Kaiser

i post about politics

[Chris Pope @CPopeHC]

Denmark actually raises slightly *less* in revenue from the rich than the United States, but substantially *more* from those with low incomes.

See "The American Way of Welfare", p117-18:
https://t.co/Ee7VwhDGkn

[Corey Walker 🇺🇸 @CoreyWriting]

We live in a world in which every policy decision people dislike is compared to the Holocaust.

Border enforcement, abortion restrictions, and conventional warfare are not an analog for the Holocaust or Nazis.

[Insurrection Barbie @DefiyantlyFree]

WHAT WE GIVE ISRAEL

The standard US military aid package is $3.8 billion per year $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing plus $500 million for joint missile defense programs. Israel must spend most of this on US-made products and services, and by 2028 essentially all of it must be spent in America.

WHAT ISRAEL GIVES BACK

1. F-35 R&D Savings: 55 billion
Israel resolved multiple technical issues during the F-35’s early development, reducing US R&D costs by an estimated $55 billion and accelerating deployment timelines.  The total F-35 program cost was $55 billion in R&D Israel’s combat testing effectively saved the US from having to discover and fix those problems on their own dime.

2. Intelligence Value: equivalent to 5 CIAs (75 billion/year)

General George Keegan, former Chief of US Air Force Intelligence, stated that Israel’s intel value equals “5 CIAs” providing a 400% return on investment on the $3.8 billion aid package. One CIA budget runs approximately $15 billion.  Five times that equals roughly $75 billion worth of intelligence annually for $3.8 billion in aid.

3. Strategic Base Value: $15–20 billion/year

As stated by Admiral Elmo Zumwalt and General Alexander Haig, Israel is the largest US aircraft carrier that does not require US military personnel on board, cannot be sunk, and is deployed in a critical region sparing the US the need to manufacture, deploy, and maintain real aircraft carriers with ground divisions, which would cost the US $15–20 billion annually. 

4. F-35 Export Multiplier: $40 billion in sales, $173 billion backlog
Israel’s battle-tested performance and upgrades to the F-35 contribute to $40 billion in US exports and a $173 billion backlog for US industry.  Israel essentially serves as the world’s most credible advertisement for American weapons.

5. Jobs and Economic Output: 255,000 jobs, $72 billion annually
The F-35 economic engine alone supports 290,000 US employees and $72 billion in annual economic output.  Israeli stakeholders hold contracts with over 1,000 American companies across 48 states, DC, and Puerto Rico.

Why do people need to lie about this?

Because they have nefarious reasons.

There’s no other reason to lie about this stuff.

[Adin - عدین - עדין @AdinHaykin1]

Let's check Hamas charter then

Oh wait...

[Doctor-Baron 17cShyteposter, DDS @17cShyteposter]

"So you're telling me that in an election where Massie's opponent won 55% of the vote, that opponent *also* won 56% of the mail-in ballots?"

"Yes. It just couldn't be clearer what happened here."

[Kaiser @SkyeSands2]

One of very few Trump primary challenges I support. If this holds good riddance

[Zachary Donnini @ZacharyDonnini]

Strong drop for Gallrein, and per @DecisionDeskHQ, he is also running better in Election Day votes than in AB/EV there.

Massie is in big big trouble, as his early Election Day gains were not large enough in the first place and have not appeared consistently in newer counties.

[Adin - عدین - עדין @AdinHaykin1]

"78 years of Israeli oppression!!!"

First permanent checkpoint: 2001
First airstrike: 2001
Building of security fence: 2002
Beginning of the Gaza blockade: 2007

[Jacob Ben-David Linker 🇺🇸🕎🇺🇸✡️🇺🇸🕎🇺🇸 @JacobALinker]

In his 11/4/2023 piece "Losing Hope in the West Bank", Kristof says that he has no interest in checking to see if what he is told by people he barely knows is true, because "alternative narratives" are "real to those inhabiting it".

[Scott Winship @swinshi]

Piketty-Saez-Zucman have been thoroughly discredited, and if they were conservatives, claims this wrong would never have been given serious consideration.

[Amelia Adams @neuroticjewgay]

Crazy how leftists went from “punch Nazis” to “you need to take the swastikas into context”

[Possum Reviews @ReviewsPossum]

"We weren't allowed to trick voters with a deceitfully phrased measure which was put on the ballot illegally after violating the state's rule that proposed amendments must be posted in circuit clerk offices for 90 days beforehand, so we have to kill you now."

[Christian Heiens 🏛 @ChristianHeiens]

California voters voted to ban illegals from accessing welfare and to enshrine marriage as only existing between one man and one woman.

Liberal judges overturned both referendum results, and Liberals then celebrated these things as "Progress".

Your fake moralizing about democracy means nothing.

Democrats only support "Democracy" when the result is in the service of Leftism. The moment "the people" vote to do something they oppose, it suddenly becomes an illegitimate tool of oppression that must be dismantled.

[Anthony DiGiorgio, DO, MHA @DrDiGiorgio]

This is the ultimate midwit healthcare take.

No, 32 countries have not “figured out” universal healthcare.

The UK has “free” healthcare, and roughly 1 in 3 cancer patients in England still fail to start treatment within 62 days of urgent referral.

Canada has “free” healthcare, and the median wait for neurosurgical treatment is around a year.

Australia has “free” healthcare, and over half the country still buys private insurance despite paying for a public universal system with their taxes.

Switzerland has universal coverage, because residents are required to buy private insurance. There is no government system where benevolent bureaucrats tuck you in at night with a warm blanket and an MRI appointment.

The actual lesson from other wealthy countries is not “they figured it out.”

America’s system has huge problems. Our prices are insane, insurance markets are distorted, and hospital systems are cartelized. Our regulations make care more expensive than it needs to be.

Yet we still guarantee access to even the 8% who don’t have coverage. We give easy routes to qualify for medicaid for those with disabilities.

Pretending the rest of the world solved healthcare because they slapped the word “universal” on a rationing scheme is not analysis.

It is bumper sticker policy for people who think access means having a card in your wallet while you wait a year to see the doctor you need.

[Jason Miyares @JasonMiyaresVA]

If Abigail Spanberger and Virginia Democrats had paid attention my October 2025 AG’s Opinion that made clear this scheme was unconstitutional and illegal, they could have saved more than $70 million, countless headaches, and months of obnoxious television ads defending the indefensible.

Instead, they ignored the law, wasted taxpayer money on running a special election, and dragged Virginians through a completely avoidable mess.

[Tim Anderson @AssocAnderson]

Many of you on the left are commenting that the decision was 4-3, as if the math somehow changes what actually happened. Four Justices on the Virginia Supreme Court canceled the votes of every person who voted “yes.” All the money. All the effort. Cancelled.

I know it is easy to blame the Court for what happened today. But here is the absolute truth:

The Virginia Democrats broke the law. They did it openly, blatantly, and with complete disregard for the consequences. They believed they were untouchable because they controlled the executive branch and the legislative branch. The acted like mob bosses with no accountability. But in a government with checks and balances - the Courts always have the final say.

Your vote was not canceled because four justices woke up and decided to invalidate an election. Your vote was canceled because Virginia Democrats put the Court in a position where the law required intervention.

You should absolutely be angry that your vote was taken away. But be angry at the people who ignored the law and caused this mess in the first place. If Democrats had simply followed the Constitution and done it correctly, none of this would have happened.

[Haviv Rettig Gur @havivrettiggur]

No, the anti-Israel campaign -- its scale, its intensity, the repetition and regularity of its protests, its demand to relitigate the 1940s -- are not explainable by the "sheer brutality of Israel's wars."

I could concede literally every claim about Israeli brutality, and it still wouldn't explain the vast majority of the anti-Israel phenomenon.

Vastly more brutal wars have taken place just in the past decade, some of them underwritten by Western nations and employing Western weapons, and these haven't drawn one percent of the cultural response.

No nation on Earth has been made untouchable in the same way, has been declared definitionally illegitimate. No other nation on Earth was declared by Greta Thunberg the spearhead of global capitalism as an explanation for why its dismantling is more important than the extinction threat of climate change.

To pretend this is all just ordinary people organically responding to a terrible war is to forget everything one knows about human nature -- as literally the next ignored war will demonstrate. (Actually, as simultaneous wars with higher death tolls have already demonstrated.)

I like Sohrab, I consider him thoughtful and serious and honest and always capable of cutting through the chaff and going against the grain. But here he's fallen with the rest.

[Jonathan Eric Lewis @LewisJonathanE]

I would never define myself as a "genocide scholar," but I have taught university-level classes on the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan genocide, and have published professionally on the topic

And I can say that Elliot is 100 percent correct

The elements of the crime of genocide are not remotely there with Gaza

The genocide accusation against Israel isn't a thoughtful scholarly assessment

It's propaganda meant to legitimize violence against Jews

That's why the accusation existed in antizionist circles well before October 7

[Agrippa @agrippa_dr]

Three businessmen are comparing why their companies were shut down:

“My margins were too big, they accused me of price gouging.”

“My margins were too big small, they said my business wasn’t viable.”

“My margins were the same as everyone else, they accused me of price fixing”

[lelemSLP @lelemSLP]

"Palestine" already exists.

But for Muslims it's not enough. It's never enough for them.

They invented another "Palestine" and they'll demand it forever.

Because for them, as long as indigenous Jews have even small piece of land - "Palestine" isn't free (of Jews).