Robert Lee II

Data Analyst, Algorithm Admirer, Appraiser, Event Photographer, Techie, Fledgling UltraRunner, Hiker, Paddler, Sci-Fi Addict, Gamer, Neophyte Guitarist

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

I spent the last few months talking to people across the political spectrum, and to people who want nothing to do with politics at all. Here is what I learned.

We are not a divided country. We are a country being divided, on purpose, by an American oligarchy that profits from the fight. They’ve captured our government, denied our healthcare, looted our treasury, and saddled us with crippling debt.

I believe in a New New Deal. Healthcare as a human right. The right of every family to a decent home, and an end to endless wars.

And a dividend paid to every American from the AI economy, because these machines were built on the whole of human inheritance. That inheritance belongs to all of us, and not just to the handful of men playing God with our very existence.

And none of it happens if we just move on. Donald Trump, his family, and his administration are robbing us blind, not just of our money, but of our faith in one another, and they have to answer for it. Truth and reconciliation, not revenge. Then we break the system that let them do it.

The question is not whether we will lose our democracy. The question is whether we will fight to take back what has already been stolen.

I learned in recovery that you can’t heal what you won’t name. Neither can a country.

[JB Pritzker @JBPritzker]

There's nothing wrong with our elections, but there is something wrong with Donald Trump.

[Rick Wilson @TheRickWilson]

Resign.

[Robert Lee II @beamcatchers]

@assassinscreed My ship will be called Retribution.

[Jesse Tinsley @JesseTinsley]

Imagine telling someone in 1999…

The year is 2026.

The President is Donald Trump in his second non consecutive term.

The richest man in the world is PayPal cofounder Elon Musk… but not because of fintech or Paypal. Because of rockets, electric cars, AI, satellites, brain chips and something called “Boring Company”.

Apple is worth trillions but its main business isn’t computers… its selling glass rectangles everyone stares at for 9 hours a day.

People don’t watch TV. They watch teenagers explain geopolitics, finance, and relationship advice in ~60 second videos.

The biggest taxi company owns no taxis.
The biggest hotel company owns no hotels.
The most powerful media companies are social networks where everyone argues with strangers for free.

Kids are making millions filming themselves playing video games.

AI Robots write emails, code, legal memos, songs, essays, and breakup texts.

The internet is mostly bots arguing with humans who are trying to prove they aren’t bots.

You can summon a car, groceries, a doctor, a date, a private jet, or a dog walker from your phone.

People pay real money for invisible currencies, digital monkeys, AI girlfriends and pictures that disappear after 24 hours.

The richest companies in the world don’t sell oil, steel, or cars. They sell attention, compute, data, and addiction.

And somehow, after all of that everyone is still using Excel.

[Soulver @soulver]

Today we're announcing Soulver 4, with 50+ new features.

This release continues our tradition of a major paid update every ~7 years.

And now a single purchase gives you Soulver 4 for Mac, iPad & iPhone.

Soulver 3 users are invited to upgrade to 4 at 50% off, on the App Store.

[Jared Ryan Sears @JaredRyanSears]

Republicans have nothing to campaign on because they've achieved nothing.

America surrendered to Iran. Inflation is high and wages are low. Housing and healthcare are unaffordable. Job creation and GDP growth are weak. Trump hasn't achieved retribution on any of his opponents. No evidence of 2020 being stolen, just Trump being a loser. Even the Epstein files blew up in their face because the only person listed more often than Trump is Epstein himself. And, now Trump is having a meltdown that his reflecting pool project was a failure like the rest of his presidency.

This is why they're returning to the oldies, such as Covid and Fauci, election fraud that they can't prove, blaming Obama for everything, and shouting Antifa anytime something goes wrong.

It is so thoroughly and completely pathetic that every Republican politician should be ashamed to even be associated with the GOP.

Republicans cannot govern. They are the party of endless grievances and zero solutions.

[Jonathan Pie @JonathanPieNews]

Trump The Peacemaker.
https://t.co/CHb4VKcq2E

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Dear Joe,
I wish I could sit down with you face to face and explain why so many of us were offended by the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House.
For me, it had nothing to do with the UFC or who showed up for the fights. The brand you and Dana have built is a bona fide American success story. More power to you. As for the fighters, in my book, anyone brave enough to put it all on the line in the arena is remarkable to witness. Their dedication and discipline inspire me. I don’t understand anyone who can’t admire that.
And as for the people who attended, I, for one, love Shane Gillis. I think he’s hilarious and brilliant. It was a show. A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. I can’t blame anyone for wanting to witness it firsthand.
My problem is that I believe some of our public spaces are sacred. And unlike many of the great powers that came before us, these American monuments belong to all of us. Not to whoever happens to hold power at the moment.
The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to any President. It belongs to the people. To treat it as Caesar treated the Colosseum is antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for.
This is not Rome. Presidents are not emperors doling out bread and circuses for the peasants. The White House is the People’s House. This “celebration” could have happened in any stadium within a stone’s throw of the South Lawn. No one would have had an issue with it.
But that was obviously Donald Trump’s whole point. By holding the event on the South Lawn, what he was saying to the rest of us is:
“This is my house. I own it. I will do with it what I please. I’ll build a colosseum and have the gladiators fight under my gaze. I’ll tear down the East Wing. I’ll pave over the Rose Garden. I’ll cover everything in gold and marble. I’ll erase the names of all the men who came before me.”
The fights were an exhibition of imperial domination, not a celebration of our 250th anniversary as a democracy.
The White House is not Buckingham Palace. It is not the Palace of Versailles. It is not the Forbidden City of Beijing. It does not belong to an emperor, or a king, or a commissar.
The White House belongs to us. All of us. The person who sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is nothing more than an honored guest. A temporary caretaker.
The President is our servant. Not our Caesar.
Respectfully, Hunter

P.S. Cage match between me and Don Jr.? Your call on the venue. Anywhere but the South Lawn.

[Joni Askola @joni_askola]

Today is Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, representing eight decades of a man who has done more than anyone to hurt the West, elevate its enemies, and trap us in a post-truth nightmare.

While he is certainly a symptom of a deeper political illness, he has actively made things much worse.

Let us be clear that there is nothing to celebrate today, because Trump is the most traitorous, deeply corrupt, and overall worst president in the history of the US. He is a compromised, horrible human being who has lost the respect of anyone with half a brain. His deep ties as a best friend to Jeffrey Epstein prove he knew exactly what was going on behind closed doors. He is the lowest of the low.

He has spent years threatening American allies, appeasing foreign enemies, and losing the reckless trade wars he started.

His leadership has left Americans poorer, more stupid, more polarized, and trapped inside a decadent, ever more authoritarian joke of an administration that hurts the whole world.

He is a traitor. His alignment with autocracy is clear in how he sides with Russia over Ukraine and China over Taiwan. He even systematically undermined domestic safety by installing a Russian asset as the Director of National Intelligence and an anti-science, anti-vaxx Russian asset as Health Secretary. No one is better than Trump at sabotaging the US.

The only bright side to his birthday is that he is old, ensuring he will not be able to stay in power forever. He will never be missed by anyone with a brain and/or a heart, and if I believed in hell, I would seriously doubt it is bad enough for him

[Mustafa @oprydai]

Study calculus.

not because exams exist.
because reality moves.

• derivatives → how things change
• integrals → how change accumulates
• limits → what happens at the edge
• gradients → where systems want to go
• differential equations → how nature evolves

motion, heat, fluids, control, optimization, robotics, ML.

all of it speaks calculus.

without it, you see outputs.
with it, you see dynamics.

[Secular Talk ([email protected]) @KyleKulinski]

Trillionaires shouldn't exist and neither should billioniares. Tax every penny in net worth over $999 million at 100%. We can have extreme wealth concentration or a democracy but we can't have both at the same time. Pick one.

[Frankamin Benlin @human_xxoo]

The biggest crock of shit is social security shortfalls. We can fix this is two words—eliminate cap. Done.

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

🚨 HEARTBREAKING: Scott Pelley Sounded Like A Man Attending A Funeral.

Not for a person.

For a profession.

🔥 That’s why his defense of journalism hit so hard.

Scott Pelley confirmed on the record that CBS management ordered him to “inject falsehoods” into 60 Minutes coverage.

He named Bari Weiss directly. He said she was brought in to neutralize independent journalism inside the network.

He told 60 Minutes’ new leadership she was “murdering the show.”

Pelley spent 24 years at CBS News.

He just put his name on the record against the institution that built his career.

The Paramount-Skydance merger closed.

The new ownership installed Weiss. Pelley is the most senior on-air voice at CBS News describing what’s happening inside.

This is what institutional capture sounds like from inside the institution.

[MJdowntheshore @MJdowntheshore]

Big pussy got grabbed by a strong woman.

[Michael Powell @powellAtlantic]

Our primal city game is hoops, and after their prolonged stay in purgatory, the Knicks are back, and playing a beautiful style that long ago seemed our birthright. With T-Minus four hours to game time, I explore a lifetime of Knick yearning: https://t.co/Pb0XHQKTuN

[Neb | 🏳️‍🌈 @NebsGoodTakes]

jesus christ #Saros

[Robert Lee II @beamcatchers]

@amagicmantv Ghost of Yotei - PS5

[Robert Lee II @beamcatchers]

@NVIDIAGeForce PRAGMATA RTX

[Kelechi DonPido @kmbiamnozie]

The War Powers of the mighty US Military must not be in the hands of one man, so after this war or whatever you call it, Congress must have a rethink on War Powers.

History has shown us that unilateral authority, no matter how well-intentioned, carries enormous risks especially if that person is inexperienced, compromised, or susceptible to manipulation.

Congress must wake up to this reality. After this war or whatever label is applied to these military operations, it is imperative to rethink and reinforce war powers. Decisions of such magnitude cannot be driven by impulse, ego, or partisan pressure.

There must be multiple command chains and layers of accountability before any military strike is authorized. At least three independent authorizations should be required: one from the executive, one from Congress, and one from the military’s strategic command structure. This is not bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake, it is the safeguard between civilization and catastrophe.

True strength does not come from the ability to launch strikes, it comes from the wisdom to know when not to. And history will not forgive a nation that allows one individual to gamble with the lives of millions.

The United States, for all its power, must ensure that restraint, deliberation, and collective judgment guide every decision to go to war. Anything less is not leadership, it is recklessness.