Will

Owner/Operator W Bar M Ranches. Former high tech junkie, contractor, and chef. Longhorn Football!!!

[Mike Netter @nettermike]

This article was written by a 26 yr old college student by the name of Alyssa Ahlgren, who's in grad school for her MBA. What a GREAT perspecitve..👍🏽

My Generation Is Blind to the Prosperity Around Us!
I'm sitting in a small coffee shop near Nokomis (Florida) trying to think of what to write about. I scroll through my newsfeed on my phone looking at the latest headlines of presidential candidates calling for policies to "fix" the so-called injustices of capitalism. I put my phone down and continue to look around.

I see people talking freely, working on their MacBook's, ordering food they get in an instant, seeing cars go by outside, and it dawned on me. We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we've become completely blind to it.

Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose.These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don't give them a second thought.

We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average. Thirty One Times!!!

Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful. ??

Our unappreciation is evident as the popularity of socialist policies among my generation continues to grow. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said to Newsweek talking about the millennial generation, "An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity."

Never saw American prosperity! Let that sink in.

When I first read that statement, I thought to myself, that was quite literally the most entitled and factually illiterate thing I've ever heard in my 26 years on this earth. Many young people agree with her, which is entirely misguided.

My generation is being indoctrinated by a mainstream narrative to actually believe we have never seen prosperity. I know this first hand, I went to college, let's just say I didn't have the popular opinion, but I digress.

Why then, with all of the overwhelming evidence around us, evidence that I can even see sitting at a coffee shop, do we not view this as prosperity? We have people who are dying to get into our country.

People around the world destitute and truly impoverished. Yet, we have a young generation convinced they've never seen prosperity, and as a result, we elect some politicians who are dead set on taking steps towards abolishing capitalism.

Why? The answer is this,?? my generation has only seen prosperity. We have no contrast. We didn't live in the great depression, or live through two world wars, the Korean War, The Vietnam War or we didn't see the rise and fall of socialism and communism.

We don't know what it's like to live without the internet, without cars, without smartphones. We don't have a lack of prosperity problem. We have an entitlement problem, an ungratefulness problem, and it's spreading like a plague."

[Will @ChefWillMason]

@BredsguardDalen @AprilSpark1890 When I was in school, over 40 years ago, 2 and 5 would have been perfectly fine, in my opinion. But with my children, and grandkids on the way, I’m ok with 1, 3, and 4. I know. I’m shameless.

[Kevin Bass @kevinnbass]

Last year DOJ published a report.

For every 10,000 blacks, 153 violent crimes are committed by a black person each year against a white person.

The same figure for violent crimes committed by whites against a black person: 3.4.

A black person is 50-times more likely to commit a violent crime against a white person than for a white person to commit a violent crime against a black person.

This is an extraordinary difference in the rates of violence committed between these two groups.

We are told that whites are systemically racist.

We are told that whites are successful because they oppress others.

But the facts tell the opposite story.

Blacks are not the ones being victimized.

Whites are.

Western civilization has been successful not because it was oppressive.

It has been successful because whites created, starting thousands of years ago, systems that are impartial and fair.

Today these systems are being dismantled.

Criminals are being released because of their skin color.

Law-abiding citizens are punished because of theirs.

All in service of an ideology that is simply false.

This puts everyone in danger.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

This conversation comes up daily. Not too sure our US will make it. Europe is pretty much gone. Nothing short of another round of crusades will repair the damage.

[Kevin Bass @kevinnbass]

The West is not successful because it is oppressive.

The West is successful because it created systems that are fair, impartial, and objective.

These systems are now being dismantled.

Western civilization will not survive that.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

@ohhanxiety All 10.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

Democrats want this stupid shit. Texans need to vote. Let’s get rid of this Mohammed moron and the small package Talarico as well. The dems wish to destroy everything that makes this Republic great

[Defiant L’s @DefiantLs]

Zul Mohammed from Pakistan, running for Mayor of Carrollton, TX says:

“No vet has made any sacrifice. I want to make that clear. I do not support the US military. No, I do not support the United States. I look down on both entities”

[Will @ChefWillMason]

A good friend of mine spent years down in South America. When people would ask him if he was from the US, he’d say no, he was from Texas. Most of the South Americans at the time were not fond of the states. The kicker was, he’d say we were our own republic until we were taken over by the US. He was treated like a brother in arms, and never had to buy a drink.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

@Eric_Schmitt They can leave then if they don’t like it here. Because I can assure you we don’t want to go down their socialist hell hole and will cause great harm to those who think they can change us.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

@InsideLucysHead Did anyone not get her sarcasm? Hysterical!!!

[Will @ChefWillMason]

@BellaBaddie__ Water. It’s refreshing.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

@AmericaPapaBear Educational beatdown. Common in rougher parts of the country.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

@CuriosityonX Islam and communism.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

My man, Javier, gets it!

[Teddy - PolyBackTest.com @Bitcoin_Teddy]

Javier Milei: “I thought being on the left was a mental problem. The empirical evidence is so overwhelming that it never worked anywhere, and they refused to accept it.”

“But what I discovered is that being on the left is a disease of the soul. The left is built on envy, hatred, resentment, and unequal treatment under the law. They are very violent, and since they have no way or arguments to answer, they go for physical violence.”

[Will @ChefWillMason]

We let the communists into our education system in 1979, after the creation of the not needed Dept. of Education, and the advent of the teachers unions. They, the commies, ate away at our system slowly over time. Communism plays the long game. We’ve educated a generation of weak and mentally challenged voters. So many can’t read or write. Mathematics is beyond many of them. The social constructs are more important than actual learning.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

We’ve found the same to be true in the US.

[🇯🇵SAIGOU🇯🇵郷田剛士🇯🇵 @oidonhagouda]

Bro, let’s get one thing straight.

It’s not that Japan is intolerant of Islam.

It’s that Islam is intolerant of Japanese culture.

You see it in small things, like people putting out garbage on days that aren’t garbage day. They don’t follow the local rules. They don’t care about keeping the neighborhood clean the way Japanese people have done for years.

They expect Japan to accommodate their religion and lifestyle, but they won’t accommodate Japan’s basic customs and order.

That’s the problem.

Japan doesn’t need to change its way of life to fit Islam. If anything, people who come here should respect how things are done in this country.

If they can’t do that, then maybe they shouldn’t be here in the first place.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

Leftists are clueless with respect to finance. Their ignorance, or stupidity, is breathtaking.

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Chicago lost the Bears this week. A team that's been in the city since 1921.

They didn't lose them to a bigger market or a better deal. The Bears decided they'd rather be a tenant in Indiana than deal with Illinois for one more year.

Think about how badly you have to run a place for that to be the smart move.

They lost them for two reasons.

The people running Illinois would rather villainize a builder than keep one. And they're bad at their jobs.

In 2021 the Bears spent $197M on the old Arlington Park racetrack.

Before they could break ground, Cook County valued the empty lot at $192M (Bears said $60M). They were salivating at the chance to extort a building that didn't even exist yet.

That fight dragged on for years.

The Bears were ready to put $2B into the stadium. All they wanted was a promise the county wouldn't reassess them into oblivion, plus $855M for infrastructure everyone uses. Roads, transit, utilities. A $3B project, two thirds of it private money pouring into Illinois.

Springfield had since 2021 to get this done. They dragged it to the final night of session, passed it through the Senate at 3:39AM, and the House went home without voting.

So now it's all gone.

The funniest part? This started because Cook County tried to grab the tax early. They knew a built stadium would pay $53M a year. Now they get under $4M on a vacant lot. No jobs, no buildout, no new anything.

Congrats on fighting for scraps and losing the whole prize.

Pritzker: they're "an $8.5B valued business" that doesn't need propping up.

But be smart for a second. Almost every NFL city throws in public money for a stadium. Not charity. The return is real. Tourism, hotels, restaurants, jobs, game days, property tax on a huge development. The math works.

Indiana did the math. While Illinois sat on it for years, Indiana passed a bill in months, put up $1B, and took the team.

And the Bears took a worse deal to get there. In Illinois they were going to own their stadium. In Indiana they rent it from the state. A team that wanted to build its own home gave up ownership just to escape Chicago.

Nobody won but Indiana. The Bears lost their stadium. Illinois lost the team, the $2B, and $53M a year in taxes.

Pritzker after they left: "I wasn't willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money to give it to a billionaire-owned family or team."

There it is. "Billionaire-owned."

That's how Democrats talk about any business right before they run it out of town. Call them a billionaire, act like you're saving working families, take a victory lap while the tax base drives across the state line.

Meanwhile they're running the whole state into the ground. And you already know how this ends. You're living in it.

Pensions are $143B in the hole, worst in the country and not close. You pay $6,285 a year in property taxes, double the $2,969 national average, for a city that's $1.15B in the red. The mayor called its finances "the point of no return."

When you run things this badly, you sell what's left.

They leased the parking meters for 75 years to Morgan Stanley and a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi. Took $1.15B and burned through it in two years. The investors already made it all back, with 58 years left to collect.

Sold the Skyway. Sold the downtown garages. Every asset that made money, gone for one check.

But a fixed property tax rate for a team that's been here 106 years? That's "propping up billionaires."

Companies are leaving. Boeing for Virginia. Caterpillar for Texas. Citadel for Miami. In 2023 alone Illinois lost 56,000 people and $6B in income to other states. The ones who left earned a third more than the ones who moved in.

Indiana didn't outbid anyone. AAA credit, 16 years straight. A $676M surplus. Fourth-lowest debt per person in the country. They just weren't a disaster.

Illinois could have collected $53M a year. It chose zero. Ignore all the bad management but make sure to stick it to those evil, pesky billionaires.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

I love this underdog story!!!

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

A 24-year-old Polish tennis player arrived in Paris last week ranked 114th in the world, with no sponsors, no guaranteed income, and no certainty she could even pay for her hotel room.

She had to win three qualifying matches just to enter the French Open main draw. Prize money is only paid at the end of the tournament, so a Polish sports drink brand quietly stepped in and covered her hotel bill.

Her name is Maja Chwalinska. And today, she plays in the French Open final.

Before this tournament, she had won exactly one Grand Slam main draw match in her entire career. She had battled depression so severe that in 2021 she couldn't get out of bed. She underwent knee surgery in 2022. She spent years grinding through small tournaments across Europe just to stay afloat.

Then she arrived in Paris, won three qualifiers, and kept winning. Zheng Qinwen. Elise Mertens. Maria Sakkari. Diana Shnaider. Nine straight matches. One set dropped.

She is now the first qualifier in French Open history to reach the final. The last time a qualifier reached a Grand Slam final, it was Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open. Raducanu won.

By simply making the final, Chwalinska has earned more prize money than her entire career combined. The runner-up cheque alone is $1.6 million. If she wins today, she takes home $3.25 million.
One week ago she couldn't pay for her hotel room.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

@w_terrence Sounds good to me. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

@burackbobby_ Such vitriol. What a bunch of fucking punks!

[Will @ChefWillMason]

@burackbobby_ Pretty much done with the NBA. As far as I’m concerned they can move the entire organization to china.

[Will @ChefWillMason]

It’s normal here. Especially where I live. We aim to protect ourselves from the immoral of society as well as our own government. It’s effective. That’s why the government tries in every instance they can to destroy the 2nd Amendment. They want to do things that would get them shot.