LunchBox

For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.

[Devon Eriksen @Devon_Eriksen_]

The problem with universal suffrage is that the more technologically advanced a civilization becomes, the smaller the fraction of people there are in it with the native intelligence to understand how it works.

When the majority of humanity was employed in whacking at the dirt with a pointed stick, and the height of technology was a slightly better pointed stick, anyone with a triple digit IQ could understand what was going on.

Now, we have things like stock markets, the internet, transportation infrastructure, and the Linux kernel, but most people who vote are unable to conceive of these as anything but large piles of chocolate coins, or something else they can put their mouths.

Because that's how the average monkey interacts with money. They stack the blocks, the research assistant gives them a token, they exchange the token for a banana.

It's no good trying to explain to the monkeys what supply chain is, or how a trillion dollars worth of rockets can't magically be converted into a trillion dollars worth of bananas just because they're both measured in dollars, as if a six-foot man and a six-foot plank of wood were interchangeable.

Finding a slightly different explanation, or getting the monkeys to sit still and really listen, doesn't really help.

Because the problem isn't just that the monkeys aren't paying attention. The problem is that the monkeys are monkeys.

Their brains simply don't have the developmental capacity to grow the neural connections they would need in order to grasp and manipulate the concept.

In the long term, this is why universal democracy is doomed. Because societies that let retards vote will fail, and be replaced by those that don't.

You may think that we, as a society, face a great variety of problems. We do not. We have only one. Retards. Every other problem we have is downstream from their inability to understand the consequences of their political opinions.

But to fully grasp the implications of this, you have to understand that the definition of "retard" changes over time, as technology advances, because the IQ level required to grasp what's really going on gets steadily higher and higher.

Eventually, the category "retard" grows until it includes the average person.

This has already happened.

Nick Knudsen isn't dumber than the average guy. But the average guy, the 100 IQ salt of the earth guy that's sitting on the next bar stool over, can no longer understand the modern economy. And this isn't correctable, because the problem isn't ignorance, it's complexity.

You can't make Nick Knudsen smarter by telling him things. You can't even make him less ignorant, because the bare facts aren't believable to someone who doesn't have the framework to understand how they fit together.

The people who understand what's going on are so much smarter than him that he doesn't even think they sound smart.

He thinks they sound crazy.

[LunchBox @narrativefeeder]

@0hour1 I'm a US airline pilot. Airports aren't that secure. When I was based in DFW, there was a spot for airplane wathcers that put you a few hundred feet from arriving planes. The only thing keeping you from the actual runway was a chain link fence with barbed wire on top.

[LunchBox @narrativefeeder]

@RealestMercury Groundspeed isn't largely pilot controlled. It's a combination of true airspeed and winds aloft. I flew from ORD to GSP yesterday with a 120 knot tailwind. Groundspeed was almost 600 knots but I was flying the speed we normally do. On the way back it was 360 knots into the wind.

[Mike Benz @MikeBenzCyber]

Read these 4 screenshots

[John Doyle @JohnDoyle]

Imagine walking into the Gayest Assassin Manifesto of All Time competition and seeing the guy next to you writing this. I’d just leave

[10Δ @_10delta_]

3 weeks ago I argued the US goal in Iran is to seize the global oil spigot. Venezuela in January -> Iran in February.

Neutralize every supply channel outside the dollar system within 90 days. Achieve a compliant successor government and complete energy dominance.

The oil thesis was the obvious layer. However, when you zoom out & view the last four years as a single sequence rather than isolated geopolitical events, the architecture of the grander US plan becomes visible.

1st was Europe, which laid the groundwork.

The Ukraine conflict provided the justification for sanctions that collapsed Russian pipeline gas from 150 billion cubic meters to 40.

Then Nordstream was destroyed, which rewired the entire European energy system permanently. The US went from supplying 28% of Europe's LNG in 2021 to 58% by 2025, exporting a record 111 million MTs, the 1st country in history to break 100 MT.

Europe was transformed from a customer with options into a captive market now purchasing its survival in USD.

2nd was Syria.

The fall of Assad severed the critical node connecting China's Belt & Road Initiative to the Mediterranean.

The trilateral railway linking Iran, Iraq & Syria, designed to bypass Western maritime chokepoints, was completely destroyed.

This isolated Iran geographically & cleared the path for what came next.

3rd was Venezuela.

In January the US effectively took control of the world's largest heavy crude reserves. The US Gulf Coast has the most advanced refining complex on earth, specifically built for heavy sour crude. Phillips 66, Valero & the rest are now positioned to process hundreds of thousands of barrels of Venezuelan crude daily.

The US captured a massive strategic reserve & solidified its position as the dominant exporter of refined petroleum products, an industry worth $110 billion in 2025 alone.

Venezuela & Iran were the two major oil supply channels that existed outside the dollar system. Both produce heavy crude sold primarily to China & evaded US financial supervision. Both now being neutralized within 90 days, which leads us to..

4th is Iran & the Middle East energy shock.

Israel struck Iran's South Pars gas field, the world's largest natural gas reservoir. Iran retaliated against Qatar's Ras Laffan, the single largest LNG facility on earth, responsible for a fifth of global supply. QatarEnergy's own assessment is that 17% of export capacity is gone and recovery will take up to 5 years. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. European gas prices spiked 70%. Asian spot prices doubled.

The only remaining scaled supplier? The United States.

If Iran falls & a successor government is installed that the US controls or influences (the Delcy model described weeks ago) then roughly 40 to 45 million barrels per day of global production out of 103 million is effectively under US control. OPEC becomes irrelevant because the US coalition is now the marginal producer. Now add the gas dimension & it goes beyond oil.

This war is solidifying the petrodollar system as it evolves into a hybrid petro/LNG-dollar. The old system was built on Saudi crude priced in USD. The new system is built on American crude plus American gas from the Gulf Coast, with no alternative supplier of comparable scale. The dependency is deeper because LNG infrastructure requires long term contracts & regasification terminals that lock buyers into supply relationships for decades. Europe & the Pacific allies (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, etc.) cannot pivot away as there is nowhere left to pivot to. They're now locked into the US energy system.

The market confirms this. DXY went from 96 to 101. Gold down ~20% from its January all time high. Bitcoin down 20% on the year. Brent above $100. European & Asian institutions are liquidating precious metals and crypto to buy dollars because they need dollars to buy the only remaining scaled energy supply. The world is selling its gold to buy American energy in American currency. The dollar is now being weaponized through energy dependency.

The structural repricing is happening regardless of how the conflict resolves.

But the US grand strategy goes deeper..

Artificial intelligence is a physical industry. It runs on power and chips. Data centers require massive uninterrupted baseload electricity, primarily provided by natural gas. Semiconductor fabrication requires helium & rare earths.

By choking the Strait of Hormuz & crippling Middle Eastern LNG & helium production, the US is systematically degrading China's ability to power its data centers & fabricate semiconductors at scale.

The US is energy self sufficient, especially with newly captured Venezuelan reserves & expanding Gulf Coast capacity running on domestic gas.

On the other hand, China is import dependent & every joule it imports effectively now transits chokepoints the US Navy controls..

Iran was the Belt & Road's overland energy bypass, the corridor that allowed China to mitigate the Malacca Trap. With Iran neutralized that corridor is severed. China faces a world where its compute infrastructure competes for scraps on a depleted global LNG market, while American data centers run at full capacity on domestic energy.

Russia is next in the sequence. A post-war Iran reopening under US influence competes directly with Russia for the same refineries in China & India at lower cost. Iran's production costs are lower. Russia loses its last structural advantage in heavy crude & its economic lifeline. Additionally, under the Iran war cover, Ukraine has been opportunistically destroying Russian energy infrastructure & all signs point towards Russia being at the end of the line. The message from Washington becomes very simple: we dismantled two regimes in three months, your economy is about to get crushed, sign the Ukraine deal.

Then Trump sits down with Xi holding every card. Complete energy dominance. The hybrid petro/LNG-dollar fortified, Iran cleared, Russia cornered, & China facing the Malacca Trap fully closed with no remaining energy bypass.

Israel & the GCC are absorbing the kinetic cost of a conflict whose primary beneficiary, counter to the mainstream narrative, is actually America (First). Qatar offline for 5 years reprices the entire global gas market in favor of US exporters for the remainder of the decade. The Gulf states face years of rebuilding. Europe faces its 2nd energy crisis in four years.

Sure, the average American might face temporary moderate inflation & higher gas prices. But if you are the architect of the US empire & you view the rise of China & Chinese ASI as an existential winner takes all scenario, the collateral damage is acceptable cost.

Whoever controls the energy corridors controls the monetary system. Whoever controls the monetary system & the energy supply simultaneously controls the compute infrastructure that determines which civilization builds ASI first.

The US is seizing all 3.

[Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @DrewPavlou]

You’re not supposed to sink enemy navy warships in a war

And if you sink the enemy warship you have to surface your state of the art top secret nuclear attack submarine to load up 100 hostile Iranian navy personnel in addition to regular crew

Please it’s called The International Law™️

[LunchBox @narrativefeeder]

@chiIIum

[Joanie Scott @JstJoan]

I worked under your FAA @PeteButtigieg and, after 34 years, mostly as an Air Traffic Controller, I retired because of how you and the Biden administration, to use your words, shit on every employee at the FAA and ruined a once fine agency.

You allowed men into my office bathroom.

I had to work with and for people you hired and promoted because of the color of their skin or who they have sex with who were wholly and completely unqualified for their job.

You FORCED me to inject an experimental dangerous drug into my body in order to keep my job and paycheck.

As for what the current ATC's "have been through", every single one of them is eligible for an interest-free loan program which their credit unions initiate during every government shutdown. As well, they all can withdraw from their TSP accounts. Every FAA employee knows these are both well established, common practices during shutdowns, so the only ones not coming to work are the ones making a political statement.

President Trump is right to call them out.

You, sir, can sit down and shut up.

[Catherine Herridge @C__Herridge]

NEW REPORTING: @Comey

I understand the indictment was ready to go.  

I am told "all the evidence was there," not a “shaky" criminal case as characterized some media reporting.

Critics of former US Attorney Erik Siebert allege he was "blocking" or "slow walking" the charges.

Interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan removed the blocks

Key Factor: @FBIDirectorKash declassified FBI leak investigations codenamed "Arctic Haze" 👇

https://t.co/JrDjENZlXY

•Revealed Comey's role authorizing media leaks (at least one involved classified information) through his FBI subordinates or through his Columbia law school professor Richman with SGE (Special Government Employee) status.

This is old news if you follow me and subscribe!

https://t.co/43shzvbjYQ

Thank you for supporting independent journalism with impact!

[Catherine Herridge @C__Herridge]

MORE TO COME @Comey

Based on my two decades covering @fbi @TheJusticeDept a thin indictment suggests a holding charge with the potential of a more complex, superseding indictment that adds more charges. 

This is not only possible, but plausible in Comey's case based on the recently declassified FBI leak investigations via @FBIDirectorKash codenamed "ARCTIC HAZE." 

The “ARCTIC HAZE” records reveal several FBI senior leaders and Columbia Law Professor Daniel Richman said they coordinated media leaks at Comey's direction.

James Rybicki - former FBI Chief of Staff
James Baker - former FBI General Counsel
Andrew McCabe - former Deputy Director
Daniel Richman - Columbia Law Professor

August 14, I was among the first to report on "ARCTIC HAZE."  👇

https://t.co/JrDjENZlXY

The parties did not respond to my request for comment about the declassified ARTIC HAZE records.

[The General @1776General_]

I was told this was a conspiracy theory.

It’s actually a 177-page UN report.

https://t.co/KKhPPtX8Bi

[Bizlet @bizlet7]

I mean here is them trying to attack the fucking White House in 2020.

[Shipwreckedcrew @shipwreckedcrew]

Crossfire Hurricane redeaux Same playbook they ran at @GenFlynn

An effort to compromise Homan pre-election, which would be followed up on if Trump won. The likely goal was to throw sand in the gears of the expected deportation effort by sidelining Homan at the start like they sidelined Gen. Flynn at the start of the first Trump term.

Note that they wait for the end to go over the reasons given by experts about why there wasn't a viable case even if the event is accurately described: Homan was a private businessman and Trump was not President at the time of the payment.

Clients pay me money all the time to help them -- not all have been charged. They want me to negotiate with the Govt on their behalf.

Note the different ways the reports -- including IC Community transcriptionist Ken D:

First paragraph: "accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration..."

Fourth paragrpah: "The federal investigation was launched in western Texas in the summer of 2024 after a subject in a separate investigation claimed Homan was soliciting payments in exchange for awarding contracts should Trump win..."

"help the agents win contracts..."
v.
"payments in exchange for awarding contracts."

v. probe “into ... Tom Homan ... based on evidence of payment from FBI undercover agents in exchange for facilitating future contracts...

v. ..."Homan ... indicated he would facilitate securing contracts for them in exchange for money...

There is a lot of mileage between those four descriptions.

Here's another dirty reporter trick -- yeah, you Ken D. -- to watch out for: The use of words like "indicated" and "facilitate" without any actual quotes or specifics of descriptions from the source material.

MSNBC claims it reviewed "internal documents" related to the investigation. But they don't quote those documents at all.

When they solicited opinions from "legal experts" about whether this was "conspiracy to commit bribery" as stated in the article, did they quote the language for the experts?

If they didn't quote it, how did they characterize it. Because if you are goign to charge a bribery case, you have to be PRECISE about the language of the quid pro quo.

This is a hit piece -- nothing more.

[The Redheaded libertarian @TRHLofficial]

Oh my God.

[(((Not That Crown, Maybe))) @CrownMaybe]

So I'm compiling an analysis of this "data" -- it's actually analysis by The Prosecution Project, but in their defense, they put it all out there -- and there are some problems.

1. A lot of double-counting: Each case is in the legal sense, i.e., against an individual even if for the same crime committed by another. If Vinh and Tony knock over a convenience store, both Vinh's and Tony's individual convictions are counted, i.e., as two convictions.

2. "Right-coded" includes "we lied about our motivations and the lie was right-coded" Again, credit to The Prosecution Project for including that. Journalists and others citing it should, too.

3. We need to settle on a definition of "political violence." Reasonable people can disagree, but: If Molly burns down an abortion clinic when she's sure no one's in it, to protest abortion court cases, and no one is harmed, has she committed violence? The Prosecution Project says, "Yes," everyone saying nice things about the late Nelson Mandela says, "No," or "No, but that's different."

4. Attacks on Democrats are "right-coded." Attacks on Republicans are anyone's guess. (E.g., a conviction of a man who wanted to kill Eric Cantor for being "pure evil" somehow is just too hard to discern.)

5. The methodology produces some ... interesting results. For example, Xavier Pelkey, a self-described member of *ISIS*, was convicted of possessing three shrapnel bombs with the intent to blow up some mosques and maybe some synagogues. With the choices of right-coded, left-coded, religion-coded, and unknown, TPP concluded "right-coded." For an ISIS terrorist.

5. You would not *believe* how many times the word "Aryan" shows up in this data, and how often it's (a) part of a large group of convictions (b) frequently in fights with other gangs and (c) remarkably often already in incarceration.

6. Peaceful protests convicted under the FACE Act are considered right-coded political violence. Nothing and no one hurt, but it's right there.

7. Bank robberies are considered political violence if the perpetrators are "right-coded," and therefore so are the indictments/convictions.

8. I stress that this is right on the label, but this is a database of indictments and convictions. The dead aren't usually tried for their crimes, so if the shooter/killer/terrorist died, it doesn't enter the database. So, if some young woman who thinks she's a man shoots up a Christian school because she think they're dangerous Nazis, it doesn't enter the database.

I doubt there's deliberate malice here. There are typos and weird grammatical errors that tell me the focus is on getting the data in and coded rather than rigorous editing and checking of what is likely volunteer/intern work. On the other hand, the errors tend to go in one direction.

I'm not done but, um, I would treat this data with a grain of salt.

[LunchBox @narrativefeeder]

@TIME Trash studies based on trash data.

[Timcast News @TimcastNews]

🚨 Unsurprising: George Zinn, the man who said he faked shooting Charlie Kirk to help the real killer escape is now facing four new felony charges related to holding child porn on his phone.

[Bonchie @bonchieredstate]

A reminder this chart is complete nonsense.

They count murders with no political motives as right-wing (prison murders) but didn’t count Luigi Mangione murdering a healthcare CEO as left-wing.

The ADL’s “methodology” is a joke, and purposely so.

[LunchBox @narrativefeeder]

@USATODAY Literally no one on the right cares.