Kevin Briggs

Professional landscape photographer and artist

[Chris Martz @ChrisMartzWX]

Here's a cool map you won't find anywhere else.

U.S. statewide JULY high temperature records.

40 (80% of) U.S. states set their “all-time” statewide July high temperature records before 1955; 11 of those were set in 1936 alone. Five states set theirs in 1930.

California's record of 134°F in Death Valley remains the official statewide, U.S. national, and worldwide “all-time” record high temperature for all months, although its authenticity has been challenged.

[Alexandra F. Baldwin @VerumVulnero1]

Bernie Sanders got an $800k book advance. He used that money to buy a third home.

The Vermont Food Bank says 2 in 5 Vermonters suffer food insecurity. Sanders’ book advance could have provided 3,000,000 meals.

Bernie Sanders’ greed is *literally* starving children in Vermont.

[The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee]

Mad Marx: A Terrifying Glimpse Into Our Future Under Socialism

[Rock Chartrand @RockChartrand]

Mr. Sanders appears to believe that if enough people desire another man's property, the desire itself ripens into a right. This is a curious doctrine, for it would imply that theft ceases to be theft once it becomes sufficiently popular.

The founders, being old-fashioned men, held the opposite view. They supposed that rights existed specifically to protect the minority from the appetites of the majority.

If 69% support taking a 50% ownership stake in AI companies, would 69% also be justified in taking 50% of farms, newspapers, bookstores, or Bernie Sanders' own royalties?

If not, then popularity is not the principle. Envy is.

[Rock Chartrand @RockChartrand]

It's easier to excuse a communist in 1917 than one today. They had promises. You have a century of results, mountains of historical evidence, and instant access to information. Ignorance is a much weaker defense now.

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

I get what you mean here, but saying "the socialists" will have the "new ideas" is like saying "the Shakers have all the fresh thinking." Socialism is not new. The label is about 2 centuries old, give or take. The idea is thousands of years old. There's not a single major idea proposed by the DSA crowd that wasn't an old idea before I was born. From price controls and rent-freezes, to wealth taxes, or shunning Jews. It's all old, old hat. You can agree with it. Or admire it's newfound energy or something. But the ideas are old, tried, and failed.

https://t.co/t5hiVeryGW

[Marian L Tupy @Marian_L_Tupy]

Radicals use the exceptional economic mobility, free-market wealth, and constitutional protections of the American capitalist system to campaign for that very system's destruction—all while taking for granted the liberties that would see them jailed under actual socialism.

[Rock Chartrand @RockChartrand]

The power of a billionaire isn't inherently a problem.

The power of a politician to grant favors, subsidies, regulations, bailouts, and special privileges is.

If a billionaire gets rich by serving customers, that's voluntary.

If a politician gets power by deciding who wins and loses, that's coercive.

Ro doesn't oppose concentrated power. He wants it transferred from successful producers to politicians like himself.

[Bret Weinstein @BretWeinstein]

It’s hard to believe this is real, even though we all just lived through it together.

[Jessica @JessicaTetreau]

Is she actually lecturing us about rich people from the back of a limousine 🤣

[Rock Chartrand @RockChartrand]

Politicians have a remarkable track record.

They identify a problem.
Promise that more funding will solve it.
Spend the money.
Watch the problem get worse.
Demand even more funding.

At no point is failure treated as evidence that the policy might be wrong.

The conclusion is always that reality would have cooperated if only they had been given more money and more power.

After generations of this cycle, politicians have less standing than anyone to demand trust for a new promise.

[David Zagaynov @DavidZagaynov]

The sheer scale of a trillion dollars can be hard to comprehend. Let me put it in perspective. You would be able to buy 42 miles of high speed rail in California with that much money.

[A Gene Robinson @AlBuffalo2nite]

Bernie Sanders has spent half a century in government.

Half. A. Century.

During that time the national debt exploded. Housing became less affordable. College became more expensive.

Healthcare became more expensive.

And now the man who helped oversee the system wants Americans to believe the problem is Elon Musk. The irony is almost impressive.

Every time Bernie’s solution fails, his answer is more of the same solution.

More taxes. More spending. More government. More control.

At what point does the architect of the problem stop pretending he’s the outsider?

Elon built companies.

Bernie built a political career.

One creates wealth.

One campaigns against the people who create it.

And somehow the barnacle told the builder, that he is the problem.

#AStoneGroove #SilentMajoritySpeaks

[Carol Roth @caroljsroth]

Imagine being one of the people who are coming to the platform owned by Elon to bitch about his wealth. 😂🤣

[Rock Chartrand @RockChartrand]

Bernie Sanders' condemnation of oligarchy often sounds less like a rejection of power than a demand to control it himself.

His argument begins by declaring certain levels of wealth inherently oligarchic, then ends with demanding the political power to decide how that wealth is used, taxed, regulated, and redistributed.

The complaint isn't that power exists. It's that someone else has it.