In 2007, the standards of living in the United States and Western Europe were similar, and most people don’t realize how much things have diverged since the US boomed after the global financial crisis and Europe didn’t. They don’t fully understand how we’re living and we don’t fully understand how they’re living; even when we visit Europe as tourists, we don’t see their tiny, sad flats and their depressing grocery stores. That is why Europeans visiting for the World Cup are going to, like, a Waffle House or a Taco Bell and losing their minds. Stuff we don’t even like or care about is wildly superior to everything everywhere else. We have no idea how rich we are.

Brad, a 5% tax on Elon's trillion net worth would literally pay for free college and trade school for every American. And with the market's growth, he still would be worth over a trillion dollars! You don't think that's worth it?

Tout le monde pense que le monde libre a gagné en 1989, à la chute du mur de Berlin. C'est faux. Et c'est exactement pour ça que le monde est aujourd'hui en feu. Ce qui est tombé le 9 novembre 1989, c'est un appareil. Une économie planifiée, un empire militaire, un mur de béton. Ce qui n'est pas tombé, c'est l'idée. L'idée que le monde se divise en oppresseurs et en opprimés. L'idée qu'il existe une égalité finale à atteindre, par tous les moyens. L'idée que tout ce qui existe (la famille, la nation, le mérite, l'héritage) est une structure de domination à abattre. Cette idée-là n'était plus dans le bâtiment quand le bâtiment s'est effondré. Il faut reprendre la chronologie, parce que tout est dans la chronologie : Le communisme économique avait un défaut fatal : il était réfutable. Il promettait l'abondance, il produisait des famines. Il promettait l'émancipation, il produisait des barbelés. Budapest 1956, Prague 1968, L'Archipel du Goulag publié à Paris en 1973, les boat people de 1979 : à chaque décennie, le réel envoyait sa réfutation. Les boat people étaient une réfutation flottante, visible depuis les plages. Alors l'idéologie a fait ce que fait tout organisme menacé : elle a muté. La mutation a un nom, et j'en ai raconté la généalogie ici : la French Theory. Foucault a déplacé la guerre du terrain des faits, où le communisme perdait à chaque fois, vers le terrain du savoir lui-même. S'il n'y a pas de vérité, s'il n'y a que des rapports de pouvoir déguisés en savoir, alors plus aucune famine, plus aucun mur, plus aucun goulag ne peut réfuter quoi que ce soit. La French Theory n'a pas enterré le marxisme. Elle l'a rendu irréfutable. Et la mutation a des dates. Toutes antérieures à 1989. 1934 : l'École de Francfort, chassée d'Allemagne, s'installe à Columbia. La critique de l'économie devient critique de la culture. 1964-1965 : Marcuse, exilé allemand devenu professeur américain, remplace le prolétariat défaillant par un nouveau sujet révolutionnaire (les minorités, les étudiants, les marginaux) et écrit noir sur blanc que la tolérance doit être accordée aux mouvements de gauche et refusée à ceux de droite. Octobre 1966 : le débarquement a une date précise. Université Johns Hopkins, Baltimore. Derrida, Barthes, Lacan présentent la pensée française aux campus américains. 1967 : Rudi Dutschke lance le mot d'ordre, la longue marche à travers les institutions. 1968 : les révolutions de rue échouent partout. Qu'importe. La révolution ne passera plus par la rue, elle passera par la salle de classe. 1975-1985 : Yale, Berkeley, Columbia absorbent la théorie, qui devient le système d'exploitation des humanités. 1987 : Allan Bloom publie The Closing of the American Mind pour donner l'alerte. Un million d'exemplaires vendus. L'université le traite de réactionnaire et passe à autre chose. L'Amérique avait son Aron, elle en a fait la même chose que nous du nôtre. Puis arrive le 9 novembre 1989. Le Mur tombe. L'Occident célèbre. Fukuyama avait déclaré la fin de l'Histoire dès l'été, avant même la chute. On démantèle les missiles, on encaisse les dividendes de la paix, on déclare le match terminé. Nous avons célébré notre victoire sur une adresse vide. L'idéologie avait déménagé vingt ans plus tôt. Nous avons gagné contre les chars et perdu contre les chaires. Pendant ce temps, l'autre empire communiste faisait la lecture inverse. Pékin avait écrasé Tian'anmen dans le sang cinq mois avant Berlin. Sinistre, mais lucide sur un point : la Chine savait que la guerre était idéologique. Elle a choisi : abandonner l'économie marxiste, garder le contrôle du récit. L'Occident a fait l'exact opposé : il a gardé le marché et absorbé l'idéologie. Trente-cinq ans plus tard, regardez qui construit des centrales et qui déboulonne ses statues. Vous voulez la preuve que c'est le même logiciel ? Faites la table de correspondance. La lutte des classes est devenue la lutte des identités. Les koulaks sont devenus les privilégiés. L'autocritique maoïste est devenue le privilege checking. Les commissaires politiques sont devenus les DEI officers. Le samizdat est devenu le compte shadowbanné. La nomenklatura a quitté Moscou pour Davos et Bruxelles. Et le paradis ne s'appelle plus la société sans classes : il s'appelle l'équité, l'égalité des résultats. Exactement ce que je décrivais ici il y a quelques semaines. On me dira : il n'y a pas de Goulag. C'est vrai. C'est même tout le génie de la version 2.0. Le communisme dur devait briser les corps parce qu'il ne tenait pas les esprits. Le communisme mou tient les esprits : il lui suffit de briser les carrières. Pas de camps, des services RH. Pas de procès de Moscou, des excuses publiques. Pas de Sibérie, la mort sociale. Demandez aux émigrés du bloc de l'Est installés en Occident ce qu'ils ressentent en traversant une université américaine en 2026. Ils reconnaissent l'odeur. Et voilà pourquoi le monde est en feu. Une civilisation a passé trente-cinq ans à enseigner à ses propres enfants qu'elle était le problème. Résultat : elle ne sait plus défendre ses frontières, transmettre son héritage, ni même nommer ses ennemis. Quand la présidente de Harvard, devant le Congrès, répond que condamner un appel au génocide « dépend du contexte », vous voyez le logiciel tourner en production. Et les prédateurs du dehors lisent cette faiblesse comme un livre ouvert : Moscou teste, Pékin patiente, l'islamisme avance dans les rues de nos capitales. Le feu extérieur n'est que la conséquence du désarmement intérieur. On ne brûle bien que les maisons qui se sont vidées de leurs défenseurs. Le Mur n'est pas tombé. Il s'est déplacé. Il ne sépare plus l'Est de l'Ouest : il passe désormais à l'intérieur de chaque institution occidentale, entre ceux qui construisent et ceux qui déconstruisent. La première guerre froide s'est gagnée avec des missiles et du PIB. La seconde se gagnera avec des écoles, des médias libres et des modèles d'IA. Celui qui écrit les valeurs dans les machines écrira le prochain 1989. Cette fois, ne nous trompons pas de victoire. Au travail.

Let me get this straight > 84% of Americans support requiring a photo id to vote > every major democracy in the world does this except the US > even under our very eyes, the mail-in ballots in California are highly suspiciously slanted toward only one party And yet majority can’t push this through?! This is a traitorous level of incompetence Pass the SAVE Act!!

Fox News host Bret Baier asked retired PLA Senior Colonel Zhou Bo whether tensions between China and the US are “rising or subsiding.” Zhou replied: “We are competing, we are not your enemy.” The interview was calm, polished, and diplomatic. He framed the US-China relationship as competition between two major powers, not hostility. But the CCP has spent decades preparing to challenge US influence economically, militarily, technologically, and geopolitically. Military pressure around Taiwan, aggressive actions in the South China Sea, cyber espionage, influence operations, and rapid military expansion are not the actions of a harmless “competitor.” The messaging is soft. The long-term strategy is not. #UnveiledChina #China #CCP #Taiwan

Xi Jinping’s "partners, not rivals" speech in the Great Hall of the People is a masterclass in CCP theater. While the video shows him calling for a "historic landmark year" and a "new chapter," history tells a much grimmer story. Behind the smiles and the floral arrangements lies a decades-long trail of broken treaties and shredded promises. To understand the CCP, you must ignore the teleprompter and look at the track record. The evidence of Beijing’s diplomacy by deception is overwhelming. Here is why the world should be skeptical of every word spoken at the 2026 summit: The Phase One Trade Deal (2020): China promised to purchase an additional $200 billion in US goods. They never even came close, failing to meet nearly 40% of the target. They used the deal to stall for time while continuing the same subsidies and IP theft they promised to stop. The Hong Kong Betrayal: The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration was a legally binding treaty promising Hong Kong high autonomy for 50 years. The CCP unilaterally declared it a historical document with no practical significance and crushed the city’s freedoms 27 years early. Militarizing the South China Sea: In 2015, Xi stood in the Rose Garden and promised the US he would not militarize the Spratly Islands. Today, those islands are high-tech military fortresses bristling with missiles and runways, used to bully neighboring nations. WTO Entry Commitments: Since joining in 2001, China has systematically ignored the rules on state-owned enterprises and market access. They used the "developing nation" status to gut Western manufacturing while keeping their own markets locked behind a "Great Wall" of regulations. IP Theft and Fentanyl: Despite repeated handshake deals to stop state-sponsored cyber espionage and the flow of fentanyl precursors, both remain at crisis levels. To the CCP, a signed agreement is simply a tactical pause to regroup, not a commitment to change. Xi’s "partnership" is a one-way street where the US cooperates and the CCP gains. He talks about steering the giant ship, but his goal is to make sure the US is the one in the lifeboats. Watching what he does, not what he says, is not just skepticism. It is a survival strategy. #UnveiledChina #TrumpXiSummit #CCPDeception #TradeWar #BrokenPromises #Geopolitics #Beijing2026

New: A Washington Post satellite imagery review reveals that Iran has caused far more damage to US military sites than previously reported. Amid a US imagery blackout, Iran has released more than 100 images of strikes on US bases. We analyzed them: washingtonpost.com/investiga…

I’m officially convinced. It was a hoax. The Trump Administration recruited a leftist Kamala Harris voting Trump hater to participate in a staged assassination that would include the shooter getting shot at and then locked in federal prison for the rest of his life. The Kamala Harris voter agreed to this plan, that works against his political and personal interests, because he’s just like a really generous guy. Meanwhile the Trump Administration, despite dastardly planning multiple assassination hoaxes, decided to keep their patsy alive and a permanent liability to them, rather than just killing him like they could have easily done. They did this because they also are really strangely generous in a very odd and specific way. So in summary we have a plot where all parties involved are working against their own interests with no real discernible benefit to any of them. There is no evidence of this plan and it doesn’t even make any intuitive sense and the motives for everyone are unclear if not insane, but still I believe it because I’m a very smart person.

Shawn. Every number in this post is wrong. Disgraceful to spread this propaganda to millions of people. "$118 oil." Brent closed at $101.73 on April 22. WTI is $92. The number doesn't exist. "25% of global oil supply." Hormuz carries 20-25% of seaborne oil trade. That is not global supply. Actual demand destruction from the closure is 4-5 million bpd, roughly 5% of global output. You're off by 5x. "Forced ships to pay in Chinese yuan." Two vessels have paid in yuan. Two. Out of 26 vetted IRGC transits since March 13. The toll accepts yuan, Bitcoin, and USDT. It's a toll booth... not a currency regime. "Gulf states dumping US treasuries." Show the TIC data. You can't, because it doesn't exist. State Street's April note... no evidence in flow data or price action of any dumping or shift in foreign ownership. "Bond markets selling off." 10-year moved from 4.17% at year-end to 4.26%. Nine basis points. That's a Tuesday. "Inflation surging." Headline CPI 3.3%, driven by a gas spike. Core CPI printed 2.6%, below expectations. Gasoline moved. The broader index stayed contained. "Deutsche Bank warning of a petroyuan era." One strategist. The operative word she used was "could." Franklin Templeton and Brown Brothers Harriman torched it within weeks. The yuan is 3% of global central bank reserves. China's capital account is closed. It's going nowhere near 50%. "Oil has only been sold in dollars since the 1970s." This is the Kissinger secret-treaty fable. No exclusivity agreement ever existed. Saudi Arabia accepted British pounds well into 1974. Oil trades in dollars because the Eurodollar market made dollars the deepest liquidity pool on earth by 1955, not because of a secret decree. This is the exact narrative template Russian and Chinese info ops have been seeding for ten years because it keeps Americans convinced the dollar is one headline away from collapse. It isn't. You're reaching Ro Khanna levels of retardation

Battleships are obsolete. LMAO. Trump still thinks it's the 1980s. Iran, China and Russia are building hypersonic missiles, drones and drone carriers. Trump is building two giant targets for those drones: "Battleships." You sank my battleship!

You know the moment is coming when Europe is going to insist that the American NATO bases leave — and the Americans will freak out and demand they must keep their troops in Europe to protect everyone.

This guy is such an idiot… Destroying bridges is not a war crime. In fact, it’s been a part of warfare as long as there has been bridges. Disrupting logistical resupply routes is a key component of warfare (if you want to win). But what would a racist moron like Stew know about actual war? He was, after all, a failed bounty hunter and even worse rapper before he found a bunch of gay frog incels to like his propaganda.

CNN: Sources are telling us that recent U.S. Intelligence assessments found roughly half of Iran's missile launchers are still intact and that thousands of one way attack drones are still in Iran's arsenal tonight. That's despite daily U.S. And Israeli airstrikes.

You have no idea the number of doomsday posts on my shopping feeds. Look. You can call me a Trump whatever. What you can’t say is I was in favor of this war. I’m on record saying for years that we should bulldoze @CENTCOM to prevent another Middle East war. For YEARS I’ve been posting about the difficulties of securing choke points. Especially this choke point. I was the first major promoter of a new Battleship because I thought destroyers weren’t big enough for the job I have probably posted more than just about anyone about how crappy our LCS ships are and troubles with the minesweeper modules I know about deep strategy and tactical problems the MSM hasn’t even found yet I was the first to go on a major podcast and say the strait can’t reopen without marines I said from day one the allies can’t help us Was the first here to call out the insurance problem and explain why shipowners won’t risk lives I am pissed off RIGHT NOW the Navy still can’t get the 5 🇺🇸 US Merchant Marine ships out Don’t want to toot my own horn but I honestly don’t know anyone who was more skeptical and accurate earlier than me. And anyone who knows me well will tell you I can’t sit and watch a shitshow without screaming at admirals from the rooftop about their screw ups. But MY LORD. More than half my feed is consumed with doomerism. Only 200 casualties and 16 ship attacks in 16 days. That’s WAY lower than I dreamed was possible. With zero help from any allies besides Israel!!?!! Unfathomable a year ago. To eliminate Iran as a threat from the map? That’s a win. That’s a win if causalities double and it takes another 16 days to reopen the strait. Now I’m not saying this entire “excursion” can’t still fall off the rails and crash into the side of an explosive depot. I’m not saying we are in the clear for months of a closure resulting in a massive famine. This is war. LOTS can go wrong. But my goodness…. to say this operation is already lost and Trump is spewing lies to cover up the truth about what’s happening. To say Iran is now in “full control of the strait”. To say all our allies have turned their backs on us fully. That’s pure doomsday fiction. No way am I popping a champagne cork but cautious optimism is warranted. P.S. anyone who thinks 16 days is catastrophic doesn’t know shipping. It’s bad, yes, but not catastrophic (yet). The COVID port congestion crisis lasted two years. The Red Sea crisis has been 2 years and running. I’m very concerned and the tanker market is extremely tight (thanks for nothing @IMOHQ) but… have *some* degree of patience please.

People who believe Iran planned to have all their ships blown away and lose all their aircraft and everything else they lost as part of a grand plan are a special kind of retard.😂