Mike Proto

Patriot. Dad. Conservative. Mets Fan. Pitt Fan. Led Head. @AFPhq alum. Tweets are my own!

[Liberty Block @LibertyBlock]

TCE podcast episode #310: protests in Ireland, migrants as tools, LA election stolen, Iran, Karmelo Anthony convicted of murder, SPLC berated by Congress

[Devon Eriksen @Devon_Eriksen_]

The message of a protest is "we don't like this".

The message of a riot is "we don't like this, and we're able to do something about it".

People who unconditionally call for peace and calm, regardless of the provocation, don't fundamentally understand how politics works in the real world.

They do understand that the purpose of politics is to provide an alternative to violence, but that's as far as their understanding goes. They don't think through the implications, usually because they are quite comfortable with things as they are.

If politics is an alternative to violence, then politics is a proxy for violence.

And that means you have to dole out power in proportion to capacity for violence. Or someone's going to figure out they can do better by flipping the table.

Monarchy wasn't replaced by democracy because of fine-sounding philosophical ideals and eloquent documents declaring this or that.

Democracy happened because if you added rifling to the flintlock firearm, suddenly a individual farmer with a tube was the pinnacle of military technology, and now you had to keep all the farmers with tubes happy by giving them political power.

(Ancient Greek democracy had a similar relationship with the hoplite warrior.)

When political systems work well, for a while, the violence they represent becomes further and further from people's minds, and those who can't effectively commit or direct violence worm their way into power, and begin to take it away from those who can.

And they'll defend their position by saying that violence is unthinkable, barbaric, always bad, must be disavowed at all costs, etc.

This isn't some sort of high-minded principle on their part. It simply means one of two things. Either "the status quo works for me, so I don't want you to upset it", or "I suck at violence, and I don't want to have to fight".

They want young men demoralized, so that their artificial meritocracy of spreadsheets, or their non-meritocracy of patronage networks, can be protected from the natural meritocracy of conflict.

This means that riots aren't actually for achieving any specific material aim. They are for reminding the comfortable that judges and bureaucrats and policemen have home addresses and families. And that violence is always on the table.

A protest would only send the message that the Irish don't want to be ethnically cleansed. But the bureaucrats and judges and lawyers already know that. They just don't care.

A riot reminds them that they have to care, because the Irish have a long tradition of doing something about it.

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

The U.K. is literally a fascist state. They hate their own citizens while defending beheaders and rapists.

[Skint Eastwood @Skint_Eastwood1]

🚨 UK Police Arrest Christian for Wearing a Sign Because It’s ‘Likely to Cause Harassment, Alarm or Distress’

Man: “Currently I’m being arrested for expressing freedom of speech.”

Officer: “This gentleman has committed an offence by displaying a sign or writing that is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.”

Man: “Cuffing me for what? Freedom of expression, freedom of speech, inciting nothing. I have calm, rational debates with people. I was not disrespectful. I love people. I am a Christian.”

The man is then loaded into the back of a police van and taken away, all for wearing a sign that someone might find offensive.

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

@CBSNews "far-right conservative groups" - Just can't help yourselves, eh. CBS = Vile scum.

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

@ernestdove Time is running out for him.

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

@can_throwaway @sal_licata That's what I get for asking AI, LOL! I stand corrected. Credit to Stearns for picking him.

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

@sal_licata Eppler was at the helm when the Mets drafted Benge in June of '23. Stearns was hired after the '23 season.

[Liberty Block @LibertyBlock]

Debate: Does Florida’s lawsuit against ChatGPT for harming minors violate the First Amendment?

[Liberty Block @LibertyBlock]

TCE podcast episode #309: CA elections, FL vs. ChatGPT, NJ protests, Trump vs. Iran, and UK government is sad

[Liberty Block @LibertyBlock]

Paxton landslide win over Cornyn; is Trump taking the party over and will it last? The RINO’s in charge are not happy!

[Leave Delaware @LeaveDelaware]

🚨ExxonMobil shareholders just approved (71.3%) to leave New Jersey for Texas.

Incorporated in NJ since 1882. After 144 years, it's over.

One of the largest companies in the world had every option on the table. They didn't pick Delaware. They picked Texas.

Glass Lewis said no. ISS said no. Shareholders said yes.

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

@Ben_Yoel What about the 2 years before that? 2025 is the outlier.

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

@PSLToFlushing And you know they will fittingly lose a Top 6 protected pick in the draft lottery after this disaster of a season - book it!

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

@NYMhistory I was at that one!

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

@KurtSchlichter Funny. Chris Christie knows a thing or two about revenge. Just ask the former mayor of Fort Lee. #Bridgegate

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

@JulienDecanali @JakeBrownLive Bad contracts are bad contracts. Bichette's deal will be a massive albatross if he doesn't turn things around. He's not opting out if he is performing this badly.

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

@JakeBrownLive They bought into his fluke season and signed him because they thought he was a nice guy. That's poor GM'ing.

[Mike Proto @MikeGSP]

@SteveGelbs You get what you pay for. Another Stearns fail.

[Liberty Block @LibertyBlock]

The ongoing war in Iran, Anthony Fauci is safe from prosecution (sort of), Dems attack Virginia Supreme Court, and much more.