Jose Ychez

Canadian. Laments current state of political discussion. Goals: respect dignity of all human persons, work out salvation with fear + trembling, read more books.

[Jose Ychez @JoseYchez]

@MattWalshBlog How many of us were pro-choice for years, having merely ignored the truth of the thing for lies of our own making? Like many, I didn't want to look closely until my heart was converted. The obscenity of full-term abortions are perhaps opening eyes as to what all abortions are.

[Josh Brooks @F530Josh]

The SR-71 Speed Check Story from Major Brian Shul's book Sled Driver will forever be one of the hardest tales in aviation.

Here it is.

There were a lot of things we couldn't do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane. Intense, maybe. Even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment.

It occurred when Walt and I were flying our final training sortie. We needed 100 hours in the jet to complete our training and attain Mission Ready status. Somewhere over Colorado we had passed the century mark. We had made the turn in Arizona and the jet was performing flawlessly.

My gauges were wired in the front seat and we were starting to feel pretty good about ourselves, not only because we would soon be flying real missions but because we had gained a great deal of confidence in the plane in the past ten months. Ripping across the barren deserts 80,000 feet below us, I could already see the coast of California from the Arizona border. I was, finally, after many humbling months of simulators and study, ahead of the jet.

I was beginning to feel a bit sorry for Walter in the back seat. There he was, with no really good view of the incredible sights before us, tasked with monitoring four different radios. This was good practice for him for when we began flying real missions, when a priority transmission from headquarters could be vital. It had been difficult, too, for me to relinquish control of the radios, as during my entire flying career I had controlled my own transmissions. But it was part of the division of duties in this plane and I had adjusted to it.

I still insisted on talking on the radio while we were on the ground, however. Walt was so good at many things, but he couldn't match my expertise at sounding smooth on the radios, a skill that had been honed sharply with years in fighter squadrons where the slightest radio miscue was grounds for beheading. He understood that and allowed me that luxury.

Just to get a sense of what Walt had to contend with, I pulled the radio toggle switches and monitored the frequencies along with him. The predominant radio chatter was from Los Angeles Center, far below us, controlling daily traffic in their sector. While they had us on their scope (albeit briefly), we were in uncontrolled airspace and normally would not talk to them unless we needed to descend into their airspace. We listened as the shaky voice of a lone Cessna pilot asked Center for a readout of his ground speed. Center replied: "November Charlie 175, I'm showing you at ninety knots on the ground."

Now the thing to understand about Center controllers, was that whether they were talking to a rookie pilot in a Cessna, or to Air Force One, they always spoke in the exact same, calm, deep, professional, tone that made one feel important. I referred to it as the " Houston Center voice." I have always felt that after years of seeing documentaries on this country's space program and listening to the calm and distinct voice of the Houston controllers, that all other controllers since then wanted to sound like that, and that they basically did. And it didn't matter what sector of the country we would be flying in, it always seemed like the same guy was talking. Over the years that tone of voice had become somewhat of a comforting sound to pilots everywhere. Conversely, over the years, pilots always wanted to ensure that, when transmitting, they sounded like Chuck Yeager, or at least like John Wayne. Better to die than sound bad on the radios.

Just moments after the Cessna's inquiry, a Twin Beech piped up on frequency, in a rather superior tone, asking for his ground speed. "I have you at one hundred and twenty-five knots of ground speed." Boy, I thought, the Beechcraft really must think he is dazzling his Cessna brethren. Then out of the blue, a navy F-18 pilot out of NAS Lemoore came up on frequency. You knew right away it was a Navy jock because he sounded very cool on the radios. "Center, Dusty 52 ground speed check". Before Center could reply, I'm thinking to myself, hey, Dusty 52 has a ground speed indicator in that million-dollar cockpit, so why is he asking Center for a readout? Then I got it, ol' Dusty here is making sure that every bug smasher from Mount Whitney to the Mojave knows what true speed is. He's the fastest dude in the valley today, and he just wants everyone to know how much fun he is having in his new Hornet. And the reply, always with that same, calm, voice, with more distinct alliteration than emotion: "Dusty 52, Center, we have you at 620 on the ground."

And I thought to myself, is this a ripe situation, or what? As my hand instinctively reached for the mic button, I had to remind myself that Walt was in control of the radios. Still, I thought, it must be done - in mere seconds we'll be out of the sector and the opportunity will be lost. That Hornet must die, and die now. I thought about all of our Sim training and how important it was that we developed well as a crew and knew that to jump in on the radios now would destroy the integrity of all that we had worked toward becoming. I was torn.

Somewhere, 13 miles above Arizona, there was a pilot screaming inside his space helmet. Then, I heard it. The click of the mic button from the back seat. That was the very moment that I knew Walter and I had become a crew. Very professionally, and with no emotion, Walter spoke: "Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, can you give us a ground speed check?" There was no hesitation, and the replay came as if was an everyday request. "Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground."

I think it was the forty-two knots that I liked the best, so accurate and proud was Center to deliver that information without hesitation, and you just knew he was smiling. But the precise point at which I knew that Walt and I were going to be really good friends for a long time was when he keyed the mic once again to say, in his most fighter-pilot-like voice: "Ah, Center, much thanks, we're showing closer to nineteen hundred on the money."

For a moment Walter was a god. And we finally heard a little crack in the armor of the Houston Center voice, when L.A.came back with, "Roger that Aspen, Your equipment is probably more accurate than ours. You boys have a good one." It all had lasted for just moments, but in that short, memorable sprint across the southwest, the Navy had been flamed, all mortal airplanes on freq were forced to bow before the King of Speed, and more importantly, Walter and I had crossed the threshold of being a crew. A fine day's work. We never heard another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast. For just one day, it truly was fun being the fastest guys out there.

[JT @jiratickets]

this might be the best tweet ever written

[@amuse @amuse]

https://t.co/5tedBik5II

[Dustin @r0ck3t23]

Larry Ellison just asked the one question no journalist on Earth can answer.

A Wall Street Journal writer told Ellison to his face that Elon Musk doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Ellison didn’t argue. Didn’t get emotional. He just asked a question.

Ellison: “This guy is landing rockets on robot drone rafts in the ocean, and you’re saying he doesn’t know what he’s doing. You ever land a rocket?”

One question. No recovery.

Ellison: “Who are you? Why should I believe you as opposed to my friend Elon?”

This is the question the entire media class has been dodging for a decade. Who are you to judge? What have you built? What have you shipped? What problem have you solved that didn’t involve a keyboard and a deadline?

Ellison: “You’re there in front of your Apple Macintosh typing up an article saying Elon’s an idiot.”

They sit behind a laptop they did not engineer. Using a network they did not build. Running on silicon they cannot explain. To tell the world that the man sending humans to space doesn’t know what he’s doing.

They have never built anything heavier than a Word document.

And they publish it with absolute certainty.

That’s the part that should disturb you. Not the criticism. The confidence behind it. The total absence of self-awareness it takes to judge disciplines you wouldn’t last a single semester in.

Musk does not operate in opinion. He operates in the physical layer of the universe where the math closes or the rocket does not come home.

His critics operate in a text editor.

He built the vehicle that carries NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. The satellite constellation delivering internet to active war zones. The EV that forced every automaker on Earth to abandon their combustion roadmap.

His loudest critics built a byline.

So why the coordinated hatred?

Because they lost the leash.

The attacks didn’t escalate because Musk got worse at engineering. They escalated because he bought X. He cracked open the algorithm. He handed the public square back to the people. And he shattered their ability to control what you’re allowed to think.

They don’t hate the engineer.

They hate that the engineer took their monopoly.

You cannot cancel a rocket. You cannot publish a hit piece on gravity. You cannot edit the laws of physics.

They own the syntax.

He owns the physics.

One of them is going to Mars.

[Andy Lee @RealAndyLeeShow]

This fellow pretended he didn’t know who donated from the Chinese Communist Party to his foundation, then hosted him for a sleepover at his lake house. The head then said there was no election interference, and his finance minister laughed as she froze my bank account.

This is your PM.

[Heritage Matters🔱 @HeritageMatterz]

Polish 26 year old guitar master Marcin Patrzałek respond to those who have made public comments claiming that his music is fake.

He made this video in a tutorial form showing how he manages to play so extraordinarily well in response. And yes, it's all played on one guitar.

[NO CONTEXT HUMANS @HumansNoContext]

This is the greatest TikTok video of all time

[NN @NnPnemck]

I want you to remember Charlie Kirk getting his neck blown out in front of college kids. The entire world watched it happen. And I want you to remember how the left reacted. How they celebrated. How they justified it. How hundreds of thousands of people liked a post where Amanda Seyfried said he deserved it.

Then remember how enraged they were when President Trump moved his head and survived an assassination attempt on live television… something that would have thrown this country into chaos, if not outright civil war.

Remember how they built shrines and merch for Luigi Magionie after he murdered an innocent man in cold blood.

And Ashli Babbitt? They didn’t just defend the shooting, they turned her killer into a hero and have mocked her death for five straight years. Their hypocrisy is so loud and rancid it makes their obnoxious red whistles seem quiet.

This isn’t “politics.” This is a communist insurgency, carried out by ppl who openly worship the ideology of Karl Marx and want to eliminate everyone to the right of him. They don’t care about life or “innocent victims.” They care about power, and they will justify any amount of bloodshed to get it.

Accept where we are. It is not going to be pretty. Do not be manipulated by their narcissistic, emotional-blackmail warfare. The only way is through.

[Collin Rugg @CollinRugg]

NEW: Jelly Roll breaks down in tears after his lifelong dream of being invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry came true at the end of Joe Rogan's show.

Rogan surprised the singer with a message from country music artist Craig Morgan.

Jelly Roll threw his headphones to the side when he realized what was happening.

"That's like ... it don't get no bigger in country music, bubba."

Congrats!

[Gwart @GwartyGwart]

Flight attendant comes over intercom: “your flight is oversold, I need two volunteers to take a flight this afternoon for a $300 voucher.”

I spring into action. I was born for these moments. This is why I studied game theory. Literal tingles. I pull out my megaphone and address our boarding gate: “guys, they absolutely must off board at least two passengers or this bird isn’t taking off. Every 3 minutes they will increase their bid by $200. If we all hold out for 45 more minutes, 2 of us can make nearly 5 grand each. Textbook prisoners dilemma, this is (3,3) in its most visceral representation. I’m not even going to give up my ticket but I know value when I see value. Let’s make Nash proud ladies and gentlemen. Do not acquiesce. Do not defect.”

Anyhow 2 people immediately accepted $500 and I called them retards on my megaphone and was placed in a detention room by airport police. This is why we study game theory.

[Dr. Leslyn Lewis @LeslynLewis]

A recent @JCCFCanada report “Manufacturing Consent: How Canada’s Government Manipulates Public Opinion”, implicates the federal Liberals in engaging in manipulative persuasion tactics, spending over $595 million in media subsidies, plus millions more on behavioural-insights teams, communications units, and digital-strategy programs to shape what Canadians see and influence how they think.

The report outlines how this money is being used to:

1. Make media financially dependent on government support, reducing critical coverage.

2. Use behavioural science to influence public reactions and guide opinion.

3. Label dissenting views as “misinformation” or “extremism” to deter debate.

4. Expand surveillance of citizens’ movements, finances, and online activity.

5. Normalize emergency powers and restrictions that limit civil liberties.

6. Rely on government-funded “fact-checkers” to control which viewpoints are treated as legitimate.

Taken together, these actions mirror tactics used in authoritarian systems, where governments shape narratives, manage dissent, and influence citizens’ beliefs and behaviours without their consent.

Canadians and Parliament need to push back. We must demand transparency, stand up for free expression, safeguard digital privacy, support independent media, and limit government overreach.

Our democracy depends on keeping government power in check.

https://t.co/YdZwQ3WGSW

[Barbara Bal @BarbaraBalCPC]

Progressive men always claim to support women, until we make choices they don’t approve of.

Working 40 hours a week for a boss who’d replace you tomorrow? “Freedom.”

Working for a family that loves you unconditionally? “Oppression.”

The hypocrisy is deafening. 🤔

It’s not a choice for every woman, but I respect those who do make it.

The real issue is that life in Canada has become so unaffordable that many women can’t stay home with their children, even if they wanted to.

This is not freedom.

[Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 @ezralevant]

Mark Carney has no clue. He's a classic case of overpromise, under-deliver. Being promoted to the level of his incompetence.

That's why he keeps going on these junkets -- he hates being in Question Period or answering reporters (even his own government reporters). He hates Parliament and any other mechanisms designed for transparency and accountability. He prefers foreign meetings, the sort he mastered when he was a director of the World Economic Forum. No opposition, no accountability, no ethics registry, no lobbyist registry. His constant foreign trips are an attempt to recapture that world of luxury -- and no accountability.

But Canada's in a crisis. How do you solve a problem like Trump? Carney made that the ballot question, and claimed he was the "Trump whisperer". But it never looked convincing. He bashed Trump and insulted him on the campaign trail, but was obsequious and submissive during their meetings. And so far: absolutely nothing has been achieved. Carney has now taken to boasting about the Canada-U.S. free trade deal that was negotiated years ago, claiming that status quo as some sort of achievement.

But Carney has never been a business executive, in the arena, solving problems. He was chairman of Brookfield -- a figurehead, a meeting chair, a spokesmodel. He was an analyst at Goldman Sachs -- a critic, a voyeur, a consultant, never a doer. Those jobs are very different from actually running a business and leading. Any random owner of convenience store has more business experience that Carney.

Tell me one thing he's accomplished in 225 days as Prime Minister -- and compare that to Trump.

Carney brought a fresh list of buzzwords to the PMO -- transformational, catalyzing, decisive action, generational, AI. That sounded fresh for about 30 seconds, until it became clear that he just mixes and remixes them in every statement, like Trudeau's word salads. There's nothing under the words. There's nothing in the suit. There's no "there" there.

Right now is the biggest crisis in his tenure. Doug Ford -- with no constitutional authority, let alone the approval of Canadians -- has become the de facto negotiator with Trump, and Ford's style is a combination of insults ("tyrant") and an unconvincing attempt to out-bully Trump. Ford is despised by the regime media, but they love his anti-Trump outbursts, so they're made him Canada's face in the U.S., while Carney runs away. (Imagine making a statement in French, so the Americans can't understand it, and then running away without answer any questions. Carney is hiding and letting Ford, his sole provincial ally, fill the gap.)

Look, the problem with the ad wasn't the ad. It was that Ford was trying to hustle Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and they correctly identify Ford as Carney's attack dog.

Don't they know that Trump always engages in tit for tat -- if you push him, he pushes back?

Of course they know that. But, as Foreign Minister Anita Anand announced the other day, they're fine with that. After all, they seek to realign Canada towards China -- seriously, she just said that: https://t.co/ukxPU9lT2y

I don't know how to negotiate with Trump to save the auto factories. But I didn't promise millions of Canadians that I had a secret ability to connect with Trump, like Carney did.

Occam's Razor suggests an explanation: maybe this is exactly what Carney wants. For a decade at the @wef he has been promoting de-carbonization, and "stakeholder capitalism" (e.g. socialism). He was the UN climate ambassador and led an industry movement to de-bank oil companies. His wife, Diana Fox, is even more extreme. Could it be that Carney is actually fine with all this -- in fact, that he's glad he can blame an external bogeyman for it all?

The deindustrialization of Ontario. The de-marketing of the oilsands. The de-linking of Canada to the U.S. Moving towards a more China-centric world. Defying western alliances, and putting the UN (and Palestine) ahead of traditional bilateral relationships with the U.S., Israel and NATO.

Oh -- and by the way, don't forget that Mark Carney refused to sell any of his 600 different stocks when he became PM, less than 5% of which are Canadian companies. We don't know his net worth -- no regime journalists have bothered to ask. He's an oligarch; we just don't know if it's $100M or $1B. The strange fact that he refuses to sell his holdings suggests that running Canada is not his top priority, or at least not his sole priority -- getting richer is. And look at those stocks: he is personally bearish on Canada and his last act at Brookfield was to shut down their Canadian office and move it to New York. Carney will make money by Canada doing poorly.

Show me an error in my thinking.

[Gad Saad @GadSaad]

My daughter's class is going on a school trip to NYC. Many of the parents are incredibly upset that the school would visit the United States where there is a "daily genocide of women, trans people, and people of color." The parents are not upset at what is happening in Canada or that @ZohranKMamdani is going to become mayor of NYC. They are terrified for their children's safety because of @realDonaldTrump. I have spent my entire academic career studying human behavior and human decision making, and yet I'm astounded by this level of suicidal stupidity.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points.

I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days.

Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them.

However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right - nay, obligation - to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created.

When you've known people since they were ten years old it's hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn't managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio. For the past few years, I've repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling. Ironically, I told the producers that I didn't want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.

The television presenter in the attached clip highlights Emma's 'all witches' speech, and in truth, that was a turning point for me, but it had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself. Emma asked someone to pass on a handwritten note from her to me, which contained the single sentence 'I'm so sorry for what you're going through' (she has my phone number). This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family's safety. Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.

Like other people who've never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she's ignorant of how ignorant she is. She'll never need a homeless shelter. She's never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward. I'd be astounded if she's been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her 'public bathroom' is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door. Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison?

I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women's rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.

The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me - a change of tack I suspect she's adopted because she's noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was - I might never have been this honest.

Adults can't expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend's assassination, then assert their right to the former friend's love, as though the friend was in fact their mother. Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public - but I have the same right, and I've finally decided to exercise it.

[Jose Ychez @JoseYchez]

@atRachelGilmore the great Norm MacDonald still chalking up points from beyond

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

As another man who once worked with me declares himself saddened by my beliefs on gender and sex, I thought it might be useful to compile a list for handy reference. Which of the following do you imagine makes actors and directors who aren’t involved with the HBO reboot of Harry Potter so miserable?

Is it my belief that women and girls should have their own public changing rooms and bathrooms?

That women should retain female-only rape crisis centres?

That men don’t belong in women’s sport?

That female prisoners shouldn’t be incarcerated with violent men and male sex offenders?

That women should remain a protected class in law, because they have sex-specific needs and issues?

That language should reflect reality rather than ideological jargon, especially in a medical context?

That women shouldn’t be harassed, persecuted or fired for refusing to pretend humans can change sex?

That women should not be threatened with violence and rape when they assert their rights?

That freedom of speech and belief are essential to a pluralistic democratic society?

That troubled minors, especially those who are gay, autistic and trauma-experienced, should be given mental health support instead of irreversible surgeries and drug treatments on non-existent evidence of benefit?

That gay people shouldn’t be pressured to include the opposite sex in their dating pools, nor should they be smeared as ‘genital fetishists’ when they don’t?

That cross-dressing heterosexual male fetishists aren’t actually oppressed, but having the time of their lives piggybacking off gender identity ideology?

That said ideology, and the privileged, blinkered fools pushing it because they suffer zero consequences themselves, have done more damage to the political left’s credibility than Trump and Farage could have achieved in a century?

Let me have your thoughts.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Don't trust your eyes

[Smash Baals @smashbaals]

Man this tweet goes hard

[MatrixMysteries @MatrixMysteries]

The illusion was never built on a single lie — it was built on decades of coordinated events, each one reinforcing the last. - Edward Snowden

A Thread Exposing the Hidden Agendas Behind World Events🧵

1. The Moon Wasn't the Lie. The Footprints Were.