Haven't finished reading the article yet, but I'm here to HIGHLY recommend Forever Flying, Bob Hoover's autobiography. It is an incredible book and includes the story Jack mentioned in this post about Hoover stealing a Fw 190 and flying it to freedom (after escaping from a POW camp, naturally).
+1... I have a copy that Hoover signed right in front of me. In one of these "Oshkosh magic" moments, I stumbled onto Hoover talking to a huge crowd standing around him. He was sitting next to a Spitfire, wearing that famous straw hat, with a microphone in one hand... he was telling that story, about stealing the FW-190. Later there was a line to buy his book and have him sign it. As a pilot, when it was my turn, I asked one of the world's greatest pilots if he had any advice... he said, "know your limitations"...
Christmas was very good to my family and me, and this from a relationship standpoint, enjoying each other's company and reactions to gifts throughout the day. Did bicycle drag races with one of my brothers and his sons bikes in the neighborhood street, both bikes of which I easily put about $550 worth of labor total into, plus about $50 in cables and housings. I was on another brother's bike (that I'd given him years ago), and I was losing almost every hole shot while only semi-successfully reeling my brother in as the speeds climbed. It was a riot.
Post-Christmas to-do's and realities have sobered me up plenty, and I go into 2026 very not-settled or content with things. The last five years, and certainly the last three, have been a "wilderness period" (think post-Exodus Moses and the Israelites, of whom I am presently reading about as I go through the book of Exodus). Many thoughts and emotions. I am ready to be done with this time in my life, I am ready for respite, I am ready for new hope, to catch the proverbial thermal and ride its rise to a new chapter.
I will say I am very much looking forward to the Dakar Rally, which begins on the 3rd. I have increasingly enjoyed it and looked forward to it as the years have gone on. Everyone who races it is a stud. I am particular to the trucks--they are simply epic.
So wherever you are in your journey, gentlemen, I wish and pray for you the best for 2026; for hope, for renewed hope, for stability in any and all ways, for opportunity, for patience in the waiting, for discernment and wisdom, for endurance and perseverance, for strength.
Like I said, I love the trucks, everybody is a stud, but man are the motorcycle guys top tier! Especially the Original by Motul riders as they're unsupported. It's all great stuff.
There is a little more to the Steve Hamilton vs Christian von Koenigsegg story:
-Yes, Steve Hamilton is a dropshipping Chinese wheels and aftermarket parts merchant
-Is CvK an inheriting fortunate son, or an achiever (like Hamilton)? I have never heard that CvK grew up with those privileges
-Per Scott Sherwood - https://ssoreport.com/thoughts-mid-dec-2025 - the King’s Blade manufacturer did $134MM of revenue in 2024 and dropped a whopping $3.3MM to the bottom line in the same period (after a sizable loss in 2023)
-Hamilton bought a used Regera - a specific example of that model that was known to have had issues - some time ago. It has remained broken, essentially
-Hamilton went on to order a Jesko, which just arrived
-Hamilton also has a Gemera - the 4 door Koenigsegg - on order; that car was first shown to the world in 2020 or 2021, and there have been engineering teething troubles, including the transition from a 3 cylinder “Tiny Friendly Giant” engine to the V8 that is also found in the Jesko
-Hamilton called out CvK over the broken Regera and the delayed Gemera; Koenigsegg sent a tech out to ensure the Regera was fixed and to ease the handover of the Jesko at the same event
-The Regera re-broke immediately after 4 miles of travel and the Jesko broke after about 80 miles of driving. No word on when the Gemera will arrive, if at all
“…and while his family is well off … he began with comparatively humble beginnings. He got to where he is today from inspiration, single-mindedness, and luck.”
To Jacks point, you cannot and should not expect Camry levels of reliability out of a bespoke product. But maybe like, early Gallardo reliability? Or hell, even radical reliability, which is somehow better despite being hammered on track for its whole existence?
Getting into a pissing contest over who is more “self made” is a dumb ass line of conversation. The real question is how can Koneigseggggggg not make a car halfway put together after decades of doing this, and why do people keep buying them?
It really is Opposite Day when I am talking up the achievements of high performing proles like Steve Hamilton while Jack has been caught recently veritably *glazing* nepo baby par excellence Miles Collier.
Put yourself in the shoes of Steve Hamilton:
-You didn’t grow up with much
-You took risks and overcame obstacles to build a sizable business, and you retained a lot of ownership. At every opportunity for your wealth to be wasted or frittered away or stolen, you protected the asset, even without having fancy schools or jobs on your resume: At every opportunity to fail, he succeeded! Again and again and again
-Consequently, the marketplace has rewarded his decisions and his work: He’s got bread to spend, even if the fashion in which he created his wealth does not accord with the Infallible Jack Baruth Theory of Everything, in which we centralize the means of production so that he can determine what work is valuable. I keep urging Jack to hang out more with his buddy Butterfinger BB, or to move to New York so that he can live in a centrally planned economy!
-So you get in touch with Koenigsegg; you’ve spent about $10MM on their products and you are exasperated that they delivered you ANOTHER car that doesn’t work!
-Steve has implied that he is a billionaire, or thereabouts, in the past (based on his ownership of the business) and mentioned discussions with investment bankers in a video - so his shit is for sale
-If I were him and I could engineer a liquidity event imminently, I would shore up my relationships with other hypercar OEMs and then invite every automotive YouTuber to an, ahem, Bonfire of the Koenigseggs and torch $10MM of cars live on stream. I might even invite CvK and punk him on camera.
Proles love to buy cheap Chinese junk. They claim they’d buy American … if it cost the same!
“He just got lucky” (again and again and again and again and again). That’s forever poverty brokanese thought; banish it from your vocabulary.
He may be a ~billionaire, but he’s, like, a cool billionaire who is in touch with regular people because he eats at pizza joints in strip malls and wears basketball shorts everywhere.
They probably don't have the time to seek out the made in USA stuff which is usually niche stuff.
If you have billions of people flip a coin ten times, some people are going to get 10 heads.
If it weren't for this article (and maybe one article in the past?), I'd have never heard of him so I probably not accurately judging. But he seems like an extension of the guy driving a Hummer who looks normal person rich but really has a $3k/month payment.
Yes, I have read Fooled by Randomness, along with the rest of Taleb’s oeuvre.
My sense is he wanted some clout after the business had done well, so he spun up a YouTube channel. He claims that he gives away to charity the YouTube cash.
I expected this Somali thing to die on the vine like every other “exposé” over the past ten years. This time, the whole thing is so absurd that the memes are endless. Just maybe we’ll see something positive come out of this.
Anyway, Happy New Year gentlemen. I wish you all a happy and healthy 2026.
Since I'm super cool these days, I poked around MN's licensing database for the "Quality Learing Center." One can't say there weren't signs.
From a 2022 conditional license:
REASON FOR THE CONDITIONAL LICENSE
On May 9th and May 10th, 2022, DHS licensors conducted a licensing review and follow-up visit at your facility located at 1411 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55403. As a result of this licensing visit, the DHS licensors determined that your program failed to comply with the laws and rules that apply to licensed child care centers, citing 27 violations. DHS has considered the nature, chronicity, and severity of these violations, as well as the health, safety, and rights of children served by the program.
Nature and Severity: On May 9 and 10, 2022, DHS licensors determined 27 licensing violations. Additionally, 10 of the 27 violations are repeat violations for which you were previously cited. Numerous violations related to the health and safety of children...
As I venture out on I-85 to mingle with other much filthier, drunker animals, I wish all of you the Happiest of New Years. May all your daycares be empty, your supercars be delivered on time, and your electric Porsches get fatter and stupider in 2026.
"Israel gets billions of dollars every year, and no one can tell you exactly what they do with it, other than turn around and lobby Congress!"
I can tell you exactly what they do with it. 85% is obligated to pay for stuff like F-35s, ordnance, and other American military hardware. The rest is mostly budgeted to research by Isreali companies like Elbit and Rafael, the results of which must be shared with the U.S. like Rafael's recently announced laser-based Iron Beam (it's not cost effective to shoot down a $300 rocket with a $50,000/shot system, lasers are a lot cheaper). It's very possible that when considering joint technology, intelligence and other factors the U.S. has a positive ROI on its aid to Israel.
As for lobbying, that's done mostly by American Jews with their own money, not lobbyists with Israeli money. If one has a problem with AIPAC's related Political Action Committees making political contributions, then one should line up with Hillary Clinton on the Citizens United case. Americans, including American Jews, have the right to make political contributions for the causes they support. Miriam Adelson has as much right to throw around her money as George and Alexander Soros do.
In any case, it seems to me that buying weapons is more mission critical than buying politicians.
Its interesting how were becoming divided is it not. Boomers are to blame, Jews are to Blame, Immigrants are to blame. The people, are looking for a savior to promise them something. For sure an age of ignorance does not lead to cheap muscle cars.
Were constantly told how bad things are, on the left its climate, or trump or, on the right its jobs houses etc.
reality is things could be a lot worse, whats lacking is a belief in ourselves and as a nation. if you wanted to subsume the USa and had access to social media what would be the messaging, anything that could so discord.
We were so busy building jet fighters that we lost the oter part of the cold war, the one fo the mind. Our education and intellect got subsumed in the 60s by a false "liberalism" and that submunation had its full flowering in the woke era. Now similar forces are working on the youth of the right. the Jews as always are just a canary in the coal mine.
Are you implying that historically unprecedented mass migration from insular and incompatible cultures is not essentially genocide against Heritage Americans (including Jews)?
i mean in canada i can literally point to immigration driving up the cost of housing while reducing the jobs available and the boomers voting liberal again
Miriam Adelson is an American citizen who employs thousands of Americans. She could easily live wherever she wants to and she chooses to live in the U.S.
Have you ever said a word about Ilhan Omar's professed representation of Somalia's interests or Rashida Tlaib flying a Palestinian flag (designed by a British officer, but tell me how Israel is a colonialist state) outside her office in Congress? Unlike Omar and Tlaib, Adelson is a private citizen (she was born in pre-state mandatory Palestine and grew up in Israel. She's been naturalized since '91).
I think you can do better than whataboutism. I don't live in their districts so what am I supposed to do about it? Adelson is a private citizen. Great. So she is free to spend billions for her treasonous desires?
This comment led me to look into prediction markets for the first time where I see on Kalshi I can bet on LeBron James facing off against Nicki Minaj in the 2028 Presidential Election. Fortunately they are both sitting at 93.5-1.
We seem to be the only country on the planet without guidelines preventing stupid people from seeking a dopamine rush betting money needed to house and feed their families on really anything they see on traditional and social media with a device in their pocket connected directly to their banking and credit accounts. I can't see Trump stopping this disgusting mess because DJT Jr apparently is on the Kalshi payroll.
On this first day of a new year where people are supposed to seek changes for the better I've never felt more pessimistic. This country is doomed.
Decades ago no one was enticed to see a story and then immediately place a bet using the same media device on whatever they were watching. For many this will cause far more harm than watching foot fetish or tranny porn.
Nah she absolutely prefers USA. That does not mean she doesn't care about Israel.
caring for Israel does not mean conflict with USA.
Its interesting Id critique most American jews for being pinko dems, hell 25% in ny voted for mandami. Mirriam is a conservative, and was instrumental in getting Trump elected and its not just cause of Israel she did so.
I disagree that caring for Israel and the US are not conflicting. It's so obvious that they are conflicting, going back many decades. They have no respect for us. We are a financial backer and nothing more. If you think this isn't true, look at what is said about anyone who questions the support.
They are responsible for the deaths of thousands of American citizens, at minimum. A relationship with Israel puts our country at odds with the majority of the rest of the world.
Our country by its existence is at odds with the majority of the rest of the world. The euros are socialist and Islam hates us and the Chinese certainly dont love us.
Our friendship with Israel aprt from the material benefits buys us respect, and out there thats what counts.
" If you think this isn't true, look at what is said about anyone who questions the support."
Questioning is always healthy for both parties. the question about questioning is from whence does it come.
Oh yeah, Islamic countries hate us for our freedoms. That is a naive view. The Chinese have figured out a long game to exploit and weaken us for their benefit. Mostly using technology we gave to them. It didn't have to be like that. That is not by the nature of our existence.
It's not a friendship if they would stop being friendly following a money printer stoppage.
What does that have to do with both parties? I don't represent any particular political party.
I don’t know about that second part. Zero American soldiers harmed, and we get Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran with their asses kicked. If Israel didn’t exist, would those fine fellows just become farmers?
I can’t remember a time when I haven’t read about some conflict in the ME.
We don’t need ME oil.
We don’t need to protect the ME oil shipping lanes.
We shouldn’t care who fights who over there.
We need to remove 100% of our military from the greater ME area.
We certainly don’t need a defense pact with the Saudis.
We shouldn’t sell arms to anyone over there.
We should put a big fence around the whole lot and when the sects and tribes and crazies and all are done killing each other, let us know and we can discuss letting them out.
Well the thing is 911 happened nothing to do with Irael. Where there because we'd rather fight them there than have them come blow us up here. That's just how it works and has worked for 2000 years. or at least since the crusades proved to be a better model.
You have no evidence that I care more about Israel than I do about the United States but since I'm a Jew, and Jews, everyone knows, are perfidious, so you can make that charge with no proof.
I could have moved to Israel like my brother and other people that I know have. I haven't. I'm an American and my roots here may well be deeper than yours. I think the United States of America is the second best idea in human history and that the founding fathers were touched by God.
Secular Jew here, with plenty of secular Jewish friends and family. We do not hate America. If I did hate America I'd get the hell out, but I have no plans to do that. I AM hoping though to take my first cross country trip by surface this spring, since I rode my bicycle from Seattle to Boston 50 years ago.
It's humorous to see people think that people in a cohort that is just 0.2% of the world's population but includes about 25% of Nobel Prize winners in physics and medicine and 15% of winners in literature aren't going to notice the noticers' choice of euphemisms.
As I said, you're welcome to boycott anything and everything that Jews have had a significant role in developing. Too bad about your grandkids and polio, though.
The treat Phil Hart as some kind of saint around here in Michigan. There's probably a position on immigration somewhere between Hart-Cellar and the Immigration Acts of the 1920s that allows people who will make this a better place to come here while preventing the flow of stupid people from corrupt, low-trust societies.
They dotn hate America, but they believe in what's termed the democrat party, even though said party now hates them, and that party does it belive in the same America that many others do.
the left will cause us of being "racist" or wanting to turn the clock back on rights etc for not believing as they do. To me most contemporary "liberals" are really very liberal at all, what they are most closely resembles religious fanatics and zelots.
I'm willing to bet $50 that I know far more secular Jews than you do. For the most part they don't hate America any more than your average secular Gentile American does. Standard issue suburban liberals. Lots of Gentiles have baggage about Christianity that spills over into anti-Americanism.
Because of the population numbers (62% of Americans identify as Christian vs 2.4% that identify as Jews) there are likely many millions more people from Christian backgrounds that are hostile to American culture than secular Jews who are hostile to American culture.
According to Thomas Sowell Jews would be "hated less" if they succeeded less.
Most American Jews are all about the USA, imo the wrong USA cause theyre dems, which is another whole debate.
If you look at support for Isrel from the Us is comes from the group of Americans that also most visit Israel, the evangelicals. A wit abortion some things boil down to belf, in this case that the Jews need to be in Jerusalem for the second coming. Id also say that to the extent the Church of the holy sepulcher is going to be in any hands in the middle east, the Jews are a great Christan proxy.
Of Jews in the USa who really support Israel, like say Mirriam Adelson thats seen as ultimate survival, because Jewish history teaches sooner or later they're coming for you.
Certainly, the hstory of the 20th century teaches that if youre considered a "people" its always a good idea to have a sate to back you up. Thats true for the Armenians Kurds etc.
I dot think anyone is going to be killing Jews em mass as long as Israel exists,as tney say there are many ways to skin a cat, and that why you see vigorus support amongst some amercan jews. That BTW is not a conflict, the same way that being Irish or Birtish in the USa or apparently Japanese American does not mean there is a conflict.
Yeah the holocaust no one wants to hear about it, same as no one wants to hear the race card being played again.
"its always a good idea to have a sate to back you up"
I agree (and generally support Israel), and yet Americans, British, and Canadians are routinely and loudly told that their countries are merely ideas, and that flying their flag is racist, etc.
It's also hard not to notice that the driving force of Luce-Celler and Hart–Celler was Jewish. It seems that the other strategic response to the Holocaust may have been to destroy cohesion in every white country so that Jews would be one minority among many. So now, 25 years after 9/11, London and New York are united under some sort of Subcontinental Islamic Caliphate, with Mayor Khan and Mayor Mandami.
I generally support Jews, but not subversives, and there seem to be more than a few very vocal and very successful subversives.
Maybe but Jews also gave us things like the polio vaccine, nuclear power and a jewsih guy who worked for ge gave us the practical jet engine. It was also German jew who came up with chemical weapons during ww1. If you take group of people who on average driven and high achievers, they come out in all sorts of places. Mayer Lansky was also Jewish dosent mean they were all criminals, or all Italians mafia. Jews do not act cohesively, thats why Mirriam adelson is conservative and 25% of NYC Jews voted Madami. they're just people with different views. Thats like saying all catholics are the same.
the rspse to the holocaust, and for that matter real prejudice through till the 60s was for the jews to be "liberal". Thet meant less quota's against jews in universities and jews and in empathy after the hlociayst to have more open immigration for people to flee. But by the same token we have Jewsih Israeli's accused of being the opposite colonial settlers and committing genocide.
Theres no commonality there.
"I generally support Jews, but not subversives, and there seem to be more than a few very vocal and very successful subversives." Jews as subgroup tend to be very successful, some few are subversives and many more just "normally" successful in non-subversive fields arts science business etc.
As for the caliphate in londonisatn. Modern "liberals"( as a opposed to true liberals) are naive useful idiots. On needs to peek behind the curtain and see what forces or convergence of forces are behind that..
Russia had two cold wars, one was physical the other was one of the mind. During the Vietnam era our government lost its creditability because it was A inept and B chronically lying. Thise student protectors of the 60s, some became professors and in their naive idealism became tools of the second front of the cold war. That war never stopped and were 3 generartaions later of educators from kindergarten through Ivy leagues. Thatw ar is not just being propagated by Russia now, The chinese Iranins and Islam is all in on it. We're wide open reading carp on the internet. Its not even about competing truths so much as sowing discord. We dont trust Media or the state and we blame our fellow citizens for our ills. im not saying those gripes are wrong, but who benefits and why, cause it isn't your fellow citizens who happen to have been born Jewish.
Were all being played, to the extent someone thinks its jews thats just a red herring. For sure on the left there have been more than a few Jewsih useful idiots, but then on the Right we dont like Miriam Adelson or Henry Kissinger or jews on our team. The Israelis who have woken up and are just doign what needs to be done as lightly as possible and thats still really messy are excoriated on the left for being nazis, and under suspicion on the right for controlling our government. Meanwhile in the Middle east and elsewhere the Israelis are seen as US pawns doign our dirty work.
People always going to suspect the Jews for whatever reason, and the one thing Many Jews have in common is the understanding that Israel is insurance.
The equation after Gaza is different though. Since the Romans conqured Judea its been possible to kill or harm Jews with relative impunity. That wa salso a jewsh lesson after oct 7 when well before Israel went inot Gaza even the Un woman's rights groups were silent on the Jewish women seen on camera obviously raped. After 60,000 palestinas dead, and a city in rubble on camera for the left to decry to its hearts content and condemn, even though they don quite condemn so passionately elsewhere , the message is you come into our homes, rape our women, kill our children kill Jews and there si goign to e a big big big prce to pay wherever that happens.
Apart from the Biblical retribution on whoever messes with the Jews badly, the fact is Israel is the pointy end of our spear and the jews there are the canary in the coal mine. Were much betetr off having them on our team, than say the Russians or Chinese. American jews just got to toughen up and stop this infantile emotional voting and get on team, but we don't need to alienate or scapegoat those on team either. Theres no cabal or inner understanding, its just a group of people who due to history and survival valued education work being smart and achievement.
”and in empathy after the hlociayst to have more open immigration for people to flee"
Can you talk to your family and friends and try to get this position reversed? More Stephen Millers would be nice.
Celler's legacy is large groups chanting "from the river to the sea." Making the US the dumping ground for the world and importing all the world's ethnic conflicts hasn't worked out well for Heritage Americans, either Jews or Gentiles.
As a general rule I don't talk to "modern" leftists. I have some hard core right friends, nazis by modern terminology who do engage the left because they think a third party may be listening and convinced. I think its just a waste of personal energy and time.
You cant reason with zelots, and people whose voting pattern is based on feel good emotion.
If there is someone intelligent who votes dem and can actually elucidate beyond emotion and zelotary why I all for engaging, but that's rare.
you and I probably agree that western civilization hangs in the balance.
As I said Im not anti immigration I actually think if rationally applied its a good thing.
Shaming people who question big money in politics by tying them to HRC is pretty weak, IMO. Your statement RE: Citizens United may be factually correct, but browbeating people with muh Hillary isn’t the least bit persuasive. If anything, it makes your argument look weak.
Do Americans lose their First Amendment rights to free expression (and to petition the government) when they exercise their rights of free association?
I've long opposed the cut out from First Amendment protections that courts have made for commercial speech, on the other hand, I'm not sure our society is well served by advertising by doctors, lawyers, and pharma companies.
The contract is between producer and consumer and the government should stay far away.
Just look at the new consumer protection laws that Cali is trying to impose on door dash/uber eats. Any fraud by the consumer will still cost the restaurants tons of money, forcing them to avoid all together delivery service partnerships.
The government is ill equipped to know the long-term consequences of regulation.
There is an even more insidious aspect of pharma advertising: the legacy media was so eager to promote big pharma's totalitarian plans during COVID in part because almost every news program was "brought to you by Pfizer."
What would we do with all that extra time? Seriously, though, at work, many of the patients with nothing else to do (I assume they can't read?) just sit in their rooms with TV on, and I round a couple times a day, always noticing the huge preponderance of pharma commercials > ambulance chaser lawyers > anything else. It's really heavy, and I really have patients (regularly, and I'm a surgeon so I don't really do a lot of prescribing outside of a relatively narrow window) who ask for specific drugs, I assume based on their exposure to medicine avenue.
As a more libertarian leaning person, I don't believe the government should be regulating pharma advertising or any advertising as long as it's age/time appropriate. I think drug companies, cigarette companies, lawyers, weed shops, and even gambling sites should all be allowed to advertise.
Adults have brains and should be able to use them. I'm not on board with conservatives all of a sudden thinking the FTC and FCC are now a hammer they should wield when they've been against it for years.
Assuming you are accurate in your description of where the money goes, I still don't want that to happen. 1. We don't have the money. 2. I'd rather it go to Somali scam artists than to monopolistic defense contractors. 3. Israel is clearly one of the most evil countries in existence. I know you'll blow up at that last one so just save it.
I didn’t think you’d top the subscriber’s only post from earlier, but you have absolutely made my day, yet again.
I was fortunate enough to meet Bob Hoover at the 2012 Air Venture in Oshkosh. I still can’t believe how lucky I was.
Fortunately I am not “on the Gram” and do not follow much social media. These super cars do absolutely nothing for me. A 1990 Miata is a million times more fun to drive. As a matter of fact, for a street driven vehicle, I’d argue an NA Miata is the greatest sports car ever made in the history of the world.
My wife & I don’t have children, so I do not hang around with Gen Z or Gen Alpha, and I don’t get to experience all of these cultural changes that you write about. I only pick up on these things through your writing and other media sources. This fear of adversity and fear of injury or death keeping the youth from riding motorcycles or driving a tin can with a manual transmission is very sad. Mike Rowe has a famous bit about “Safety Last” that covers these topics.
And that leads me to the Porsche Problem. I own what to ME is my dream car, and a car that is exactly what I want a car to be, an old 2004 Boxster. I absolutely love this car. I have owned it for 11 years , after owning a 1993 Miata for 22 years. I am constantly amazed by how perfect this car is to me. I will never sell it. Never.
And I have ZERO interest whatsoever in buying any Porsche built today. Porsche has become a joke. While I absolutely love my car, I absolutely hate almost every other Porsche owner and everything that Porsche has become since Piech’s failed takeover of VW.
In addition to the evil PR, Porsche marketing is also just cringe beyond belief.
They actually have puddle lamps that say, “Icons of Cool” for crying out loud. And you can buy a coffee mug from them with that inscribed on it.
Sports radio personality Jim Rome has said many times that you “cannot self gloss” and if you call into his radio show and introduce yourself with a nickname, he will immediately hang up on you. And here is Porsche, declaring themselves the “Icons of Cool”—they are dead, they just don’t know it yet. It’s over.
I hate being lumped in with wankers who can’t drive a stick, and only worry about the color of their deviated stitching.
I think this Gen Z culture has infiltrated Porsche and this is why their 963 never won LeMans and never will. I believe it’s the first LeMans prototype since the 917 that will never win LeMans.
And fuck them for having a “turbo” trim level on their EVs.
Great post/rant, lets not blame Genz for what porche has become, they cant afford porches. It millennials and mostly retried boomers who want a lexus shaped 911. Add to that the ill of the west, managers who lack leadership.,
hoover was awesome, his wero commander act wouldn't be allowed today. Remember when the FAA tried to ground him.
I have two friends who grew up in Africa. The have been laughing at the whole thing because BRIBERY is a WAY OF LIFE in Africa and Corruption is rampant and tribal. These people are simply doing what every somalian does!
The weirdest thing I find, is that people here in the USA are shocked, shocked I say! To find out that almost everywhere else in the world, bribery is accepted and legal. It's just a part of life.
Money quote: "All we should do is make sure that none of Africa gets transplanted over to the U.S., because the danger to our society is dire if it does. I note that several U.S. churches are attempting to bring groups of African refugees over to the United States, European churches the same for Europe. Mistake. Mark my words, this misplaced charity will turn around and bite us, big time."
"I think that some people think “kid gloves” are what you use to handle children. They are not. They are gloves made from the soft skin of young goats. #TheMoreYouKnow"
At the DuPont paint lab where I worked, there was a "glove room", with a wide variety of protective handwear. We worked with all sorts of chemicals and metal panels. There were goatskin gloves, mostly to protect the finish on the panels more than our hands, and they were pretty cheaply made and when you'd take them off, your hands would be covered in lanolin.
did you guys ever handle methylethylketone? i used some at work once for cleaning and the huge rubber gloves i got always felt like some got in but i must have been imagining it. made me wonder if i was supposed to have some special kind of glove material or something
Heck, I have some MEK in my breakfast room, where my small scale downdraft and water curtain spray booths are. Yes, we used it in the lab, it's a standard paint solvent. I mix it with lacquer thinner and acetone to clean my airbrushes. Standard lacquer thinner, by the way, often has MEK as part of the blend. Those big butyl rubber gloves are typically resistant to ketones. I typically wear nitrile gloves when I'm working with paints/solvents because I need dexterity. They're not perfect but they're resistant enough for short term use.
We've gone through a list of solvents we thought we were ok with that turned out to be really bad for us. The only solvent I allow on my skin is water.
When you complete Cat Tales 2: Electric Subaru, I would offer up the greater Asheville area for a book tour stop. The fact we have a thriving group on the socials called "Asheville Cat Weirdos" full of Subaru driving lesbians who imagine they're black cat types instead of butch cargo shorts enthusiasts makes it easy. It's a target rich environment.
Unrelated: the nouveau riche supercar dorks are really a source of ennui for me. So much so I don't even have any of them popping into my feed anymore. I do wish I could have an opportunity to own one just so I could "act right" with one. But I have also made life choices that preclude me from having scratch like that. I need to strike oil or lithium or something in my back yard.
I am almost completely free of social media, so I have no idea who any of these rich “collection” people are….except the Triple F people near Columbus. I’ve heard of them, don’t know anything about them, but am curious about them since they don’t, uh, appear to have any skills except spending money.
“We live in a world where we exaggerate the dangers of everything except unprotected sex with strangers and compulsive online shopping.”
This truth is shocking to me, but is exactly what we saw during Covid- no one, I mean no one, could do anything involving strangers except have sex. Our reality in 2025 is that our rulers are degenerates who want everyone else to join them.
"could we tolerate a national system in which certain people on the basis of a biomarker are segregated? To say you can’t go back to normal life, where certain people get a head start. Is that an inequity we would tolerate? I personally think that it is better than the status quo if we can send 10 or 20 percent of the people back on the basis of having immunity that’s proven on the basis of a lab-based result that’s now available. That’s a good thing, and everyone stands to benefit from it." --YER BOI, about 16:25 here: https://www.rockco.com/unique-network/uniquely-rockefeller-special-client-event-vivek-ramaswamy/
His "Datavant" entity claimed to be developing technology to enable such a "national system" of segregation based on private medical data (and also on the false assumption that infection with COVID-19 provided lifetime immunity, which even I realized was unlikely given that the structure of the virus is similar to cold viruses): https://www.readcontra.com/p/exclusive-vivek-ramaswamy-supported
I’m not debating Vivek, I’m sorry you hate him, but voting for Amy is voting to be locked down the next chance she gets and I am not voting for that.
You need to read the room- this obsession you have to convince me is annoying.
I’m not clicking links, but if I understand this text then yes, I agree with Vivek. Covid would have lasted approximately 12 weeks if we had decided to get every healthy person under age 65 infected all at once and gain herd immunity. Instead we locked everyone in their homes and covid lasted for years, especially in places with rulers like Amy Acton where it was deemed unsafe to re-open well past when the red states reopened and went back to living life.
I just recently ran across EVIDENCE that Vivek ADVOCATED LOCKDOWNS and the creation of a NATIONAL BIOMETRIC SURVEILLANCE NETWORK. So a rational person who opposes lockdowns ALSO cannot vote for Vivek Ramaswamy: to do so is like rejecting a dinner roll for having "too many carbs," then eating a dozen donuts!
(Personally, I never got vaxxed or contracted COVID, so I would be locked down TO THIS VERY DAY).
BTW, even Fauci stopped talking about widely discredited "herd immunity" years ago.
No, the right keeps losing because Republicans, when given power, refuse to exercise it to fulfill their promises, and because the majoirty of the party are RINOS at best, and literal enemy agents at worst.
It's important to be educated about the ITServe cartel:
Now realize that an important ITServe lobbyist Hima Kolanagireddy is an RNC delegate "representing" Michigan, the driving force in the Ohio GOP seems to be Mehek Cooke, Ohio's Republican solicitor is Mathura Sridharan, and you tell me: how is anything "Americans First" going to be accomplished with literal anti-American lobbyists at the helm?
Would you vote for a "Republican" who was going to be a keynote speaker at the Sinola Cartel annual meeting?
"Visa power, political influence and the big business of labor arbitrage
'Kolanagireddy holds positions within Republican Party structures while representing an organization whose primary objective is to expand foreign labor access'"
It's time to start caring about things and trying to win. I really care about Vivek not winning Ohio, so I am launching a website to coordinate campaigns to defeat Vivek, his allies, the GOP Chairman, and the entire Ohio State Senate Committee
In short, @VivekGRamaswamy was endorsed by the @ohiogop a year before primary. This is an extreme breach of protocol championed by @ChairmanAlex Triantafilou.
Alex just so happens to have known Vivek for decades. Alex just so happens to be an attorney for Dinsmore, a huge corporate lawfirm that does immigration visas for workplaces. Dinsmore just so happens to make millions of dollars importing labor for the exact kind of work that Vivek is promising to bring to Ohio.
This is flat out corruption. Vivek's entire campaign has been about "meritocracy" but his endorsements are just him buying friends from people like Elon, Trump, and Alex.
That is why the Ohio primary is so important. If we can't shake these rats out of their nests, there will never be meaningful elections in this country. He has to lose and a message has to be sent by taking the seat of the Chairman of the Ohio GOP.
There's no room for giving up. Doing nothing means more millions of immigrants come in every year. It is time to vigorously engage the democratic process. Don't say voting never worked: you've never paid attention to something like this before.
You've never heard of the "State Central Committee", even if you vote GOP in Ohio every year. But these are the keys to power. These are the people who push the candidates you roll your eyes at at the ballot box every two years. If you ever want to have genuinely good choices, you have to make sure that people like Alex are kicked out of the party and the people in the party actually give a shit about improving the country.
When you don't secure these seats, in a best case scenario you get Vivek. In the worst case scenario you get a GOP that is taken over by Democrats. This is what happened in Virginia and this is why Virginia is so blue: the GOP there just gave up. That's why the Virginia candidates were so awful. The Democrats run the party there because people stopped giving a shit.
I give a shit. I don't want Vivek to win.
Stop giving up. Fight to the death. Send money if you can. If you're in Ohio or have resources to give, volunteer for Casey Putsch's team. You won't save your country fighting on Twitter.
When leaders provide stability and opportunity, people return trust. When leaders fail to live up to those obligations, or pretend to have met them when everyone can see they haven’t, that trust doesn’t erode gently. It vanishes.
...
A regime survives only as long as it delivers results. To summarize Machiavelli: a ruler keeps his authority only so long as he provides security and stability. Aristotle says the same, but more gently, arguing that a regime remains legitimate only so long as it serves the common good.
Haven't finished reading the article yet, but I'm here to HIGHLY recommend Forever Flying, Bob Hoover's autobiography. It is an incredible book and includes the story Jack mentioned in this post about Hoover stealing a Fw 190 and flying it to freedom (after escaping from a POW camp, naturally).
Happy 2026, fellow ACFers!
+1... I have a copy that Hoover signed right in front of me. In one of these "Oshkosh magic" moments, I stumbled onto Hoover talking to a huge crowd standing around him. He was sitting next to a Spitfire, wearing that famous straw hat, with a microphone in one hand... he was telling that story, about stealing the FW-190. Later there was a line to buy his book and have him sign it. As a pilot, when it was my turn, I asked one of the world's greatest pilots if he had any advice... he said, "know your limitations"...
When did he head West to the land of endless fair skies and tailwinds, shall we say? Since 2000, or earlier?
I had to look it up, but Hoover died in 2016. That Oshkosh story was 2007...
Christmas was very good to my family and me, and this from a relationship standpoint, enjoying each other's company and reactions to gifts throughout the day. Did bicycle drag races with one of my brothers and his sons bikes in the neighborhood street, both bikes of which I easily put about $550 worth of labor total into, plus about $50 in cables and housings. I was on another brother's bike (that I'd given him years ago), and I was losing almost every hole shot while only semi-successfully reeling my brother in as the speeds climbed. It was a riot.
Post-Christmas to-do's and realities have sobered me up plenty, and I go into 2026 very not-settled or content with things. The last five years, and certainly the last three, have been a "wilderness period" (think post-Exodus Moses and the Israelites, of whom I am presently reading about as I go through the book of Exodus). Many thoughts and emotions. I am ready to be done with this time in my life, I am ready for respite, I am ready for new hope, to catch the proverbial thermal and ride its rise to a new chapter.
I will say I am very much looking forward to the Dakar Rally, which begins on the 3rd. I have increasingly enjoyed it and looked forward to it as the years have gone on. Everyone who races it is a stud. I am particular to the trucks--they are simply epic.
So wherever you are in your journey, gentlemen, I wish and pray for you the best for 2026; for hope, for renewed hope, for stability in any and all ways, for opportunity, for patience in the waiting, for discernment and wisdom, for endurance and perseverance, for strength.
Agree, the trucks churning across the dunes is so incongruous, especially in contrast to the motorcycles
And even more, the speed they carry compared to everything else, not to mention how quickly they launch from a stop. Extremely impressive.
But those Men on motorcycles.....!!!
Like I said, I love the trucks, everybody is a stud, but man are the motorcycle guys top tier! Especially the Original by Motul riders as they're unsupported. It's all great stuff.
There is a little more to the Steve Hamilton vs Christian von Koenigsegg story:
-Yes, Steve Hamilton is a dropshipping Chinese wheels and aftermarket parts merchant
-Is CvK an inheriting fortunate son, or an achiever (like Hamilton)? I have never heard that CvK grew up with those privileges
-Per Scott Sherwood - https://ssoreport.com/thoughts-mid-dec-2025 - the King’s Blade manufacturer did $134MM of revenue in 2024 and dropped a whopping $3.3MM to the bottom line in the same period (after a sizable loss in 2023)
-Hamilton bought a used Regera - a specific example of that model that was known to have had issues - some time ago. It has remained broken, essentially
-Hamilton went on to order a Jesko, which just arrived
-Hamilton also has a Gemera - the 4 door Koenigsegg - on order; that car was first shown to the world in 2020 or 2021, and there have been engineering teething troubles, including the transition from a 3 cylinder “Tiny Friendly Giant” engine to the V8 that is also found in the Jesko
-Hamilton called out CvK over the broken Regera and the delayed Gemera; Koenigsegg sent a tech out to ensure the Regera was fixed and to ease the handover of the Jesko at the same event
-The Regera re-broke immediately after 4 miles of travel and the Jesko broke after about 80 miles of driving. No word on when the Gemera will arrive, if at all
Grok says that the senior von Koenigsegg invested $2 million in his son's venture in the early days.
Well if MechaHitler says it then it must be true.
https://sixtysixmag.com/koenigsegg/
“…and while his family is well off … he began with comparatively humble beginnings. He got to where he is today from inspiration, single-mindedness, and luck.”
Damn he just like me, fr.
^ E.G.: another example of the "bootstrapping platitude" we were discussing a couple of weeks ago. ^
WHOOSH!
I am being facetious.
Oh, Sherman. Your ability to make rational people foam at the mouth never ceases to amaze
Of course you know all about this cunt! Happy new Year!!
Does anyone care?
I hold Jack to account when he makes up fanfic about evil, terrible Lizard People.
To Jacks point, you cannot and should not expect Camry levels of reliability out of a bespoke product. But maybe like, early Gallardo reliability? Or hell, even radical reliability, which is somehow better despite being hammered on track for its whole existence?
Getting into a pissing contest over who is more “self made” is a dumb ass line of conversation. The real question is how can Koneigseggggggg not make a car halfway put together after decades of doing this, and why do people keep buying them?
It really is Opposite Day when I am talking up the achievements of high performing proles like Steve Hamilton while Jack has been caught recently veritably *glazing* nepo baby par excellence Miles Collier.
Put yourself in the shoes of Steve Hamilton:
-You didn’t grow up with much
-You took risks and overcame obstacles to build a sizable business, and you retained a lot of ownership. At every opportunity for your wealth to be wasted or frittered away or stolen, you protected the asset, even without having fancy schools or jobs on your resume: At every opportunity to fail, he succeeded! Again and again and again
-Consequently, the marketplace has rewarded his decisions and his work: He’s got bread to spend, even if the fashion in which he created his wealth does not accord with the Infallible Jack Baruth Theory of Everything, in which we centralize the means of production so that he can determine what work is valuable. I keep urging Jack to hang out more with his buddy Butterfinger BB, or to move to New York so that he can live in a centrally planned economy!
-So you get in touch with Koenigsegg; you’ve spent about $10MM on their products and you are exasperated that they delivered you ANOTHER car that doesn’t work!
-Steve has implied that he is a billionaire, or thereabouts, in the past (based on his ownership of the business) and mentioned discussions with investment bankers in a video - so his shit is for sale
-If I were him and I could engineer a liquidity event imminently, I would shore up my relationships with other hypercar OEMs and then invite every automotive YouTuber to an, ahem, Bonfire of the Koenigseggs and torch $10MM of cars live on stream. I might even invite CvK and punk him on camera.
Koenigsegg podcast alert 🚨
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03IcWhHFNMM
Interesting context for this discussion!
I think a true high performing prole would be making wheels in the US. It's elitist behavior to import a bunch of Chinese junk.
Succeeded again and again: Maybe he got lucky?
Wouldn't someone who isn't a billionaire but wants to appear that way do exactly what he is doing?
Proles love to buy cheap Chinese junk. They claim they’d buy American … if it cost the same!
“He just got lucky” (again and again and again and again and again). That’s forever poverty brokanese thought; banish it from your vocabulary.
He may be a ~billionaire, but he’s, like, a cool billionaire who is in touch with regular people because he eats at pizza joints in strip malls and wears basketball shorts everywhere.
They probably don't have the time to seek out the made in USA stuff which is usually niche stuff.
If you have billions of people flip a coin ten times, some people are going to get 10 heads.
If it weren't for this article (and maybe one article in the past?), I'd have never heard of him so I probably not accurately judging. But he seems like an extension of the guy driving a Hummer who looks normal person rich but really has a $3k/month payment.
Most people shop on price, period.
Yes, I have read Fooled by Randomness, along with the rest of Taleb’s oeuvre.
My sense is he wanted some clout after the business had done well, so he spun up a YouTube channel. He claims that he gives away to charity the YouTube cash.
I expected this Somali thing to die on the vine like every other “exposé” over the past ten years. This time, the whole thing is so absurd that the memes are endless. Just maybe we’ll see something positive come out of this.
Anyway, Happy New Year gentlemen. I wish you all a happy and healthy 2026.
Not likely.
Since I'm super cool these days, I poked around MN's licensing database for the "Quality Learing Center." One can't say there weren't signs.
From a 2022 conditional license:
REASON FOR THE CONDITIONAL LICENSE
On May 9th and May 10th, 2022, DHS licensors conducted a licensing review and follow-up visit at your facility located at 1411 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55403. As a result of this licensing visit, the DHS licensors determined that your program failed to comply with the laws and rules that apply to licensed child care centers, citing 27 violations. DHS has considered the nature, chronicity, and severity of these violations, as well as the health, safety, and rights of children served by the program.
Nature and Severity: On May 9 and 10, 2022, DHS licensors determined 27 licensing violations. Additionally, 10 of the 27 violations are repeat violations for which you were previously cited. Numerous violations related to the health and safety of children...
https://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/idcplg?IdcService=GET_DYNAMIC_CONVERSION&RevisionSelectionMethod=LatestReleased&dDocName=LLO_462322
The whole sordid history is here:
https://licensinglookup.dhs.state.mn.us/Details.aspx?l=1087038
Yikes.
Thank you for adding sprezzatura to my vocabulary.
sprezzatura is best when made from scratch just before cooking and served al dente with a bolognese sauce.
can i buy it frozen or does it have to be made fresh
Much better if it’s nuke-able!
If my microwave ever goes out, I’ll be in deep trouble! (My Sharp Carousel has lasted me 28 years! I’m sure a new one would last about 28 seconds!)
I had a Litton from the late 70's that lasted about 25 years. Kudos to Sharp.
frozen is acceptable; I merely said it is _best_ when made from scratch. :-)
Does that apply to Lean Cuisine chicken Alfredo versus the Italian joint up the street? 😂
absolutely not. for that, you are sentenced to driving a Fiat Topplino that misfires
Happy new year!
As I venture out on I-85 to mingle with other much filthier, drunker animals, I wish all of you the Happiest of New Years. May all your daycares be empty, your supercars be delivered on time, and your electric Porsches get fatter and stupider in 2026.
The notes after the writing are hilarious.
Are they really memes if they are accurate? Nothing ever comes of these discoveries.
Agree.
But why are they not, per the ACF Style Guide, base-0?
"Israel gets billions of dollars every year, and no one can tell you exactly what they do with it, other than turn around and lobby Congress!"
I can tell you exactly what they do with it. 85% is obligated to pay for stuff like F-35s, ordnance, and other American military hardware. The rest is mostly budgeted to research by Isreali companies like Elbit and Rafael, the results of which must be shared with the U.S. like Rafael's recently announced laser-based Iron Beam (it's not cost effective to shoot down a $300 rocket with a $50,000/shot system, lasers are a lot cheaper). It's very possible that when considering joint technology, intelligence and other factors the U.S. has a positive ROI on its aid to Israel.
As for lobbying, that's done mostly by American Jews with their own money, not lobbyists with Israeli money. If one has a problem with AIPAC's related Political Action Committees making political contributions, then one should line up with Hillary Clinton on the Citizens United case. Americans, including American Jews, have the right to make political contributions for the causes they support. Miriam Adelson has as much right to throw around her money as George and Alexander Soros do.
In any case, it seems to me that buying weapons is more mission critical than buying politicians.
miriam adelson probably doesnt prefer america over isreal
given her pull thats concerning
"when the boomers are dead, the dam Will be broke"
in the near future im hoping for laws and jobs that benefit my cohort and cheap muscle cars
Its interesting how were becoming divided is it not. Boomers are to blame, Jews are to Blame, Immigrants are to blame. The people, are looking for a savior to promise them something. For sure an age of ignorance does not lead to cheap muscle cars.
Were constantly told how bad things are, on the left its climate, or trump or, on the right its jobs houses etc.
reality is things could be a lot worse, whats lacking is a belief in ourselves and as a nation. if you wanted to subsume the USa and had access to social media what would be the messaging, anything that could so discord.
We were so busy building jet fighters that we lost the oter part of the cold war, the one fo the mind. Our education and intellect got subsumed in the 60s by a false "liberalism" and that submunation had its full flowering in the woke era. Now similar forces are working on the youth of the right. the Jews as always are just a canary in the coal mine.
I agree with every word of that, Sean.
"immigrants are to blame"
Are you implying that historically unprecedented mass migration from insular and incompatible cultures is not essentially genocide against Heritage Americans (including Jews)?
i mean in canada i can literally point to immigration driving up the cost of housing while reducing the jobs available and the boomers voting liberal again
If you want to hang with people with medieval attitudes, that's your business.
Are you cool with my grandchildren getting killed when that dam breaks?
It might be appropriate to hang people with medieval attitudes, depending on what they do with them.
When ignorance rules lots of things will be broke. Thats one reason why jews regardless of poltical view strive to keep Israel alive, survival.
Miriam Adelson is an American citizen who employs thousands of Americans. She could easily live wherever she wants to and she chooses to live in the U.S.
She's also an Israeli citizen.
good old dual citizenship
Have you ever said a word about Ilhan Omar's professed representation of Somalia's interests or Rashida Tlaib flying a Palestinian flag (designed by a British officer, but tell me how Israel is a colonialist state) outside her office in Congress? Unlike Omar and Tlaib, Adelson is a private citizen (she was born in pre-state mandatory Palestine and grew up in Israel. She's been naturalized since '91).
I think you can do better than whataboutism. I don't live in their districts so what am I supposed to do about it? Adelson is a private citizen. Great. So she is free to spend billions for her treasonous desires?
Interesting point on Adelson:
Her net worth is tied to “gaming” (gambling).
The legacy gaming industry is going to be eviscerated by prediction markets, unless the Emperor Trump regime throttles them back.
This comment led me to look into prediction markets for the first time where I see on Kalshi I can bet on LeBron James facing off against Nicki Minaj in the 2028 Presidential Election. Fortunately they are both sitting at 93.5-1.
We seem to be the only country on the planet without guidelines preventing stupid people from seeking a dopamine rush betting money needed to house and feed their families on really anything they see on traditional and social media with a device in their pocket connected directly to their banking and credit accounts. I can't see Trump stopping this disgusting mess because DJT Jr apparently is on the Kalshi payroll.
On this first day of a new year where people are supposed to seek changes for the better I've never felt more pessimistic. This country is doomed.
I think the UK had betting markets like this many decades ago (and is in even worse condition).
Decades ago no one was enticed to see a story and then immediately place a bet using the same media device on whatever they were watching. For many this will cause far more harm than watching foot fetish or tranny porn.
Tarek Mansour (Kalshi Founder):
“[We want to] financialize everything and create a tradable asset out of any difference in opinion.”
Indeed. TDS will reach new heights once people take a financial stake in their delusions.
I have been wondering what effect this will have on internet gambling, seems to be the first target.
Nah she absolutely prefers USA. That does not mean she doesn't care about Israel.
caring for Israel does not mean conflict with USA.
Its interesting Id critique most American jews for being pinko dems, hell 25% in ny voted for mandami. Mirriam is a conservative, and was instrumental in getting Trump elected and its not just cause of Israel she did so.
I disagree that caring for Israel and the US are not conflicting. It's so obvious that they are conflicting, going back many decades. They have no respect for us. We are a financial backer and nothing more. If you think this isn't true, look at what is said about anyone who questions the support.
They are responsible for the deaths of thousands of American citizens, at minimum. A relationship with Israel puts our country at odds with the majority of the rest of the world.
Our country by its existence is at odds with the majority of the rest of the world. The euros are socialist and Islam hates us and the Chinese certainly dont love us.
Our friendship with Israel aprt from the material benefits buys us respect, and out there thats what counts.
" If you think this isn't true, look at what is said about anyone who questions the support."
Questioning is always healthy for both parties. the question about questioning is from whence does it come.
Respect from whom exactly? Is it really respect if it’s bought?
Oh yeah, Islamic countries hate us for our freedoms. That is a naive view. The Chinese have figured out a long game to exploit and weaken us for their benefit. Mostly using technology we gave to them. It didn't have to be like that. That is not by the nature of our existence.
It's not a friendship if they would stop being friendly following a money printer stoppage.
What does that have to do with both parties? I don't represent any particular political party.
Please provide me with:
1) an example of how Israel’s and America’s interest in the Middle East diverge;
I don’t know about that second part. Zero American soldiers harmed, and we get Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran with their asses kicked. If Israel didn’t exist, would those fine fellows just become farmers?
you misspelled Venezuela
I can’t remember a time when I haven’t read about some conflict in the ME.
We don’t need ME oil.
We don’t need to protect the ME oil shipping lanes.
We shouldn’t care who fights who over there.
We need to remove 100% of our military from the greater ME area.
We certainly don’t need a defense pact with the Saudis.
We shouldn’t sell arms to anyone over there.
We should put a big fence around the whole lot and when the sects and tribes and crazies and all are done killing each other, let us know and we can discuss letting them out.
Well the thing is 911 happened nothing to do with Irael. Where there because we'd rather fight them there than have them come blow us up here. That's just how it works and has worked for 2000 years. or at least since the crusades proved to be a better model.
What about Europe?
Do we need Europe?
Do we need to protect shipping lanes that primarily benefit Europe?
We still have thousands of troops stationed in Europe.
We spend about $830 billion annually on the defense of Europe.
Do Europe Firsters have too much influence on American politics?
I don't care what happens in the Levant.
That much is clear. What makes you believe “what happens in the Levant stays in the Levant”?
So is Israel just a proxy of the US to wage war with the muslim world? This is unclear to me...
Just the opposite.
Ok we give Israel 3.8 billion in cr4edits, they buy 48 billion per year from us. Thats like cash on the hood at a car dealer.
whats the point of the 3.8 billion then?
What do they call it in the car biz trunk money, dealer discount. Obviously the Israelis would prefer to have it than not.
Its also a sop as we give the Egyptians 7 bill and theyre not returning that but no one seems to mind cause they not Israel.
Yeah, let them try to find somebody else who will sell to them. Good luck.
We've given them approximately $30 billion in the last two years.
And they spent 100 billion here in two years.
They make the entire Middle East hate us and desire to kill us.
Yeah i think we do that all on our won.
But lately they make the middle east respect us as they are viewed as our proxies.
Actualy in the Gulf states the youth are sick of Palestinians and want to emulate Israeli prosperity.
the greatest human Migration was the exodus from Syria during Assad, but yeah point to a few Israelis, its always and easy out from real problems..
You have no evidence that I care more about Israel than I do about the United States but since I'm a Jew, and Jews, everyone knows, are perfidious, so you can make that charge with no proof.
I could have moved to Israel like my brother and other people that I know have. I haven't. I'm an American and my roots here may well be deeper than yours. I think the United States of America is the second best idea in human history and that the founding fathers were touched by God.
Secular Jew here, with plenty of secular Jewish friends and family. We do not hate America. If I did hate America I'd get the hell out, but I have no plans to do that. I AM hoping though to take my first cross country trip by surface this spring, since I rode my bicycle from Seattle to Boston 50 years ago.
It's humorous to see people think that people in a cohort that is just 0.2% of the world's population but includes about 25% of Nobel Prize winners in physics and medicine and 15% of winners in literature aren't going to notice the noticers' choice of euphemisms.
As I said, you're welcome to boycott anything and everything that Jews have had a significant role in developing. Too bad about your grandkids and polio, though.
Do you support repeal of Hart-Cellar?
The treat Phil Hart as some kind of saint around here in Michigan. There's probably a position on immigration somewhere between Hart-Cellar and the Immigration Acts of the 1920s that allows people who will make this a better place to come here while preventing the flow of stupid people from corrupt, low-trust societies.
They dotn hate America, but they believe in what's termed the democrat party, even though said party now hates them, and that party does it belive in the same America that many others do.
the left will cause us of being "racist" or wanting to turn the clock back on rights etc for not believing as they do. To me most contemporary "liberals" are really very liberal at all, what they are most closely resembles religious fanatics and zelots.
I'm willing to bet $50 that I know far more secular Jews than you do. For the most part they don't hate America any more than your average secular Gentile American does. Standard issue suburban liberals. Lots of Gentiles have baggage about Christianity that spills over into anti-Americanism.
Because of the population numbers (62% of Americans identify as Christian vs 2.4% that identify as Jews) there are likely many millions more people from Christian backgrounds that are hostile to American culture than secular Jews who are hostile to American culture.
According to Thomas Sowell Jews would be "hated less" if they succeeded less.
Most American Jews are all about the USA, imo the wrong USA cause theyre dems, which is another whole debate.
If you look at support for Isrel from the Us is comes from the group of Americans that also most visit Israel, the evangelicals. A wit abortion some things boil down to belf, in this case that the Jews need to be in Jerusalem for the second coming. Id also say that to the extent the Church of the holy sepulcher is going to be in any hands in the middle east, the Jews are a great Christan proxy.
Of Jews in the USa who really support Israel, like say Mirriam Adelson thats seen as ultimate survival, because Jewish history teaches sooner or later they're coming for you.
Certainly, the hstory of the 20th century teaches that if youre considered a "people" its always a good idea to have a sate to back you up. Thats true for the Armenians Kurds etc.
I dot think anyone is going to be killing Jews em mass as long as Israel exists,as tney say there are many ways to skin a cat, and that why you see vigorus support amongst some amercan jews. That BTW is not a conflict, the same way that being Irish or Birtish in the USa or apparently Japanese American does not mean there is a conflict.
Yeah the holocaust no one wants to hear about it, same as no one wants to hear the race card being played again.
"its always a good idea to have a sate to back you up"
I agree (and generally support Israel), and yet Americans, British, and Canadians are routinely and loudly told that their countries are merely ideas, and that flying their flag is racist, etc.
It's also hard not to notice that the driving force of Luce-Celler and Hart–Celler was Jewish. It seems that the other strategic response to the Holocaust may have been to destroy cohesion in every white country so that Jews would be one minority among many. So now, 25 years after 9/11, London and New York are united under some sort of Subcontinental Islamic Caliphate, with Mayor Khan and Mayor Mandami.
I generally support Jews, but not subversives, and there seem to be more than a few very vocal and very successful subversives.
Maybe but Jews also gave us things like the polio vaccine, nuclear power and a jewsih guy who worked for ge gave us the practical jet engine. It was also German jew who came up with chemical weapons during ww1. If you take group of people who on average driven and high achievers, they come out in all sorts of places. Mayer Lansky was also Jewish dosent mean they were all criminals, or all Italians mafia. Jews do not act cohesively, thats why Mirriam adelson is conservative and 25% of NYC Jews voted Madami. they're just people with different views. Thats like saying all catholics are the same.
the rspse to the holocaust, and for that matter real prejudice through till the 60s was for the jews to be "liberal". Thet meant less quota's against jews in universities and jews and in empathy after the hlociayst to have more open immigration for people to flee. But by the same token we have Jewsih Israeli's accused of being the opposite colonial settlers and committing genocide.
Theres no commonality there.
"I generally support Jews, but not subversives, and there seem to be more than a few very vocal and very successful subversives." Jews as subgroup tend to be very successful, some few are subversives and many more just "normally" successful in non-subversive fields arts science business etc.
As for the caliphate in londonisatn. Modern "liberals"( as a opposed to true liberals) are naive useful idiots. On needs to peek behind the curtain and see what forces or convergence of forces are behind that..
Russia had two cold wars, one was physical the other was one of the mind. During the Vietnam era our government lost its creditability because it was A inept and B chronically lying. Thise student protectors of the 60s, some became professors and in their naive idealism became tools of the second front of the cold war. That war never stopped and were 3 generartaions later of educators from kindergarten through Ivy leagues. Thatw ar is not just being propagated by Russia now, The chinese Iranins and Islam is all in on it. We're wide open reading carp on the internet. Its not even about competing truths so much as sowing discord. We dont trust Media or the state and we blame our fellow citizens for our ills. im not saying those gripes are wrong, but who benefits and why, cause it isn't your fellow citizens who happen to have been born Jewish.
Were all being played, to the extent someone thinks its jews thats just a red herring. For sure on the left there have been more than a few Jewsih useful idiots, but then on the Right we dont like Miriam Adelson or Henry Kissinger or jews on our team. The Israelis who have woken up and are just doign what needs to be done as lightly as possible and thats still really messy are excoriated on the left for being nazis, and under suspicion on the right for controlling our government. Meanwhile in the Middle east and elsewhere the Israelis are seen as US pawns doign our dirty work.
People always going to suspect the Jews for whatever reason, and the one thing Many Jews have in common is the understanding that Israel is insurance.
The equation after Gaza is different though. Since the Romans conqured Judea its been possible to kill or harm Jews with relative impunity. That wa salso a jewsh lesson after oct 7 when well before Israel went inot Gaza even the Un woman's rights groups were silent on the Jewish women seen on camera obviously raped. After 60,000 palestinas dead, and a city in rubble on camera for the left to decry to its hearts content and condemn, even though they don quite condemn so passionately elsewhere , the message is you come into our homes, rape our women, kill our children kill Jews and there si goign to e a big big big prce to pay wherever that happens.
Apart from the Biblical retribution on whoever messes with the Jews badly, the fact is Israel is the pointy end of our spear and the jews there are the canary in the coal mine. Were much betetr off having them on our team, than say the Russians or Chinese. American jews just got to toughen up and stop this infantile emotional voting and get on team, but we don't need to alienate or scapegoat those on team either. Theres no cabal or inner understanding, its just a group of people who due to history and survival valued education work being smart and achievement.
”and in empathy after the hlociayst to have more open immigration for people to flee"
Can you talk to your family and friends and try to get this position reversed? More Stephen Millers would be nice.
Celler's legacy is large groups chanting "from the river to the sea." Making the US the dumping ground for the world and importing all the world's ethnic conflicts hasn't worked out well for Heritage Americans, either Jews or Gentiles.
As a general rule I don't talk to "modern" leftists. I have some hard core right friends, nazis by modern terminology who do engage the left because they think a third party may be listening and convinced. I think its just a waste of personal energy and time.
You cant reason with zelots, and people whose voting pattern is based on feel good emotion.
If there is someone intelligent who votes dem and can actually elucidate beyond emotion and zelotary why I all for engaging, but that's rare.
you and I probably agree that western civilization hangs in the balance.
As I said Im not anti immigration I actually think if rationally applied its a good thing.
Shaming people who question big money in politics by tying them to HRC is pretty weak, IMO. Your statement RE: Citizens United may be factually correct, but browbeating people with muh Hillary isn’t the least bit persuasive. If anything, it makes your argument look weak.
It's the same concept. Either Americans have the right to make political contributions or they don't. As long as it's transparent, I'm okay with it.
American people, yes.
Corporations, etc, NO. Just NO.
Do Americans lose their First Amendment rights to free expression (and to petition the government) when they exercise their rights of free association?
I've long opposed the cut out from First Amendment protections that courts have made for commercial speech, on the other hand, I'm not sure our society is well served by advertising by doctors, lawyers, and pharma companies.
No, the individual persons can still have free expression. And they can say stuff as a group as long as they are individually identified.
But this corporate artifice entity should not have many constitutional rights.
Anonymous speech is protected, and should be protected. Saying things like "Boys have a penis" will get you shot around the North West.
The contract is between producer and consumer and the government should stay far away.
Just look at the new consumer protection laws that Cali is trying to impose on door dash/uber eats. Any fraud by the consumer will still cost the restaurants tons of money, forcing them to avoid all together delivery service partnerships.
The government is ill equipped to know the long-term consequences of regulation.
But then what would be commercial fodder if pharma adverts were banned?
Oh..they’d have to show more of the PROGRAM than commercials in a given time slot! 😂😂
There is an even more insidious aspect of pharma advertising: the legacy media was so eager to promote big pharma's totalitarian plans during COVID in part because almost every news program was "brought to you by Pfizer."
What would we do with all that extra time? Seriously, though, at work, many of the patients with nothing else to do (I assume they can't read?) just sit in their rooms with TV on, and I round a couple times a day, always noticing the huge preponderance of pharma commercials > ambulance chaser lawyers > anything else. It's really heavy, and I really have patients (regularly, and I'm a surgeon so I don't really do a lot of prescribing outside of a relatively narrow window) who ask for specific drugs, I assume based on their exposure to medicine avenue.
As a more libertarian leaning person, I don't believe the government should be regulating pharma advertising or any advertising as long as it's age/time appropriate. I think drug companies, cigarette companies, lawyers, weed shops, and even gambling sites should all be allowed to advertise.
Adults have brains and should be able to use them. I'm not on board with conservatives all of a sudden thinking the FTC and FCC are now a hammer they should wield when they've been against it for years.
If the rule we followed brought us to this, of what use was the rule?
Conservatives have not conserved shit. I’m ok with someone going full retard and moving the Overton right a few miles.
oh so NOW theres a jew laser that exists
i was told that was just a conspiracy
Not for long.
It's not in space
Citizens United has wrought the worst damage to the Republic of any SCOTUS decision in my lifetime.
The Deputy Solicitor General, defending against CU at SCOTUS, declared that it would allow banning books.
https://www.ifs.org/blog/citizens-united-its-all-about-the-book-banning/
Not any old books, like Heather Has Two Mommies, but political books. The Citizens United decision preserved the 1A in its most important form.
And once you buy the weapon, it stays bought.
Assuming you are accurate in your description of where the money goes, I still don't want that to happen. 1. We don't have the money. 2. I'd rather it go to Somali scam artists than to monopolistic defense contractors. 3. Israel is clearly one of the most evil countries in existence. I know you'll blow up at that last one so just save it.
"Israel is clearly one of the most evil countries in existence. I know you'll blow up at that last one so just save it."
Nah, as it stands it's a fine exemplar of the qualities of your intelligence and morality.
Good with me.
Holy crap! A Bob Hoover reference. Bravo!
I didn’t think you’d top the subscriber’s only post from earlier, but you have absolutely made my day, yet again.
I was fortunate enough to meet Bob Hoover at the 2012 Air Venture in Oshkosh. I still can’t believe how lucky I was.
Fortunately I am not “on the Gram” and do not follow much social media. These super cars do absolutely nothing for me. A 1990 Miata is a million times more fun to drive. As a matter of fact, for a street driven vehicle, I’d argue an NA Miata is the greatest sports car ever made in the history of the world.
My wife & I don’t have children, so I do not hang around with Gen Z or Gen Alpha, and I don’t get to experience all of these cultural changes that you write about. I only pick up on these things through your writing and other media sources. This fear of adversity and fear of injury or death keeping the youth from riding motorcycles or driving a tin can with a manual transmission is very sad. Mike Rowe has a famous bit about “Safety Last” that covers these topics.
And that leads me to the Porsche Problem. I own what to ME is my dream car, and a car that is exactly what I want a car to be, an old 2004 Boxster. I absolutely love this car. I have owned it for 11 years , after owning a 1993 Miata for 22 years. I am constantly amazed by how perfect this car is to me. I will never sell it. Never.
And I have ZERO interest whatsoever in buying any Porsche built today. Porsche has become a joke. While I absolutely love my car, I absolutely hate almost every other Porsche owner and everything that Porsche has become since Piech’s failed takeover of VW.
In addition to the evil PR, Porsche marketing is also just cringe beyond belief.
They actually have puddle lamps that say, “Icons of Cool” for crying out loud. And you can buy a coffee mug from them with that inscribed on it.
Sports radio personality Jim Rome has said many times that you “cannot self gloss” and if you call into his radio show and introduce yourself with a nickname, he will immediately hang up on you. And here is Porsche, declaring themselves the “Icons of Cool”—they are dead, they just don’t know it yet. It’s over.
I hate being lumped in with wankers who can’t drive a stick, and only worry about the color of their deviated stitching.
I think this Gen Z culture has infiltrated Porsche and this is why their 963 never won LeMans and never will. I believe it’s the first LeMans prototype since the 917 that will never win LeMans.
And fuck them for having a “turbo” trim level on their EVs.
I had to rant. Thanks.
Happy New Year!
I met Bob Hoover twice. Nice guy.
Yeah, kind of like the old “turbo” buttons on PCs.
There was a REASON for the turbo button, it was an era where programs were optimized for a certain processor timing. :)
Yeah, but it was still silly.
Especially the requirement to use Premium electricity when engaged.
Great post/rant, lets not blame Genz for what porche has become, they cant afford porches. It millennials and mostly retried boomers who want a lexus shaped 911. Add to that the ill of the west, managers who lack leadership.,
hoover was awesome, his wero commander act wouldn't be allowed today. Remember when the FAA tried to ground him.
Everyone but the most sad and damaged knows you can't give yourself a nickname.
But, but, what about their electronic colour-changing paint?
"On the SUV side, 2025 was when the electric strategy became real volume product."
Um, wouldn't that require actual production and sales volume?
volume of money lost
Did Jack ever try to total up the $billions of dollars that were pissed away on the EV boondoggle?
Industry-wide?
Probably could have helped pay down half our national debt AND lifted countless people out of hunger and despair!
Just sitting here i think it is close to $100 billion.
The Leasehackr brokers seem to have plenty of listings for Macan EVs that dealers are trying to quietly fire-sale.
I have two friends who grew up in Africa. The have been laughing at the whole thing because BRIBERY is a WAY OF LIFE in Africa and Corruption is rampant and tribal. These people are simply doing what every somalian does!
The weirdest thing I find, is that people here in the USA are shocked, shocked I say! To find out that almost everywhere else in the world, bribery is accepted and legal. It's just a part of life.
"BRIBERY is a WAY OF LIFE in Africa and Corruption is rampant and tribal"
sensational
import a gorillion of them
Exactly!
"bribery is a WAY OF LIFE in Africa and Corruption is rampant and tribal"
sounds like Washington under Trump...
Not even close. Biden, who was worse, wasn't even close.
lol. ok.
rotfl. yeah it was!
Kim Du Toit wrote "Let Africa Sink" way back in 2002: https://www.kimdutoit.com/2017/05/05/let-africa-sink/
Money quote: "All we should do is make sure that none of Africa gets transplanted over to the U.S., because the danger to our society is dire if it does. I note that several U.S. churches are attempting to bring groups of African refugees over to the United States, European churches the same for Europe. Mistake. Mark my words, this misplaced charity will turn around and bite us, big time."
If I leave a fresh lambchop on the counter and go to the shitter my cat will take it for sure.
"I think that some people think “kid gloves” are what you use to handle children. They are not. They are gloves made from the soft skin of young goats. #TheMoreYouKnow"
At the DuPont paint lab where I worked, there was a "glove room", with a wide variety of protective handwear. We worked with all sorts of chemicals and metal panels. There were goatskin gloves, mostly to protect the finish on the panels more than our hands, and they were pretty cheaply made and when you'd take them off, your hands would be covered in lanolin.
did you guys ever handle methylethylketone? i used some at work once for cleaning and the huge rubber gloves i got always felt like some got in but i must have been imagining it. made me wonder if i was supposed to have some special kind of glove material or something
Heck, I have some MEK in my breakfast room, where my small scale downdraft and water curtain spray booths are. Yes, we used it in the lab, it's a standard paint solvent. I mix it with lacquer thinner and acetone to clean my airbrushes. Standard lacquer thinner, by the way, often has MEK as part of the blend. Those big butyl rubber gloves are typically resistant to ketones. I typically wear nitrile gloves when I'm working with paints/solvents because I need dexterity. They're not perfect but they're resistant enough for short term use.
gotcha
i was concerned for a while
appreciate it
We've gone through a list of solvents we thought we were ok with that turned out to be really bad for us. The only solvent I allow on my skin is water.
Podcast alert 🚨
“Massive Somali Fraud in Minnesota with Nick Shirley, California Asset Seizure, $20B Groq-Nvidia Deal”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhpd4NeTbCI
When you complete Cat Tales 2: Electric Subaru, I would offer up the greater Asheville area for a book tour stop. The fact we have a thriving group on the socials called "Asheville Cat Weirdos" full of Subaru driving lesbians who imagine they're black cat types instead of butch cargo shorts enthusiasts makes it easy. It's a target rich environment.
Unrelated: the nouveau riche supercar dorks are really a source of ennui for me. So much so I don't even have any of them popping into my feed anymore. I do wish I could have an opportunity to own one just so I could "act right" with one. But I have also made life choices that preclude me from having scratch like that. I need to strike oil or lithium or something in my back yard.
You have progeny, which is becoming almost as rare as supercar ownership.
That is a more than fair point. Not all that glitters is gold.
Wow, this one is a banger Jack.
I am almost completely free of social media, so I have no idea who any of these rich “collection” people are….except the Triple F people near Columbus. I’ve heard of them, don’t know anything about them, but am curious about them since they don’t, uh, appear to have any skills except spending money.
“We live in a world where we exaggerate the dangers of everything except unprotected sex with strangers and compulsive online shopping.”
This truth is shocking to me, but is exactly what we saw during Covid- no one, I mean no one, could do anything involving strangers except have sex. Our reality in 2025 is that our rulers are degenerates who want everyone else to join them.
About COVID:
"could we tolerate a national system in which certain people on the basis of a biomarker are segregated? To say you can’t go back to normal life, where certain people get a head start. Is that an inequity we would tolerate? I personally think that it is better than the status quo if we can send 10 or 20 percent of the people back on the basis of having immunity that’s proven on the basis of a lab-based result that’s now available. That’s a good thing, and everyone stands to benefit from it." --YER BOI, about 16:25 here: https://www.rockco.com/unique-network/uniquely-rockefeller-special-client-event-vivek-ramaswamy/
His "Datavant" entity claimed to be developing technology to enable such a "national system" of segregation based on private medical data (and also on the false assumption that infection with COVID-19 provided lifetime immunity, which even I realized was unlikely given that the structure of the virus is similar to cold viruses): https://www.readcontra.com/p/exclusive-vivek-ramaswamy-supported
I’m not debating Vivek, I’m sorry you hate him, but voting for Amy is voting to be locked down the next chance she gets and I am not voting for that.
You need to read the room- this obsession you have to convince me is annoying.
I’m not clicking links, but if I understand this text then yes, I agree with Vivek. Covid would have lasted approximately 12 weeks if we had decided to get every healthy person under age 65 infected all at once and gain herd immunity. Instead we locked everyone in their homes and covid lasted for years, especially in places with rulers like Amy Acton where it was deemed unsafe to re-open well past when the red states reopened and went back to living life.
I'm not trying to convince you.
I just recently ran across EVIDENCE that Vivek ADVOCATED LOCKDOWNS and the creation of a NATIONAL BIOMETRIC SURVEILLANCE NETWORK. So a rational person who opposes lockdowns ALSO cannot vote for Vivek Ramaswamy: to do so is like rejecting a dinner roll for having "too many carbs," then eating a dozen donuts!
(Personally, I never got vaxxed or contracted COVID, so I would be locked down TO THIS VERY DAY).
BTW, even Fauci stopped talking about widely discredited "herd immunity" years ago.
The right is infested with people who will vote for a socialist only because their republican isn't perfect. It's why they keep losing.
No, the right keeps losing because Republicans, when given power, refuse to exercise it to fulfill their promises, and because the majoirty of the party are RINOS at best, and literal enemy agents at worst.
It's important to be educated about the ITServe cartel:
https://xcancel.com/amandalouise416/status/2006483178094301558
https://xcancel.com/amandalouise416/status/2005117791469265093#m
Now realize that an important ITServe lobbyist Hima Kolanagireddy is an RNC delegate "representing" Michigan, the driving force in the Ohio GOP seems to be Mehek Cooke, Ohio's Republican solicitor is Mathura Sridharan, and you tell me: how is anything "Americans First" going to be accomplished with literal anti-American lobbyists at the helm?
Would you vote for a "Republican" who was going to be a keynote speaker at the Sinola Cartel annual meeting?
UPDATE: New article about RNC Hima Kolanagireddy:
https://www.wnd.com/2026/01/visa-power-political-influence-big-business-labor-arbitrage/
"Visa power, political influence and the big business of labor arbitrage
'Kolanagireddy holds positions within Republican Party structures while representing an organization whose primary objective is to expand foreign labor access'"
UPDATE 2:
https://xcancel.com/XJosh/status/2006878348383797477#m
It's time to start caring about things and trying to win. I really care about Vivek not winning Ohio, so I am launching a website to coordinate campaigns to defeat Vivek, his allies, the GOP Chairman, and the entire Ohio State Senate Committee
Read: new.gop/blog/2026/01/new-gop…
In short, @VivekGRamaswamy was endorsed by the @ohiogop a year before primary. This is an extreme breach of protocol championed by @ChairmanAlex Triantafilou.
Alex just so happens to have known Vivek for decades. Alex just so happens to be an attorney for Dinsmore, a huge corporate lawfirm that does immigration visas for workplaces. Dinsmore just so happens to make millions of dollars importing labor for the exact kind of work that Vivek is promising to bring to Ohio.
This is flat out corruption. Vivek's entire campaign has been about "meritocracy" but his endorsements are just him buying friends from people like Elon, Trump, and Alex.
That is why the Ohio primary is so important. If we can't shake these rats out of their nests, there will never be meaningful elections in this country. He has to lose and a message has to be sent by taking the seat of the Chairman of the Ohio GOP.
There's no room for giving up. Doing nothing means more millions of immigrants come in every year. It is time to vigorously engage the democratic process. Don't say voting never worked: you've never paid attention to something like this before.
You've never heard of the "State Central Committee", even if you vote GOP in Ohio every year. But these are the keys to power. These are the people who push the candidates you roll your eyes at at the ballot box every two years. If you ever want to have genuinely good choices, you have to make sure that people like Alex are kicked out of the party and the people in the party actually give a shit about improving the country.
When you don't secure these seats, in a best case scenario you get Vivek. In the worst case scenario you get a GOP that is taken over by Democrats. This is what happened in Virginia and this is why Virginia is so blue: the GOP there just gave up. That's why the Virginia candidates were so awful. The Democrats run the party there because people stopped giving a shit.
I give a shit. I don't want Vivek to win.
Stop giving up. Fight to the death. Send money if you can. If you're in Ohio or have resources to give, volunteer for Casey Putsch's team. You won't save your country fighting on Twitter.
UPDATE 3 this needs to be read in its entirety:
https://chroniclesmagazine.org/view/americas-affordability-crisis/
...
When leaders provide stability and opportunity, people return trust. When leaders fail to live up to those obligations, or pretend to have met them when everyone can see they haven’t, that trust doesn’t erode gently. It vanishes.
...
A regime survives only as long as it delivers results. To summarize Machiavelli: a ruler keeps his authority only so long as he provides security and stability. Aristotle says the same, but more gently, arguing that a regime remains legitimate only so long as it serves the common good.