Justin Akins

[Justin Akins @Justin_Akins]

One of the most comical things I've ever seen.

[@amuse @amuse]

INSANITY: LAPD guidelines forced police to allow a suspect in a stolen sedan to stop at a gas station to refuel during a high speed chase. To reduce risk to the public they allowed air support to track while the suspect refueled before resuming getaway.

[Geiger Capital @Geiger_Capital]

The United States is 3 human lifetimes old.

That’s it. In those short years we invented the light bulb, the telephone, the airplane, the transistor and the internet. We turned a few wooded colonies into the most powerful nation in the history of the world.

[CoFounders Nik @CoFoundersNik]

Stunning lack of self-awareness.

A socialist mayor lecturing America on the evils of capitalism...

His father makes $350k/year teaching African History and Colonialism. No other country on earth pays academics that kind of money for that subject.

Thanks capitalism.

His mother came to Harvard at 19 on a scholarship and became a millionaire making documentaries. You dont become a millionaire documentarian under socialism.

Thanks capitalism.

America is NOT exceptional BECAUSE "we are richer, stronger, more powerful" than everyone else.

No.

We are richer, stronger and more powerful BECAUSE we are exceptional.

Our improbable origin.
Our ideological uniqueness.
Our capitalistic system.

We built a system that protects the right to debate, argue, compete, and fail without fear of jail or worse.

That's why we've been the NUMBER ONE immigrant destination on earth for 180 years!

Since 2000, we have taken in almost 30 million immigrants. There is no close 2nd.

If America is so rigged and divided between the "oligarchs and the oppressed" then why do immigrants (just 15% of the population) come here and start over 30% of new businesses?

[Bad Hombre @Badhombre]

Nothing stopping you from writing a check to the IRS.

How much of your $233 million are you going to give away? Lead by example.

Elon already paid the largest tax bill in American history — $11 Billion.

I’ve also noticed you haven’t made your tax returns public. Why is that?

[Justin Akins @Justin_Akins]

If they’re not citizens and legal voters - then good. Chuck knows what he’s saying.

[Leading Report @LeadingReport]

Sen. Chuck Schumer warns the Save America Act will “remove 25 million people” from the voter rolls.

[Justin Akins @Justin_Akins]

@DailyCaller @SenThomTillis This you?

[Justin Akins @Justin_Akins]

Honestly the government spending $10M on pressure washers, paint and some pool water seems about the least wasteful thing they could do.

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

The Reflecting Pool on the National Mall has been refilled following President Trump’s renovations.

The project ultimately took six weeks and cost more than $10 million, far more than Trump initially projected. https://t.co/no9QuP1lmu

[Justin Akins @Justin_Akins]

@95KeepPounding I’m just saying, but kinda sad they named their most prized possession after a guy who was only in charge for 5 years, no?

[Seth Keshel @RealSKeshel]

I love how “no political experience” is the defense for returning power to people who have nothing but political experience and a long track record of destroying everything they govern.

[Justin Akins @Justin_Akins]

If you’re a resident of LA, what do you have to lose? Elect this guy and see what he can do. My guess, your day to day gets better. And you’ll look to elect more people like him - which is exactly why the people in charge need Karen Bass to be mayor.

[Spencer Pratt @spencerpratt]

Karen always likes to talk about HER experience and never YOUR experience in her city…stepping over homeless drug addicts having your, business tagged up every night, no street lights. If she is so experienced with governance, why is she so bad at governance? What does that say about all of her illustrious experience? I actually care more about YOUR daily experience in LA. I have all the experience that I need. I have experienced the consequences of Karen Bass’ failed leadership. All of us have. She needs to step aside.

[Justin Akins @Justin_Akins]

“Onto his burned LA lot…”. Um, sounds like he had a residence until, you know it was allows to burn to the ground by gross incompetence shown by the mayor in office - who happens to also be running against him.

[Gabe Sanchez @iamgabesanchez]

.@spencerpratt's mayoral run is a blatant grift. He's weaponizing the wildfires for sympathy while chasing taxpayer-funded perks, including the mayor's mansion.

When questions surfaced about his eligibility after moving to his parents' Santa Barbara County home, he took out an SBA loan, bought an Airstream trailer, and had it craned onto his burned Pacific Palisades lot just to manufacture LA residency for his campaign.

Why should anyone trust him to manage a city when he couldn't manage his own checkbook? He and Heidi torched $10 million on her failed music career, $4,000 bottles of wine, and a million-dollar crystal collection before nearly declaring bankruptcy.

Now he wants access to City Hall and all the perks that come with it?

[Justin Akins @Justin_Akins]

@RepBrandonGill With all due respect (and some sarcasm) welfare is the economy. 🤔

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I have two stacks on my desk. The left stack is financial disclosure forms from members of Congress. The right stack is waivers for members who filed their financial disclosures late.

The right stack is always taller.

On Wednesday morning, I watched a soldier get arrested on CNN.

I am a Disclosure Analyst for the House Ethics Committee. I have held this position for eleven years. My job is to receive the forms, verify their completeness, and file them. I do not investigate. I do not flag. I do not refer. I file. I have a lanyard. The lanyard says ETHICS.

The soldier's name is Gannon Ken Van Dyke. He is thirty-eight years old. He was stationed at Fort Bragg. He was Special Forces. In December, he created an account on a prediction market called Polymarket. On January 2nd, he bet $32,500 that the president of Venezuela would be removed from power. On January 3rd, he helped remove the president of Venezuela from power. He collected $409,881.

He has been charged with five federal crimes. Commodities fraud. Wire fraud. Unlawful use of confidential government information. Theft of nonpublic government information. Unlawful monetary transaction. The Department of Justice called it "the first-ever insider trading prosecution on event contracts."

I watched this on the television in our break room. Then I walked back to my desk and processed a late financial disclosure from a member of the House Financial Services Committee who purchased $250,000 in bank stocks eleven days before his subcommittee held a closed-door hearing on proposed capital reserve changes.

The filing was forty-seven days late. The STOCK Act requires disclosure within forty-five days. The penalty for late filing is $200.

I waived it.

I waive most of them. In 2021, fifty-four members of Congress and senior staff violated the reporting rules. The fines were minimal. Most were waived. I have a form for the waiver. The form has a box that says "Reason." I write "administrative delay." In ethics, "administrative delay" means the member's office forgot and then remembered when a reporter called. My approval rate is one hundred percent. In any other field, that number would trigger an audit. In mine, it is called thoroughness.

Let me show you what I processed this year.

January. A senator on the Armed Services Committee sold defense contractor shares worth $1.2 million. Three days later, his committee received a classified briefing that the Iran campaign had exceeded its projected cost by 340%. The stock dropped 8%. He filed the disclosure sixty-one days late. I calculated the fine. $200. His chief of staff asked if it could be waived. He did not ask what the senator traded on. Nobody asks that. The form does not have a field for it. I waived the fine. The senator's portfolio returned 23.4% in 2025. The S&P 500 returned 16.8%.

February. A representative on the Energy and Commerce Committee bought pharmaceutical stocks worth $400,000. Two weeks later, her committee advanced a bill that would extend patent exclusivity for the exact drug class she purchased. The stocks rose 14%. She filed on time. There was no fine. There was no investigation. There was nothing to investigate because buying stocks in companies regulated by your own committee is not illegal. It is legal. The STOCK Act made it legal by making it disclosed. In Congress, disclosed means legal. In my office, legal means filed.

March. A member whose spouse manages a portfolio worth $9.2 million reported forty-three separate transactions in a single quarter. Twelve of them were in sectors directly affected by legislation the member co-sponsored. The timing on eight of those twelve was within a two-week window of committee action. I logged all forty-three. None were flagged. We do not flag. We file.

I asked my supervisor once what would happen if I flagged a filing. She said we do not have a form for that. I never asked again.

In 2020, I processed 847 disclosures. In 2023, 1,211. In 2025, 1,614. The number of enforcement actions in each of those years was zero. The numerator changes. The denominator does not.

I want to tell you about the soldier again.

He made $409,881. He tried to delete his Polymarket account by calling customer service and saying he lost access to his email. He moved his profits into a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He used his real identity. He placed thirteen bets. Every single one was connected to an operation he personally participated in.

In my eleven years, I have processed disclosures from members of Congress who traded on:

Pending FDA approvals they learned about in committee.
Defense appropriations they voted on.
Trade policy they negotiated.
Pandemic response measures they drafted.
Interest rate decisions they were briefed on before the public.

None of them have been charged. None of them have been investigated by the Department of Justice. None of them have been referred to the SEC. The STOCK Act has produced zero prosecutions since it was signed on April 4th, 2012.

Fourteen years. Five hundred and thirty-five members. $635 million in trades last year alone. Zero cases.

My daughter asked me once what happens when someone breaks the rules. I told her we write it down. She asked what happens after that. I said it depends. She was nine. She is twenty now. It does not depend. Nothing happens after that.

The soldier made $409,881 and faces decades in prison. Nancy Pelosi entered Congress in 1987 with a portfolio worth approximately $785,000. It is now worth $133.7 million. That is a return of 16,930%. The Dow Jones returned 2,300% over the same period. Professional fund managers who beat the market for three consecutive years are considered exceptional. She has beaten it for thirty-seven. If a hedge fund produced those returns, the SEC would subpoena the records on a Thursday. She produced them from a building with a chapel and a gift shop.

She announced her retirement last year. No investigation was opened. No disclosure was flagged. Her filings were on time. In my office, on time means compliant. Compliant means closed.

I want to tell you about the fine.

$200. That is the maximum penalty for violating the STOCK Act's disclosure requirements. $200 for a member of Congress whose portfolio gained $4.7 million in a single quarter. I calculated what $200 represents as a percentage of $4.7 million. It is 0.004%. I could not find a comparison that made it meaningful. It is less than the price of the parking pass in the Rayburn garage. It is less than lunch at the members' dining room if you order the crab cakes, which I am told are excellent though I eat at my desk.

Since 2012, thirty-one bills have been introduced to restrict congressional trading. I keep a list. The list is longer than the STOCK Act itself.

On March 5th, 2026, a representative from Michigan introduced the thirty-second. He called it the "No Getting Rich in Congress Act." The bill would prohibit the President, Vice President, members of Congress, and their spouses from trading individual stocks, cryptocurrency, futures, and commodities while in office.

The bill was referred to committee. The committee has not scheduled a hearing. The committee is chaired by a member whose spouse executed $2.1 million in trades last year.

The bill will be reviewed. In my office, reviewed means read. Read means acknowledged. Acknowledged means a status has been assigned. A status is the absence of an action that has been given a name so it looks like one.

The soldier used classified information to make $409,881 on a prediction market. He has been charged with five federal crimes. The Department of Justice announced the case on the same day I processed three disclosures from members who traded on committee knowledge worth a combined $3.8 million.

The difference between the soldier and the members is not what they did. It is the building they did it in. He did it from Fort Bragg. They did it from the Capitol. He used a prediction market. They used the New York Stock Exchange. He bet on a military operation. They bet on the legislation they write.

He did not write the law. They did. They wrote the STOCK Act. Then they funded its enforcement at zero dollars. Then they set its maximum penalty at $200. Then they gave my office the authority to waive it. Then they traded $635 million.

The soldier flew to Caracas. He breached a compound. He put his body between a mission and a bullet. The people who ordered the operation were in a building with a credenza and sparkling water. They did not go to Caracas. They went to their brokerage accounts. The soldier made $409,881 and is now in federal custody. The people who knew what he was going to do before he did it made more and filed less. His prosecution is not a failure of the system. It is the system. One conviction per decade, at the lowest level, so the briefing slides can say enforcement exists. The $409,881 is not the crime. It is the cost of making $635 million look supervised.

In my field, we call this self-regulation.

The soldier's Polymarket account has been frozen. His military career is over. He will spend years in federal prison. My office will process every congressional disclosure filed this year. Every trade logged. Every $200 fine calculated and waived. The system is immaculate.

Fourteen years. Zero prosecutions. $635 million a year. A 16,930% return.

I have not leaked a document. I have not filed a complaint. I have not deviated from the process one single time. The process was written by the people whose forms I process.

As long as the disclosures go up and the cases don't, my performance review says I am meeting expectations.

My lanyard still says ETHICS. In eleven years, nobody has asked me to define the word.

[Justin Akins @Justin_Akins]

@TONYxTWO @grok who is this pastor?

[Pete Kaliner @PeteKaliner]

The administration listed the objectives from Day One:
1. Destroy the ballistic missile & drone production base
2. Destroy the Iranian Army & Navy
3. Eliminate Iran's ability to threaten its neighbors
4. Destroy the nuclear program

I hope this helps, Governor.
#NCpol

[Sarah Adams @sarahadams]

It’s amazing how many people on this platform have clearly never watched a real negotiation with a terrorist regime or any terrorist entity for that matter. This isn’t sunshine and rainbows. It’s pressure, consequences, and making it unmistakably clear that if the Iranian regime won’t change their ways, they highly risk being ended.

Let’s get something straight, because this keeps getting butchered, the civilization he is talking about ending is the Islamist regime, the assholes that took over 47 years ago and literally ruined the original Persian civilization in Iran that no one in the west seems to ever show empathy for. That distinction shouldn’t be this hard. And no, they shouldn’t be forced to be subservient to terrorists for another 50 years because you with 50,000 followers on some social media echo chamber said so.

While some rush to defend a failed terrorist state, that same regime has been hanging teenagers this whole past week. I’ve seen zero concern over that, they’ve also been sending 12 year olds to be cannon fodder. Spare me the outrage.

And to those immediately spiraling into “this means nuclear war,” please chill and relax a little. All this literally is ending a future nuclear threat. Not every hard-line equals global catastrophe. That’s not how this works. You’ve grown so used to watching terrorist pandering that you don’t even recognize what resolve looks like. The regime are paper tigers let them fold or make a choice that will lead to their ultimate demise.

As Winston Churchill put it, “We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.”

[Justin Akins @Justin_Akins]

@BasedMikeLee @RogerMarshallMD Just read a list of every instance where ID is required in America. That should get you at least a couple of days.

[ZitoSalena @ZitoSalena]

TMZ followed by several different other "news" sites (I use that term lightly) published a story with this all caps headline "PETE HEGSETH
BLEW BILLION$ ON FRUIT BASKETS, LOBSTER" accompanied by a photo with him, surrounded by a bunch of plastic lobsters.

If you've never covered the military, or served, or if you don't have any family or friends in the military this would seem like a shocking story.

But it's not--not even remotely.

It is a common practice for our country to provide these special meals to our service men and women at least once a week--Has been for decades.

I did my due diligence to prove my point to anyone who doubts my accuracy -- in 2009 when Robert Gates was the secretary defense during the Obama administration I present you with a story from a reporter who was embedded with the soldiers in Afghanistan.

"The lobsters and crab legs are shipped from the United States and driven down on a refrigerated truck from Bagram.
On seafood night, the crew serves up 400 of the tasty tails, 130 pounds of Alaskan King crab legs, and 135 pounds each of shrimp and scallops."

Here is the link: https://t.co/71KY99QS4v

And here is a story from 2024 when Lloyd Austin was the secretary of defense and Joe Biden was the president of the United States.

"The military spent $103.7 million on meat, fish and poultry, including $16.6 million on ribeye steak and 147 orders of lobster tail for $6.1 million.

Orders of blueberries, ice cream and doughnuts also exceeded $100,000."

https://t.co/jvObGKqcb4

I am once again disappointed with the lack of balance and context in my profession. Deeply embarrassed and disappointed in members of Congress, who were tweeting this out. Why? Well because how is it that they don't know this? 

You may or may not like who is the current president of the United States, but your obsession should not make something that is both a norm but also a show of gratefulness for our soldiers, an outrage to satisfy your unhappiness.

[TankerTrackers.com, Inc. @TankerTrackers]

SKYLIGHT (9330020) wasn't passing through the Strait of Hormuz. She's been anchored in the Musandam governorate of Oman (north of UAE at 26.288021, 56.266388) since 2026-02-22. This small 11K DWT tanker, mostly used for fueling other tankers, has been blacklisted by the US since 2025-12-18. Iran specifically hit one of their own. Tehran's tanker theatrics on full display.

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Unrealized gains tax for Gen-Z:

You buy a Pokémon card for $50.

Someone offers you $500 for it. You say no. You love that card. You're keeping it.

The government says: "Cool, but that card is worth $500 now. You owe us $100 in taxes."
You: "…I didn't sell it."

Government: "Don't care. Pay up."

You don't have $100 lying around. So you're forced to sell the card you love just to pay a tax on money you never received.

Next month? That card drops back to $50.

Your card is gone. Your money is gone. And the government shrugs.

That's a wealth tax on unrealized gains. They don't pay you back the tax...

Now picture this.

Your mom calls you crying. She has to sell the house she raised you in. Not because she can't afford it. She's lived there 30 years. It's paid off.

But some website says it's worth more now and the government says she owes $15,000 she doesn't have.

So she sells your childhood home. The kitchen where she made you breakfast. The doorframe where she marked your height every birthday.

Gone.

To pay a tax on money that was never real.

Now picture the opposite.

Your dad put everything into his small business. For 20 years he built it from nothing. One year the business is "valued" at $2 million on paper. He owes a massive tax bill. He empties his savings. Sells his truck. Borrows money. Pays it.

Next year the market crashes. His business is worth $200,000.

He lost everything to pay a tax on a number that doesn't exist anymore.

Does the government give him his money back?
No.

Does the government give him his truck back?
No.

Does the government care?
No.

They sold this idea as "taxing billionaires." But billionaires have armies of lawyers, offshore accounts, and trusts. They'll be fine.

You know who won't be fine? Your mom. Your dad. Your neighbor with a small business. The farmer down the road who's had the same land for four generations and now has to sell it because dirt got expensive.

You're not taxing wealth. You're taxing people for owning things.

It's like getting a parking ticket for a car you might drive somewhere someday.

They want you to own nothing and be happy. To fund the fraud, waste and abuse of the welfare state they created.

There is enough money. More tax isn't needed. It's all a lie. But you've been gaslit into believing this is a rich vs poor debate.

I hope you understand what's at stake.