the point where you can't believe Rs finished third in jungle primaries in a deep blue state in a year the R president's favorability is minus a billion, nothing's real

[Acyn @Acyn]

Ossoff: This war in Iran is the worst foreign policy blunder since Iraq. And just like the Iraq War, it's a war built on lies. Let’s update the record:

On day one, the president said it was running ahead of schedule. On day 10, he said it was very complete . Day 21, getting very close . Day 32, leaving very soon . On day 39, the President of the United States said a whole civilization will die…

And on the next day, day 40, he declared total and complete victory . Day 67, great progress. Day 79, the clock is ticking. Today is day 92 . And on day 92 Iran's ballistic missiles and drones have not been destroyed. The Strait of Hormuz, which was opened before the war is still closed. The regime is intact along with its stockpile of highly enriched uranium—a stockpile Iran only built after President Trump shredded President Obama's Iran deal

[Rolo Tony @PoorOldRoloTony]

There’s no way to diminish/spin this negatively. This is just a net positive on all fronts. More of a “saving of cinema” event than Top Gun Maverick ever was.

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

A little remarked upon fact: The Biden administration prosecuted the guy who leaked Trump's tax records and he got sentenced to five years in prison.

Imagine someone leaking something damaging about Biden and the Trump administration prosecuting them.

[Jared Ryan Sears @JaredRyanSears]

Economy then vs now:

GDP growth:
2024 2.8%
2026 1.6%

Inflation:
2024 2.9%
2026 3.8%

Wages:
2024 rising faster than inflation
2026 rising slower than inflation

Unemployment rate:
2024 4%
2026 4.3%

Jobs added per month:
2024 >120,000
2026 76,000

Jobs vs Unemployed:
2024 7.6 million job openings vs 6.9 million unemployed
2026 6.8 million job openings vs 7.2 million unemployed

National Debt
2024 $35.5 trillion
2026 $39 trillion

Deficit
2024 $1.8 trillion
2026 CBO projection $2 trillion

Uninsured Americans:
2024 27 million
2026 CBO projection 30 million

Gas prices per gallon:
December 2024 ~$3.00
Today $4.43

[interrobang @interro_9]

"but im a white guy working on ai"

you can only fucking lol at something so incomprehensibly ignorant and out of touch

let me get this straight–

you were born and raised in quebec, and had the good fortune to study at mcgill - literally one of the world's best universities - for less than $5000 a year.

then you did graduate studies at waterloo - canada's top school for computer science, and earned a masters in maths and a phd there.

you then went on to move to America, work for Google, and later started your own ai company.

and the narrative you want to weave around your upbringing and training is that you ESCAPED canadian socialism?

so the socialism was good enough for you to grow up safe, have healthcare, receive a literal world-class education that helped you into one of the top technology firms in the world, but is also so bad that america has a moral imperative to ensure you, a technologist working there, should be granted permanent residency.

and if your lack of gratitude for your upbringing wasnt enough, you were promoting a presidential candidate who was vehemently opposed to immigration – while you, an immigrant, were staying in their country with a temporary visa.

i guess you can be smart enough to work on ai and quantum computing but still be dumb enough to not only think these things, but actually post them on twitter expecting sympathy

[Matt Popovich @mpopv]

you’d have to be steeped pretty far in confirmation bias to believe this is some intrinsic property of putting computers in buildings rather than evidence that some construction company sucks

[Basil🧡 @LinkofSunshine]

I fully respect the NYT making the 1.8 billion trump embezzlement the #1 headline of the last 3 days. They’re the only ones taking this seriously

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

The Economist shows US growth is overwhelmingly due to AI.

BBB helped, but immigration crackdowns and tariffs hurt. Manufacturing construction down 20%.

"Without the deadweight of the MAGA tax, in other words, America might be rocketing ahead at nearly 5% annualised growth"

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

Within one 24 hour period, Trump:

- got out of a $100 million IRS fine
- secured "immunity" from all future tax investigations for his family and friends
- created a $1.8 billion slush fund for lawbreaking supporters
- was reported for likely insider trading worth nearly $1 billion

All of the obvious things to say about this are true. It's bad. Nobody even tries to defend it. The closest thing to a defense you get is something about how "but Democrats suck" and "woke was also bad," which is not a defense, but rather a kind of moral blank check made out to the administration to give them the right to do anything.

But what I'm most curious about is whether this sort of lurid corruption creates a countermovement that successfully returns government to rule of law or whether it's establishing a norm of executive imperialism that every future administration will use to achieve its ends, which can always be justified by the moral blank check of "the other side is worse, so let us do whatever we want."

[Tyler McBrien @TylerMcBrien]

BLANCHE: "The United States...is hereby FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing...examinations or similar or related reviews" against Trump "or related or affiliated individuals," including family members or related companies and trusts.

[Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 @JeremiahDJohns]

Trump looting almost $2 billion from the government coffers to pay his supporters is one of the largest scandals in US history.

But our press is so beaten down and the public has become so fatigued by his constant criminality that it's barely a news story.

[Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg]

You could start by walking down the hall. See why your boss keeps pardoning people convicted of money laundering, wire fraud, tax evasion, and securities fraud.

[John A. Daly @JohnDalyBooks]

Maybe creating a $1.776 billion taxpayer fund to compensate January 6 criminals will turn things around.

[Aaron Fritschner @Fritschner]

Incredible- Trump's $2 billion taxpayer-subsidized slush fund comes with a legal disclaimer that basically says "we are not responsible for any crimes committed with this money"

[Hunter📈🌈📊 @StatisticUrban]

> Sue the federal government
> Become the federal government’s chief executive
> Order the government to settle, giving you a massive $1.8 billion in liquid cash
> Distribute at will to your cronies and yourself

Genius really. And they should be in prison for it.

[Sarah Longwell @SarahLongwell25]

The most self-evident thing in the world is that the President is committing massive fraud against the American taxpayer so he sent his VP out on a “Stop Fraud” tour as a kind of narrative jujitsu—because he thinks his voters are too stupid and partisan to notice.

[scary lawyerguy @scarylawyerguy]

Goes w/o saying that if Joe Biden ever showed this level of dismissiveness toward the financial suffering of Americans, the entire media industrial complex would have collapsed on itself like a dying star in outrage but it's Trump, so this won't even be remembered by the weekend.

[Scott Lincicome @scottlincicome]

The guy campaigned on lowering prices and then loudly prioritized a core economic policy that's specifically designed to increase prices - and THEN he bragged about the policy (repeatedly) and called the affordability issue a "hoax."

Huge mystery why Americans are so upset!

[Justin Wolfers @JustinWolfers]

Hassett, translated: Now that we have fewer immigrants, we have fewer jobs. I know that contradicts what we told you when we said immigrants were taking your jobs. I just figured you rubes would fall for the lump of labor fallacy.