Jeff Battisti

[Jeff Battisti @jeffbbattisti]

@judegomila Amazing work - this will save lives!

[Jeff Battisti @jeffbbattisti]

@energysmartwv This book is going to be great!

[Carsonight @carsonight]

My sentiments exactly. You spoke for a lot of LEO today.

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Shared today by Bev Perry in the Expand Dem Values in the House and Senate Facebook group.

I need to say something that's been bothering me for a while, and I'm saying it as a Marine Corps veteran who leans center-right.
This isn't partisan. This is observation.
We've slow-faded into accepting militarized police as normal, and nobody seems to notice or care.
Even as a USMC pilot, I went through six months of infantry training as an officer before flight school. I've worn the gear. The helmet, the tactical vest, the whole kit. And I can tell you from experience, it changes you.
There's a psychological shift that happens when you strap that stuff on. You feel different. You carry yourself different. You start seeing the environment differently. In the Marine Corps, that shift was appropriate because it's a combat culture and organization.
But these are American streets. American citizens. And we've got law enforcement dressed like they're kicking down doors in Fallujah to serve warrants in suburbia.
What happend to high standards and real policing tactics? Think Adam-12...Officers Reed and Malloy. Crisp uniforms. A revolver. A baton. High standards and professionalism. They looked like public servants because they were public servants. They de-escalated. They talked to people. They were part of the community.
Now? Tactical gear, beards, ball caps, Oakley sunglasses, sleeve tattoos, and a tactical kit that would make special operators jealous. And we've turned it into a fetish. We celebrate it. We assume that because someone looks hard, they must be a professional.
They're not.
I loved the Marine Corps. But I'll be honest, I was also blinded by it for a while. Mission first. Unit over everything. And that mentality made sense in that context.
But law enforcement doesn't get that critical examination. "Back the Blue" has become a shield against accountability. A blanket assumption that a badge plus gun equals hero. That tactical gear equals competence.
It doesn't.
Most people who join law enforcement aren't special operators. They're average people who desperately want to belong to something bigger than themselves. I understand that impulse deeply, it's why I joined the Marines. But wanting to belong doesn't make you qualified. Looking the part doesn't mean you can perform under pressure. And wrapping yourself in warrior aesthetics doesn't make you a warrior.
Old school law enforcement represented something. Standards. Bearing. Discipline. Professionalism that was demonstrated, not costumed. A revolver and a baton meant you had to rely on your training, your words, your judgment, not overwhelming firepower.
What I see now in law enforcement is the costume without the culture. The gear without the training. The authority without the accountability.
Are there good people in law enforcement? Of course. I know some personally. But this reflexive "law enforcement can do no wrong" mentality is lazy, dangerous, and intellectually dishonest.
A woman is dead. And before we sort ourselves into teams and start assigning blame, maybe we should ask harder questions:
Why do we accept a militarized police force as normal?
Why do we assume tactical gear equals tactical competence?
Why have we let "Back the Blue" become a substitute for actual standards?
I wore the uniform. I went through the training. I know what that gear does to your head.
It shouldn't be normalized on American streets against American citizens.
And we shouldn't pretend everyone wearing it is qualified to carry it. The fact that he called her a “fucking bitch” after he shot her three times should be a huge red flag for all of us.

[Naval @naval]

“Die empty.”

[Alec Stapp @AlecStapp]

Red states are crushing blue states when it comes to building housing.

[Nikki Haley @NikkiHaley]

Accepting gifts from foreign nations is never a good practice. It threatens intelligence and national security. Especially when that nation supports a terrorist organization and allows those terrorist regimes to live on its soil. Regardless of how beautiful the plane may be, it opens a door and implies the President and US can be bought. If this were Biden, we would be furious.

[Pierre Ferragu @p_ferragu]

Ooops. 😂

[Mathias Føns @FonsDK]

European media’s negative rhetoric about @elonmusk is now affecting Danish Tesla owners, who chose Tesla for cost, cleanliness, or safety—not politics.

[Pierre Ferragu @p_ferragu]

Incredible to see how the UK population is passively accepting that their government wants to remove any system that protects privacy. That much power to a government goes against natural human rights and natural human dignity. 👇 https://t.co/hicogM5rag

[Naval @naval]

The currency of life isn’t money. It is not even time. It’s attention.

[Duncan S. Campbell @duncancampbell]

Psyched to share something @stripe, @ScaleMicrogrids, and @paces_ai have been cooking for the past few months.

A massive wave of new energy demand has been unleashed by AI.

How will we power it?

We think gigantic off-grid solar microgrids offer a very compelling solution.

[Senator Mark Kelly @SenMarkKelly]

NEW: Today I introduced legislation to revitalize America’s ailing maritime industry. It’s one of the biggest problems no one is talking about — and fixing it will create jobs, lower prices, and strengthen our national security. Let me tell you how. 🚢 👇

[Kaitlan Collins @kaitlancollins]

Mark Cuban: “People think he’s a great businessman. If the job of the presidency was investing in real estate, picking curtains and fixtures, he’d probably be the most qualified. But it’s not.”

[Veterans For Responsible Leadership @VetsForRL]

*TRUMP DOESN'T WANT TO WIN THE ELECTION*

Trump is going to:

Coachella in LA County, California (Oct 12)
Madison Square Garden in New York (Oct 27)

The election? November 5

None of it makes sense, until you think about it the way he does.

Thread 🧵1/13

[Fearghas Kelly @FearghasKelly]

I better go superviral for this...

[Duncan S. Campbell @duncancampbell]

We should 10x energy to drive amazing prosperity everywhere.

Doing this with legacy energy would create enormous externalities. You don’t need climate models to know this. Burning our energy is very limiting.

Clean energy is the only way to begin an age of incredible abundance.

[Shawn Chauhan @shawnchauhan1]

8. 1st look at Apple Intelligence

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr @RobertKennedyJr]

President Trump scammed American workers. He promised to bring back manufacturing, raise wages, fix trade deals, close the carried interest loophole, and help small farmers. But everything President Trump achieved were things the Republican machine wanted. We got a tax cut for Jeff Bezos, deregulation for special interests, and giveaways to agriculture conglomerates.

President Trump let the Bush wing of the GOP run all his agencies. His Interior Secretary was an oil & gas lobbyist. His Defense Secretary was a Raytheon lobbyist. His EPA Administrator was a coal lobbyist. His HHS Secretary was a pharmaceutical lobbyist. And his Labor Secretary was a lawyer for mega corporations.

President Trump’s supposed support for farmers ($28 billion) all went to Big Ag conglomerates. 

We had the worst rioting and looting this country had seen since the 60s under President Trump. He inflamed racial tensions and didn’t keep us safe. Instead of using federal law enforcement to stop the rioting, Trump thought it was good optics to let Democrat-run cities burn.

President Trump bragged about arming Ukraine more than Obama did. He also walked away unilaterally from the intermediate range nuclear missile treaty with Russia, destabilizing our relationship. He also exacerbated tensions between Ukraine and Russia that ultimately caused a war.

Trump appointed the worst neocons to the highest positions of power in his administration: John Bolton, HR McMaster, and Robert O’Brien. Now, Lindsey Graham is one of his top advisors and likely to be his Secretary of State.

President Trump bombed Syria, killed an Iranian general, and failed to fulfill his promise of ending the war in Afghanistan.

President Trump invented lockdowns. He shut down millions of small businesses and facilitated the greatest wealth transfer to billionaires in this country’s history.

President Trump did nothing to solve the opioid crisis. It got far worse under his tenure while his appointees running HHS were in the pocket of big pharma.

If you think a second Trump term would be any different, you are engaging in wishful thinking.

[Tim Latimer @TimMLatimer]

China is starting to take such a leadership position in automotive exports that they will define what the future of the global automotive industry looks like. All the recent handwringing over EVs in the US is a sideshow and distraction that risks us falling even further behind.