Mike Tinker

All around geek, IT professional, Apple fanboy, homebrewer, fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@Sho_Unsub Want? Kinda. Will buy? No.

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@blckriflecoffee

[Nick Freitas @NickJFreitas]

I am told that as a state representative this is the moment where I'm supposed to express my heartfelt condolences and then stand in solidarity with those on the other side of the aisle as we condemn political violence and stand unified as one people.

But we aren't "one people" are we?

The truth is we haven't been for some time now, and there is really no point in pretending anymore, if there ever was.

We are two very different peoples. We may occupy the same piece of geography, but that is where the similarities seem to abruptly end.

I convinced myself for a long time that whenever the left called me a racist, a bigot, a sexist, a fascist, a "threat to democracy" for even the most innocent of disagreements, that it was simply hyperbolic rhetoric done for effect.

And now the "effect" is a widow and two orphaned children, because the left couldn’t bear the thought of a peaceful man debating them and winning.

I don’t think they realize it yet, but murdering Charlie is going to be remembered as the day where we finally woke up to what this fight really is.

It’s not a civil dispute among fellow countrymen. It’s a war between diametrically opposed worldviews which cannot peacefully coexist with one another. One side will win, and one side will lose.

Charlie tried to win that fight through argumentation, through discussion, through peaceful resolution of differences.

And the other side murdered him.

Not because he was “extreme” or “inciting violence” or any other hyperbolic slur they hurled at him. They murdered him because he was effective. Because he was unafraid. Because he inspired others and made them feel like they had a voice, that they were not alone. And he did it at the very institutions which have fomented so much hatred toward conservatives.

I don’t want to “stand in solidarity” with the other side of the aisle. I want to defeat you. I want to defeat the godless ideology that kills babies in the womb, sterilizes confused children, turns our cities into cesspools of degeneracy and lawlessness…and that murdered Charlie Kirk.

Social media is aflame right now with leftist celebration of Charlie’s death.

I wonder if any among them understand what has just happened. If there is a Yamamoto somewhere in their midst warning, that all they have done is awoken a sleeping giant.

I doubt it. I think they gave up such introspection and self-awareness long ago.

I don’t know exactly what will happen next. I just know that it won’t be the same as what has happened in the past.

There will be thoughts and prayers…Charlie would have wanted prayers. Not for himself but for those left behind and for the country that he loved.

But then there will be a reckoning.

My Christian faith requires me to love my enemies and pray for those who curse me. It does not require me to stand idly by in the midst of savagery and barbarism...quite the opposite.

So every time I feel tired, every time I feel discouraged or overwhelmed, I am going to watch the video of a good man being murdered in Utah…I will force myself to watch it…and then I will return to the work of destroying the evil ideology responsible for that and so much more.

Rest with God Charlie, your fight is over.

Ours is just beginning.

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@Fat_Electrician The last casualty of the Cold War (I have a personal connection to this one).

[Jared Isaacman @rookisaacman]

Apologies for the TLDR, but when you step back, it is kind of wild what we’ve all lived through over the last five years. No wonder so many young people are anxious about the future—the ‘disturbance in the force’ feels stronger by the day.

I don’t have any grand takeaways other than this--the world could use an immediate course correction in the direction of boring--or we may really need those Mars rockets sooner than expected. One thing is for sure--Israel is making a compelling case for Golden Dome.

• A once-in-a-century pandemic shuts the world down. No matter how you view it in hindsight, both allies and adversaries were nearly unified in halting the global economy and banishing society to lockdowns and high-pressure mask & vaccination campaigns.

• We tried to print our way out of the system shock, triggering the most euphoric markets since the dot-com bubble—pre-revenue IPOs reappeared for some reason and people forgot that good companies generally don’t SPAC.

• The digital revolution kicked into overdrive—work-from-home, virtual education traumatized parents, Zoom cocktail parties, Peloton, DoorDash and MS Teams---probably the most painful development.

• Civil unrest emerged alongside deepening social and political divides.

• A disheartening end to the war in Afghanistan—trillions spent, thousands of lives lost and the Taliban is still running the show.

• Market euphoria gave way to historic inflation. Interest rates shot up to cool things down. The tide went out, and the “shitcos” failed. Centralized crypto exchanges gambled customer deposits. Hedge funds weren’t hedged. VC-heavy banks like SVB collapsed, triggering a temporary panic in the regional banking system. The big banks… got even bigger.

• For the first time since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a nuclear superpower launched a full-scale invasion of a neighboring country. The West isolates Russia, and we witness a new asymmetric dynamic in warfare--cheap drones, missile swarms, all playing out in real time on social media.

• The metaverse and Web3 died quickly as the “Magnificent Seven” lead a market rebound on the promise of AI.

• China closes gaps--and maybe pulls ahead--in some of the most strategically important technologies. They tolerate risk, aren’t afraid to steal good ideas and make them better--and operate with a culture that—for all its flaws—just goes out and does big things without dragging decades of baggage behind it.

• Hamas launches a surprise attack on Israeli civilians, takes hostages and triggers a war that pulls in Iranian proxies like the Houthis--disrupting global shipping lanes and igniting a politically charged humanitarian crisis.

• Political winds shift again. A former President—also the frontrunner—is shot in an assassination attempt, the first since Reagan. Thankfully, he survives and is now our 47th President.

• The Pakistani and Indian Air Forces engage in the largest air-to-air exchange in decades. China’s latest fighters and missiles see combat success against contemporary French aircraft—signaling what many already knew--China’s military is approaching peer status.

• Israel launches the most sophisticated and devastating air campaign since Desert Storm—targeting Iranian military and scientific leadership, degrading air defenses, missile systems and nuclear infrastructure..and the conflict may just be getting warmed up.

All in just five years...

Hopefully our defense and policy leaders are paying attention and making some course corrections. Congressional leadership is mostly well-intentioned, but often fights for expensive job programs--exactly the kind of thing an over-consolidated defense industry encourages--even as we stare down an unsustainable $36 trillion national debt. That’s how you end up holding a fleet of battleships during the advent of the aircraft carrier....

Only this time, the analogy breaks down--because as a nation have forgotten how to build ships. So instead, we will have $300 million fighter jets we can’t afford, arriving a decade too late, in quantities that may not even matter—disrupted by million-dollar, hypersonic, laser-equipped drones that our adversaries will likely produce at scale. Until, perhaps, the dark horse Skynet T-1000 shows up.

This is the time--especially in such a politically charged environment--when we need to be finding more ways to come together instead of moving farther apart. A time to be rooting for America and our leadership, not betting on the next Polymarket catastrophe. Because if the next five years look anything like the last, military parades and trade imbalances will be the least of our problems.

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@elonmusk This is the way

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Starship will have 42 engines

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@Fat_Electrician The longer you look at it the worse it gets…

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@iamnot_elon A

[The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee]

Nation Longs For More Civilized Age When Politicians Settled Disputes With Pistols https://t.co/5aKeMZPgNa

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@DJSnM It needs a custom mass simulator cap…

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@DJSnM Now that’s better living through science!

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@altonbrown How does spatchcocking change the equation?

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@elonmusk Instead of “start charging after” a certain time, it would be nice to be able to exclude certain times (peak hours) on a daily calendar. My power co does not have peak hours on weekends...

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

The view of the @SpaceX launch from Buckeye AZ #SpaceX

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@EricIdle @montypython I like “Parliament.” It’s a collective of owls, feels English, and alliteration…

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@EricIdle Will you be reading the audio version?

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@Veldheer68 Simcoe/Amarillo and Citra/Mosaic are a couple of my favorites.

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

@altonbrown This isn’t the Brown you’re looking for…

[Mike Tinker @thorongil]

Proud to be the 475th backer on @BackerKit for The ADV3NTURE Hoodie with 23 ... | Thx @ZaneLamprey! https://t.co/fdG6AZLod2