“The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
—Article II, US Constitution
Correct call to overrule Humphrey’s Executor. There are only three branches of government; there can no concentrations of power outside this constItutional structure.
Here's one of Michael Crichton's very finest quotes, especially applicable to climate "science":
"I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science.
I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.
Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had.
Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right ... In science, consensus is irrelevant."
Best to everyone,
w.
250 years ago today, on June 28, 1776, a half-finished fort made of palm tree logs and sand did something it had no business doing: it beat the most powerful navy on earth and saved the American South. We just hit the 250th anniversary of one of the most improbable victories of the entire Revolution.
The setup looked hopeless. A massive British fleet under Admiral Sir Peter Parker sailed into Charleston harbor to crush the rebellion in the south before it could grow. Guarding the city was an unfinished little fort on Sullivan's Island, defended by Colonel William Moultrie and a few hundred men. The walls weren't even done. One British officer reportedly figured they'd flatten it in an hour.
Then the palmetto logs did the impossible. The fort was built from soft, spongy palmetto wood packed with sand, and instead of shattering when the British cannonballs hit, the logs just absorbed them. Iron sank into the mush and stuck. The fleet hammered that fort for hours and could not break it, while the American gunners coolly fired back and tore the British warships apart. Several ships ran aground. Admiral Parker himself got hit so hard that the blast literally ripped the seat out of his pants.
And then the moment that became legend. When a cannon blast knocked the fort's flag down, Sergeant William Jasper climbed out over the wall, in the middle of the bombardment, grabbed the fallen colors, and raised them back up so everyone could see the fort still stood.
By nightfall the British fleet limped away. They wouldn't seriously come back to the south for nearly three more years. South Carolina loved that fort so much it put the palmetto tree on its state flag, where it still flies today.
A quarter of a millennium later, the lesson still lands. Sometimes the thing everyone writes off as too soft and too unfinished to matter is the exact thing that refuses to break.
Elon Musk just proved that ownership in America is a legal fiction.
Musk: “You get taxed on what you earn, you get taxed on what you buy, and you get taxed on what you own.”
Think about what property tax actually means.
You worked for decades. Paid it off in full. The deed is in your name.
Stop paying the government its annual fee. Watch them take it and sell it to someone who will.
You never owned that house. You were leasing it from an entity you never signed a contract with.
Income tax tells the same truth in softer packaging.
The government does not take a portion of your earnings. They decide how much of your own labor you are permitted to keep.
That is not semantics. It is a confession of who the system believes your time belongs to first.
Sales tax buries itself in the receipt. Two people exchange value voluntarily. A third party who contributed nothing takes a cut simply for allowing it to happen.
Now stack all three.
Taxed when you create. Taxed when you spend. Taxed when you hold. Taxed again when you die and try to pass it to your children.
At no point in that cycle does the system recognize your output as yours.
Because money is not an abstraction. It is crystallized human lifespan.
Every dollar taxed is an hour you already lived, already bled for, already gone.
The state is not managing an economy. It is claiming dominion over time you will never get back.
And spending it on systems you never asked for and actively oppose.
The institution extracting all of it faces zero obligation to perform. A contractor who delivers nothing gets fired. A bureaucracy that burns through trillions gets a budget increase the next fiscal year.
SpaceX pays taxes to the agencies that obstruct its launches. Tesla funds the regulators drafting rules to shield its competitors.
The builders are not subsidizing government. They are financing their own friction.
The tax code is 74,000 pages long. Not because the economy demands it. Because the extraction had to be buried in enough complexity that you would stop asking who it was designed to protect.
The past belonged to the people who taxed the world.
The future belongs to the people who build it.
“Instead of making a better case for why workers should stay, unions are asking Albany to make it illegal for workers to hear any other point of view. The bill’s 'impersonation' language sounds reasonable until you read it.”
CEO @AaronWithe breaks down why this bill is less about protecting workers and more about protecting union power: https://t.co/pSSB23rVuC
This news was all released on Friday. Since its release CNN and MSNBC have completely ignored the biggest crime and cover up of the 21st century and have instead obsessively covered algae in the reflecting pool. We live in the most dishonest of media times.
@tstreit15@SwearingSport Yes, before the big kick, but it didn't roll a full revolution before hitting the foot of the player the ball was being kicked under. Dead ball.
One of the most laughable things on the internet is all the people in our government who have amassed a 39 trillion dollar debt telling us that if they could just tax Elon’s wealth, they could fix everything they have broken. 😂🤡
Elon Musk is now worth $1.3 Trillion dollars and he's using it to build a sustainable economy in space. What a waste. If that money was given to the government instead, we could build 4.5 miles of high speed rail 20 years from now.
My thoughts after 3 months in the US/Texas🇺🇸:
- Americans are way more extroverted than Europeans
- Talking to strangers is normal here
- My first H-E-B trip felt like Boris Yeltsin seeing an American grocery store
- Some food is more artificial, but the amount of choices is insane
- You can still eat healthy. You just have to choose it
- High risk, high reward is real
- Way more people are entrepreneurial
- People dream bigger than in Europe, and they actually execute
- Obv not everyone is smarter, but the smart people are world-class
- Successful people here are way more down-to-earth. In Europe, successful people care about status and can be arrogant
- Cars. Enough said
- Americans have perfected artificial sweets
- There’s still more freedom here than in Europe
- One thing I didn’t expect: some Americans talk down on America
- As an outsider, that’s weird, because imo it’s still the greatest country on Earth🇺🇸🇺🇸
When Jimmy Carter purchased the teachers’ union’s endorsement in 1979 by establishing the Department of Education, the USA was #1 in education.
46 years and $4.1 trillion dollars later, the USA is #40. We are, however, #1 in cost per student.
I was told today by a 17-year-old that there was no way people were writing 10 page papers without Al.
Dude, I was writing 10 page papers without having read the book.
@mattvanswol CMS has been a hole for 30+ years. The taxpayers of CLT get to pay this. I'm sure the administrators feel it was a small price for the citizens to pay for their virtue-signaling abuse.
🇺🇸 The 50 star American flag flying today was designed in 1958 by 17 year old Robert G. Heft as a high school class project.
He got a B-minus on it.
The teacher claimed the design "lacked originality" and jokingly remarked that if Heft didn't like the grade, he should get the flag accepted in Washington.
Heft called his teacher's bluff. He sent his physical prototype to his congressman, Walter Moeller, who forwarded it to the design pool.
Out of more than 1,500 submissions, President Eisenhower picked his design.
His teacher later changed his grade to an A.
Thank you, Robert! The flag is beautiful! 🇺🇸
🇺🇸 In a world that never slows down, Mission BBQ hits pause at noon — and suddenly, strangers become one heartbeat under the flag. Little hands over tiny hearts, eyes wide with wonder… this is how you plant roots of gratitude that grow into unbreakable pride. Teaching our kids that respect isn’t just taught — it’s felt in those quiet, powerful 90 seconds. ❤️🤍💙