360 Degree Geek

Christian. Father. Patriot. 360 degree geek

[Flopping Aces @FloppingAces]

The New York Times accidentally told the truth when it cried that the Supreme Court is “unshackling the presidency.”

Unshackling.

Interesting word.

Because that means they know the presidency was shackled.

The question is: by whom?

Not the voters.

Not Congress.

Not the Constitution.

No, the “shackles” were the entire unelected anti-Trump containment system: activist judges, permanent bureaucrats, NGO lawyers, blue-state attorneys general, media stenographers, and the rest of the courthouse Resistance industry that decided executive power was legitimate only when Democrats controlled it.

When Obama stretched authority, it was “historic leadership.”

When Biden ignored borders, loans, mandates, and emergency limits, it was “saving democracy.”

But when Trump enforces immigration law, ends “temporary” status that somehow lasted longer than most Hollywood marriages, and tells DHS to do its actual job?

Suddenly the presidency is too powerful.

Suddenly courts must intervene.

Suddenly the Founders apparently intended America to be governed by district judges in Boston, nonprofit asylum mills, and New York Times guest essayists hyperventilating into their oat milk.

That is why they are panicking.

SCOTUS is not creating a dictatorship.

It is exposing the dictatorship of the veto class.

The people who spent years using lawfare to restrain one elected president are now horrified that the Supreme Court may be cutting through their fake restraints.

The “shackles” were never constitutional guardrails.

They were political handcuffs.

And the left loved them because they only snapped shut in one direction.

Now the chains are breaking.

And the same media that cheered every injunction is suddenly terrified that Trump may have turned their lawfare machine into his legal armor.
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[End Wokeness @EndWokeness]

In 2020, Argentina tried rent control:
🔴Rental prices soared by over 140%
🔴Rental availabilities dropped 45%

In 2023, President Milei repealed it:
🟢Rental prices went down by 40%
🟢Rental availabilities soared 212%

Mamdani voters in New York City are about to learn a valuable economics lesson

[Mike Lee @BasedMikeLee]

Important point:

The SAVE America Act needs to pass no later than the first week of August

[The Rational Animal 🤔 @theobjectivist]

Yes, your rent is frozen. So is the landlord's budget to fix your heat, your leaks, and your broken freezer. But don't worry, when nothing works, at least the number on your lease stays the same. You can admire it while you eat out.

And the rent won't rise, true. Neither will any new buildings, because no one builds apartments he's forbidden to price. So enjoy the same aging unit for the next thirty years, paying yesterday's rent for tomorrow's ruins.

Freezing a price doesn't freeze reality. It freezes the supply, halts the repairs, and ends the building, while the line of people waiting for an apartment grows longer every year.

But feel the warmth of collectivism: everyone equal, shivering together in identical crumbling units, sharing the broken elevator and the dead freezer as one community.

The number stays the same. That was the promise, and that is all you'll get.

[XBradTC @xbradtc]

So, here's the deal on GEN Donahue retiring- without all the handwringing.

Three and four star generals, across the Department of War (or Defense, if you insist) and the other uniformed services, all gain and hold that rank based not on a regular promotion, but rather based upon the billet within the department that they hold.

The jobs that call for a three star, or a four star, are essentially subcabinet positions, in that they require a nomination by the President, and confirmation by the Senate.

GEN Donahue was serving as the commander of US Army Europe-Africa, a four star billet. Prior to 2020, the command was split into US Army Europe (USAEUR), and for Africa, the Southern European Task Force, Africa. Both were three star billets.

After 2020, the two commands were merged, and made a four star command.

But this year, with the increased emphasis on the Pacific, the command has been transitioned to a three star command.

Now, GEN Donahue, by law, cannot continue to serve more than 90 days as a four star unless he is assigned to a four star billet. His choices are rather stark. If he is not reassigned to another four star billet, he can retire as a four star, with the retirement pay of a four star. Or, should he choose to serve longer than 90 days, outside of a billet requiring three or four stars, he would revert to Major General, with the corresponding decrease in pay.

It's entirely reasonable for a person in that situation to chose to retire at the higher pay grade.

This is not punitive. It's simply not being selected for another position. There were only 8 statutorily authorized Army four star billets and now that total will be 7.

Not every four star will be chosen to advance. This isn't the Trump administration firing a dedicated and decorated officer for not being Trumpy enough.

Trump selecting him for Chief of Staff of the Army (or Vice Chief) was far from a foregone conclusion. If you've got eight, or sixteen job applicants, and they're all qualified, and all capable of doing the job, sometimes, you, as President, have an obligation to choose those candidates that you feel will best fulfill your strategic objectives of the Army. That's the prerogative of the President. And, like it or not, there's no asterisk by Trump's name. He is the President of the United States.

[The Vigilant Fox 🦊 @VigilantFox]

Before the hepatitis B vaccine was mandated for kids to attend school in almost all 50 states, the risk of a baby dying from hepatitis B was 1 in 7 million.

“That means you need to give 7 MILLION hepatitis B vaccines to prevent ONE death,” RFK Jr. says.

When you give 7 million vaccines to save one life, you’d better make damn sure it’s safe.

But is it really? Let’s take a look at the evidence. 🧵

[Give A Shit About Nature @giveashitnature]

You don't have to love snakes, but you should probably stop treating them like villains.

Most snakes are not medically dangerous to humans. And even the venomous ones aren't out there looking for a fight. A snake in your yard is usually doing one of three things: trying to hide, trying to find food, or trying to warm up. That's it.

Many snakes eat mice, rats, voles, slugs, insects, frogs, fish, eggs, and other snakes. Snakes keep ecosystems in balance.

Some are doing direct pest control. Some are controlling the mice that carry ticks. Some are prey for hawks, owls, herons, foxes, raccoons, and other predators.

They are not separate from the system, but an important species holding the system together.

There's even research suggesting timber rattlesnakes may reduce Lyme disease risk by eating mice and other small mammals that carry ticks. One estimate found a single timber rattlesnake could remove thousands of ticks from a site in a year just by eating tick-covered prey.

That does not mean you should pick up a rattlesnake. Please don't be that guy. But it does mean the snake you're scared of may be solving problems you didn't know you had.

If you see one, give it space and let it do its thing.

[Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok]

MASSIVE SCANDAL UNFOLDING IN DENVER

You will want to read to the end. Absolutely shocking corruption and coverup.

Denver City Council blocked Denver International Airport from leasing space to Key Lime Air, because the airline worked with ICE.

There was just one problem…

It violates FAA rules.

So what did they do?

City attorney Miko Brown allegedly urged the airport to fabricate an investigation into the airline’s safety record to cover up for illegally discriminating against the airline for political reasons.

When word got out, Brown and Mayor Mike Johnston flat out denied it.

However CBS just obtained an internal airport memo appearing to reveal the entire thing was true.

City officials conspired to discriminate against a private company for political reasons then lied about it to cover it up‼️

The @TheJusticeDept should investigate. @AAGDhillon

[War Correspondent @warDaniel47]

🚨 HOLY SMOKES. SCOTUS Justice Sam Alito asks ACLU lawyer "what is a man and a woman?" and they DON'T HAVE A DEFINITION.

Alito's response is perfect.

ALITO: What does it mean to be a man or woman?

ACLU: We do not have a definition for the Court.

ALITO: How can a court determine whether there's discrimination on the basis of s*x, without KNOWING what s*x means?!

Omg, you can't make this crap up. Seriously.

[The Ways of A Gentleman @Gentleman_Ways]

Attention, ladies.

I beg of you, please don't cover your beautiful skin with tattoos.

Your natural beauty is far more timeless than any ink. Leave your skin as nature intended.

One day, when you're holding your grandchildren, I think you'll be glad you chose timeless beauty over temporary fashion.

Ladies: Do you think tattoos are an expression of femininity or distract from it?

Men: What do you think?

[Geiger Capital @Geiger_Capital]

44% of rent stabilized units in NYC are occupied by people born outside of the US…

American-born citizens are subsidizing the foreign-born to live in our financial capital, while driving up prices of the remaining supply.

[Shipwreckedcrew @shipwreckedcrew]

More lies.

If they had lawful status when they arrived, and they maintained their lawful status until now, ending TPS does not effect them.

They may have entered legally -- with a visa -- but if they became illegal when their visa expired and they did not depart, then they are illegal aliens.

TPS provided them immunity from removal when they became illegal, but it DID NOT grant them lawful status -- EVER. TPS does not change status.

When TPS was cancelled, their status remains the same -- the simply no longer have immunity from removal.

I can keep this up all day -- you post lies and I post the law.

[Roy K. Altman @RoyKAltman]

There was no such thing as Palestine in 1000 BC. In fact, "Palestine" is a word that's made up, and there is some suggestion that Herodotus used the term as a play on words in the Greek period to refer to the Philistine people.

The Philistines, by the way, have nothing to do with modern Palestinians, modern Muslim Arabs. They are a non-Semitic people. They are an Indo-European people. They're a Greek people who spoke an Indo-European language, derivative of Greek, and who invaded, not just northern Egypt, but also southwestern Israel, the land we now know as Gaza, at around that time, about 1,000 years before the Romans arrived.

The Philistines fought, and this plays out in the Bible, they fought many wars against their rivals. Not just on the western side with the Egyptians, but also on the eastern side with the Jews. And of course, the famous battle with Goliath and David is a battle between the Jews and the Philistines.

The point is that by the time of the Greeks, the Philistines had already died out. And Herodotus was playfully making a play on words with the name Israel. The name Israel, as you know, is Hebrew for "He who wrestles with God." And so the Greek word, the ancient Greek word for wrestler, he who wrestles, is "Palaistine."

And so since the Philistines were in that land, he had called it Palaistine as a play, a transliteration of the Jewish word or the Hebrew word Israel, He who wrestles with God. The word then disappears from the lexicon, and then there is the Roman conquest of Judea, the land of Israel.

Judea, by the way, in Hebrew is just Yehudia. Jew is Yehudi. Yehudia is therefore land of the Jews, the place where the Jews are from. That's the land that the Romans conquered in 63 BC, and the Jews didn't like being conquered by the Romans for a variety of reasons, and they revolted three times.

In the third and final revolt of 132 to 135 AD, which we know as the Bar Kokhba revolt, after its leader Simon Bar Kokhba, Simon being the name Shimon, an ancient Jewish name and the second tribe of Israel, but also Bar Kokhba meaning son of the star in Hebrew.

In 135 AD, Hadrian, the emperor of Rome, says, "We're done with these Jews. They have rebelled not once, not twice, not three now three times. They do not accept our magnanimity. We have to wipe out any memory of the Jewish presence on this land."

And so he does two big things. He first destroys Jerusalem, and he renames it. The Romans like to rename things in order to erase their history. So he changes the name from Yerushalayim, Jerusalem, to Aelia Capitolina. Aelia for his family, the Aelia clan from Spain, and Capitolina for Jupiter Capitolinus, who's the sky god of the Romans.

And then he renames the land Judea after the Philistines again and calls it Palestina. And he did that both to punish the Jews and erase any connection between the Jews and their land, but also because he knew that if he named it after a people who had been dead and extinct in the archeological record for a thousand years, there was no risk that they would show up and say, "Hey, the land is our land. You named it after us."

So it was a safe way to rename the land. He named it Palestina.

I don't think he ever could have imagined just how brilliant the idea would play with young college students in American campuses 2,000 years later.

[Dennis Prager @DennisPrager]

The number of innocents killed by Leftist movements dwarfs the numbers killed by any other movement in a comparable period of time at any time in history, and certainly in the modern world.

[Evita Duffy-Alfonso @evitaduffy_1]

Me—her oldest sister. I’ll watch Valentina when my parents can’t. In fact, all my siblings argue over who will get to take care of her in the future. Only a selfish sicko would assume her siblings do not love her and would not instinctually take care of her when my parents are gone. You people are cold, egocentric, eugenic monsters.

[Rothmus 🏴 @Rothmus]

“You have people making decisions for which they pay no price when they are wrong, no matter how high a price other people pay.”
— Thomas Sowell

And this is precisely why free markets allocate scarce resources better than central government.

The $850M Obama Presidential Center is a perfect example whereby political projects get funded based on influence and legacy, and not on whether they create enough value to justify the cost.

Decision makers rarely bear the downside, but taxpayers and opportunity costs do.

In contrast, markets use prices and profit/loss to direct capital where consumers actually want it.
Bad allocations in this system fail fast.

But government has no such mechanism, just politics, prestige, and other people’s money. That’s why you get monuments and waste while productive uses get crowded out.

The selective outrage proves the point that political allocation invites arbitrary standards, whereas free markets impose reality on everyone equally.

If you want better outcomes, shrink the sphere where “no price is too big” applies.

[Dr. Maalouf ‏ @realMaalouf]

Why does no one care?

In Africa, Arab Muslims are enslaving black African Christians.

The media, progressives, Palestinian protesters, the UN, and even the Pope remain silent.

[Chris Martz @ChrisMartzWX]

In 1995, 77.1% of global primary energy was provided by fossil fuels.

As of 2024 (the latest data I could find), 76.4% still comes from fossil fuels.

That's a whopping *sarc* 0.7 percentage point drop in 30 years.

Governments have spent TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars on “green” energy projects, and while growth in renewables has been enormous (particularly solar), it has barely made a dent in the global energy mix (note, these figures are based on the substitution method for fair cross-comparison, so it slightly lowers fossil fuels) because coal, oil, and natural gas consumption continue to increase year after year.

If eco nuts like you actually wanted to “decarbonize” the economy, then a deregulation of and transition to nuclear fission would achieve that far faster.

[The Vigilant Fox 🦊 @VigilantFox]

A Harvard study tracked 2,000 people on a carnivore diet.

“About 95% of the people saw significant improvement across the board.”

Diabetics came off their insulin. They dropped the metformin, too.

DR. SHAWN BAKER: “We had like 225 diabetics in that population [of 2,000 people]. 92% of them came off all their insulin. These are all type twos. 84% came off their metformin.”

JOE ROGAN: “That’s insane.”

Who here has tried the carnivore diet? What was your experience?

[Flopping Aces @FloppingAces]

Democrats spent years building themselves a very comfortable little ecosystem. Nonprofits, NGOs, activist salaries, donor money, and a whole class of people who got paid to be professionally outraged. It worked great as long as everyone understood the deal: you get the checks, you keep the machine running, and you don’t get too ambitious about actually taking over.

Then the money started drying up and the radicals decided they were done being the help.

Now the same people who spent a decade feeding the hive are acting shocked that the hive wants the keys.

They thought they were cultivating a reliable voting bloc. Turns out they were just raising their own replacements. The ones who actually believe the slogans instead of just using them to keep the grants flowing.

So now you’ve got the old guard standing on stage looking confused while some guy named Zohran Mamdani explains that the cautious, compromising establishment they’ve been protecting has to go. And the big donors are suddenly very interested in who’s been laundering their money into this thing for the last fifteen years.

It’s almost funny watching them pretend this is some kind of surprise. They didn’t accidentally create a monster. They built the monster a nice office, gave it health insurance, and acted confused when it stopped being grateful for the opportunity.

The hive was never loyal to the people running it. It was only loyal to whoever was keeping the honey coming. And that arrangement appears to be ending.
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