Alex Slusky

Founder, Vector Capital. Investor, operator, company builder. Kyiv-born immigrant. Amateur foreign and economic policy strategist.

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

@RoKhanna But Nazi tattoos, sexting, and pathological lying are not a red line? You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

@RoKhanna @AbdulElSayed As electable as Graham Platner?

[Thor Halvorssen @ThorHalvorssen]

Delcy Rodríguez, the "acting" president of Venezuela has declared a state of emergency.

What you are watching from Venezuela is more than a natural disaster story. It is a governance autopsy.

Hundreds are confirmed dead and the real toll is rising because no one is coming to rescue those still trapped in the rubble.

Let's break it down: Twin 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes. Buildings collapsed in Caracas and neighboring cities.

And where are the ambulances?

Where are the fire trucks?

Where is the state?

There are no emergency services. Because there is no state. There is only a criminal enterprise that wears a costume. The state built a machinery to repress. Silence. Torture. Kill. Not to rescue.

To every American businessperson who has traveled to Caracas in the last few months, met with Delcy Rodríguez, signed deals, convinced themselves that "things are changing" and that engagement is pragmatic. This is for you…

For those who believe the American government fiction that "everything is going great" with Delcy…. you are watching your thesis collapse in real time, under rubble, with no one coming to help.

The fiction that Venezuela is "open for business" exists for one reason: Delcy and her brother Jorge need your money, your legitimacy, and your silence. They have no intention of reforming. They respond that they just "don't know" when elections will take place. They have no intention of being held accountable for the billions looted, the political prisoners disappeared, the diaspora of more than eight million people. They need you as props. They need you to keep telling Washington that things are "great!" And that Delcy is exactly what Venezuela needs right now to "stabilize" and "reform."

What this earthquake reveals, as every crisis in Venezuela reveals, is that Maduro and his cronies hollowed out every institution. PDVSA. The hospitals. The fire departments. Civil defense. Emergency services. All of it stripped to the bone and the proceeds wired offshore.

The death toll will be much higher precisely because of what the people now in power did over the last 25 years.

Let's be clear: The people dying tonight and in the next few days under collapsed buildings in Caracas are not dying because of an earthquake. They are dying because of 25 years of systematic looting by the same people now issuing press releases about a "state of emergency." Because they're wholly unprepared. Because they looted everything. Did away with talent. And on top of all of this have zero empathy or motivation to help anyone but themselves. They didn’t care about millions of people fleeing into a jungle and walking hundreds of miles to freedom. Why would they care about survivors of this natural disaster?

The media locally isn't reporting or showing the images of the devastation. They're terrified of upsetting the dictatorship.

And tonight:

Not a firefighter in sight. Not an ambulance in sight. Just cameras, and Delcy, and the performance of governance where none exists.

Those businesspeople were warned. The Venezuelans who fled told you. The human rights organizations told you. The evidence was always there.

Now you have photographs.

[Rocket Lab @RocketLab]

The Space Force called, and we launched. From call up to lift-off in just 16 hours 42 minutes 🎯 Rocket Lab has made history - the fastest response time ever for a @USSF_SSC Tactically Responsive Space mission.

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

This is a tragedy not only for California’s citizens but for the entire US. We can’t afford to have our most creative state descend into incompetence and failure.

[Fareed Zakaria @FareedZakaria]

California is one of the most dynamic places on the planet.

But it is a case study in how a rich society can spend more and more while producing less and less of what its ordinary citizens need.

My take:

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

The only failure here is your inability to understand economics.

1) Why are comparing Elon’s paper wealth (a balance sheet item) to the GDP of a nation (income statement item)? Please explain the relationship.

2) Do you understand incentives? When you tax something you get less of it. Do we want fewer rockets and fewer electric cars? Didn’t think so.

Ro - many of us supported you when you promised to be the Congressman from Silicon Valley. How did you become the Congressman from the Soviet Union?

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

@RoKhanna @grahamformaine What happened to “believe all women”? Locking your girlfriend in a room qualifies as “mere toxicity”? You will deeply regret supporting this misogynist scumbag. A permanent stain on your character.

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

@grahamformaine In 149 days, everyone will be embarrassed they supported a lying misogynist Nazi sympathizer who lost a winnable seat in a blue state.

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

@grahamformaine My great grandmother was killed in Babiy Yar by people wearing Totenkopf insignia. You wore it on your body for two decades. Crawl back into whatever hole you emerged from.

[Milton Friedman Quotes @MiltonFriedmanW]

“It is so hard for people to get out of the notion that life is a zero-sum game. They think if one man benefits, another must lose. But in a free market, both people can benefit.”

— Milton Friedman

[The Vigilant Fox 🦊 @VigilantFox]

Bill Maher asks how Mississippi is kicking California’s ass in education, and Texas is “blowing them away” in green energy for “way less money.”

“Did you know that a black fourth grader in Mississippi is two and a half times as likely to be proficient in math and reading as one in California? Mississippi is kicking our ass in education and for way less money. We’re 37th in fourth-grade reading, they’re ninth.”

“Texas is kicking our ass in green energy. The average time to get solar panels connected there is three to four months. About 1,000 days faster than it took me. Remember when I was trying to get my solar hooked up? It would have been quicker to build a windmill.”

“Texas has passed California in solar and blows away California when it comes to wind and energy storage. How does a state with no pro-climate policies produce better climate results than a state where here, even though we have so much better bumper stickers on our Priuses?”

“I’ll tell you why. Because you’re allowed to build there because every third person in Texas isn’t someone whose job it is to make sure nothing gets done.”

“Democrats, these are your issues: education, race, the environment.”

“And I say this with love: you’re losing to the Waffle House, car-on-the-lawn states.”

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

@RoKhanna @grahamformaine You are destroying your credibility by campaigning with this hypocritical bigot. I understand that he is a socialist, but is that really enough for you?

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

Sadly, these are the Democratic candidates from 2026. The a party is most definitely not moving to the center.

[Sunny @sunnyright]

Your favorite 2026 Democratic candidate so far:

- the Nazi death squad tattoo enthusiast

- the Al Qaeda volunteer

- the “God is non-binary” guy in Texas

- the Hezbollah supporter in Michigan

It’s a tough choice.

[Lucythegreat @lucythegreat123]

The Graham Platner tattoo controversy is not about youthful mistakes. It is about the specificity of the Totenkopf. This is not the widely recognized swastika, it is the specific insignia of the SS units that ran the Nazi death camps. This is the symbol of the executioners. This is the symbol of the men that murdered 10 million men, women, and children. These men murdered the babies.

For a self proclaimed military history enthusiast to wear the literal badge of Holocaust executioners for 20 years shows a level of understanding and admiration that cannot be explained away. People tattoo on their body WHO THEY ARE and WHAT THEY LOVE.

The Democrats are so desperate to flip a Maine Senate seat that they have abandoned every moral red line they once claimed to hold. They have proven that winning at any cost is their only conviction and the Holocaust is just a cheap political prop to be weaponized only against their opponents. This is not just a betrayal of their voters. It is a total moral collapse.

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

@MsMelChen Difference bettween Fidesz and PAP: massive corruption under Orban.

[M.A. Rothman @MichaelARothman]

𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑 𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍: "𝐈 𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓 𝐈𝐒𝐑𝐀𝐄𝐋 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍"

Victor Davis Hanson just laid out the most airtight strategic case for American support of Israel you'll hear — and it has nothing to do with theology, lobbying, or "Christian Zionism."

He opens with a disarming admission: "𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘡𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵. 𝘐 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘐𝘴𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯. 𝘐𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺." Hanson grew up on a farm in rural California and didn't meet a Jewish person until he was 18 years old at UC Santa Cruz. No hidden agenda. No tribal loyalty. Just cold strategy.

His first exhibit: the 2012 joint missile defense program with Poland and the Czech Republic. It wasn't built to stop Russia's 7,000 nuclear warheads — it was designed to shield 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧. NATO understood that Tehran was hell-bent on a nuclear weapon and Europe was within range of its advancing missile program. That's how seriously the West took the Iranian threat — before Israel ever entered the conversation.

Then Barack Obama traded it away. Caught on a hot mic telling Dmitry Medvedev he'd be "𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦" if Putin gave him "𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦" before the election. Both kept the bargain — Putin held off, Obama got re-elected, and Europe's shield against Iran got scrapped. Continental security, surrendered for domestic political convenience.

Hanson's broader point is devastating. Iran didn't become America's enemy because of Israel. Iran became America's enemy because 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧 k!𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐬. The 1979 embassy seizure. The 1983 Beirut Marine barracks bombing that took 𝟐𝟒𝟏 American lives. The shaped charges — explosively formed penetrators — that Iran funneled to Shia militias in Iraq. The Pentagon's own revised assessment puts the toll at 𝟔𝟎𝟑 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 k!lled by Iran-backed forces in Iraq alone — one in every six American combat d∗aths in that war (Pentagon, 2019 revised estimate). None of that had anything to do with Israel. That was Iran waging war on America directly.

Then comes the democracy argument. The United States consistently aligns with consensual governments — NATO, Japan, South Korea, Australia. Israel is the only fully democratic government in a region of 𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞, Shia and Sunni, Iranian and Arab, that share no such tradition. It has natural strategic affinities with the United States that, as Hanson puts it, "𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 7 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘑𝘦𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘴."

And here's where VDH drops the hammer on the hypocrisy. The U.S. sends $𝟏.𝟑 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 a year to Egypt (State Department). Over $𝟏.𝟕 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 a year to Jordan (Congressional Research Service). We provide military assistance to Erdogan's Turkey — a NATO member that still 𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐂𝐲𝐩𝐫𝐮𝐬 and is far from consensual. Nobody marches in the streets over any of that. But military aid to the one democracy in the Middle East that shares our exact enemies? Suddenly it's controversial.

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘐𝘴𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘭," Hanson concludes, "𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥, 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵."

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫.

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

This regime shouldn’t exist on this earth.

[Masih Alinejad @AlinejadMasih]

Today, in Iran, in the middle of a war, the regime executed a 19-year-old national wrestling champion for the crime of joining January protests. 💔

After signaling to the world, including President @realDonaldTrump, that they would halt executions of protesters, the regime has done the exact opposite.

Three young protesters, Saleh Mohammadi, Mehdi Ghasemi, and Saeed Davoudi, were hanged in Qom after a sham trial.

Reports indicate torture. Forced confessions. No access to chosen lawyers. Closed-door proceedings. No right to appeal.

I call on @GlobalAthleteHQ to stand with Iranian athletes who are being silenced, imprisoned, and executed simply for raising their voices.

This is not just about sports. This is about human dignity.

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

@McFaul What about Serbia? US air campaign stopped Serbian aggression and eventually led to Milošević ending up in The Hague.

[Niall Ferguson @nfergus]

I struggle to find words strong enough to convey the utter contempt I feel for the person who perpetrated this disgraceful act of vandalism — and for anyone who condones it.

[Alex Slusky @aslusky]

@washingtonpost Don’t think state election rules work that way. No one will comply.