USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving. Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free. I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these." "They just come with the table, man." They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner. This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat. I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared. "Did we…?" "Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless." Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined. My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude." Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man. I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy. Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived. I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most. Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.

I'm pretty sure this is just an HoI4 mod, and it's team 3 by a mile.

I like how a lefty like Aaron Sorkin is demonizing someone for saying he's a "free speech absolutist." Zuckerberg isn't a free speech absolutist. Zuckerberg is a left-wing fascist, but Sorkin is falsely portraying him as a free speech true believer so they can demonize free speech. Things sure have changed in Hollywood. They surely have. Aaron "McCarthy" Sorkin.

This is a perfect illustration of the depravity of prominent black media figures. An objective analysis of these cases would show Kyle was obviously innocent as proven by the videos. Zimmerman arguable, since there's 1 witness (him) & Karmelo is clearly guilty. But she just lies

How I sleep at night knowing I didn’t piss off an entire country of men who mastered the car bomb

The left wing lunatics who decided to drop a load of Sudanese people in the middle of the city with white people so hardcore, they were still fighting a war of religion in 1995. Everything that happens from this isn't on the residents of Belfast, its on the leaders who were so utterly lacking in awareness if human nature that they set it up to happen.

The man says it all.

The answer to this question is more complex then you realize, my friend. I know it does not rate as stunning political insight to say 'the left has substituted politics for religion' at this point, but I think the rational among us are sometimes unwilling to truly understand how literally true this statement is, and how accepting that can yield better insights. Your average 'liberal democrat' is an middle-to-upper class Millennial at or approaching middle age. They grew up in an social environment that not only had increased irreligiosity, but where all the social incentives were aligned towards the public rejection of Christianity (particularly the evangelical variety) as marker of correct thinking. To borrow from the modern argot, to be Christian was to be 'cringe'. However, while they may have rejected religion, they could not deny their own human need for meaning and purpose. It had to be replaced by something, and the first major events of a Millennial's young adulthood provided the avenue - the Great Recession and the 2008 election. Barack Obama cloaked himself in a preacher's mien, from the rhythm of his speeches to the imagery of his campaign. The gnawing desire for purpose was suddenly fulfilled in a newfound fealty to a political figure that had so effortlessly taken the forms of the old ways and related it to a new form of faith in 'progress'. This cadre - already broken over a failed start to life due to recession - were eager disciples. The faith has spread ever since, and 16 years hence it has gained more and more converts with each passing season. Trump in particular was the greatest gift this faith could have received. It gave the faith a definitive enemy - a devil they could portray as the ultimate opponent, and solidify their their faith in opposition to him and those they deemed his acolytes. His actions were all given a sinister, near supernatural quality by the bishops and priests in the media class. He is 'evil' in specifically the way the Liberal Faith had always organized itself around. He is an avatar of all the 'wrong' of the United States that the Liberal Faith perceive, a heralded destroyer who must be heroically opposed by the righteous. There are different levels of faith, of course. Your average Liberal Faith adherent might only know the basic forms, functions and words, but dutiful attend 'mass' in their social feeds and media appetites. The more invested in the faith know of the deep mysteries from which flow couch jokes and fevered whispers of creeping 'fascism' should darkness prevail. They serve as willing alter attendants, participating in the public rituals and intoning the shibboleths of the Liberal Faith as if it was second nature. The clergy of media figures and power brokers tend to the flock with regularity, seeing to their faith and loyalty in their purpose, carefully disabusing them of any doubts they have regarding their faith as they watch the world decay around them. After all, they must occasionally remind the faithful that one can be excommunicated for a multitude of reasons, though none is more heinous than Noticing. They must never Notice, lest they be cast into the MAGA abyss. I want to be clear that you cannot save most of these people. They are of an intense faith - a darkly guided one that has made gods of the most unworthy people imaginable - but a faith nevertheless. They are largely immune to your reason. To attempt to shake them from their faith is to invite a hissing, angry response. But you should speak with them. You should understand them. Read their books, listen to their podcasts, and observe their rituals. Some will remain enemies, and understanding your enemy is wise. Some will waver in their faith and may be able to be brought back to reason - knowing the path they have tread will help you in that task. In the face of these forces, it is the most meaningful thing you can do.

This tweet is perfect for expressing my innermost thought as itvrelates to what I say is 'election fraud'. What is happening is technically not illegal, but it absolutely should be. Its just the current version of corrupt machine politics. Coughlin would be proud.

I mostly agree with this with the following caveat: It might not be legal fraud to grab 1,000 ballots, mark your favorite candidate, and have a homeless person sign it with a smiley face But it is a moral fraud because you've just disenfranchised 1000 voters who actually care about their vote, care about the results, care about their city If that is what is happening (which seems likely) then it calls into question the very nature of representative democracy. Why do we even have a vote if the vote result isn't determined by individuals but by NGOs who can harvest as many votes as they want using these strategies?

The company does not get my money anymore, but I'll gladly get a chuckle out of them suffering the consequences of their own actions.

The the shady ballot harvesting leading to this outcome has been the main way by which the Democrats have maintained any form of electoral viability since 2020, and the whole political system knows it. The best case scenario of the practice - harvesting from entirely unengaged people through cajoling with a paid machine - already feels exploitive and dirty. The fact the absentee process in a state like CA is so unregulated that harvesting is likely occurring without even this nominal input from the 'voter' by third parties taking and filling out ballots is disgusting. The later is supposed to be illegal, but given the party in question controls the state, who is going to investigate it? This is what is meant by people like @politicalmath when elections in the state appear entirely illegitimate. If the party machine can always manufacture the same outcome, then no wonder they feel like they can govern like psychopaths.

This man has been running the most entertaining deep cover troll op I've ever seen, and if you knew what his banner picture was you would have never been fooled by it. 10/10 sir, absolutely have loved your work.

The past couple years have shown that the pillars of mainstream journalism will never reckon with their own failures. Bari Weiss isn't doing anything particularly dramatic at CBS News or 60 Minutes. She is no Trump acolyte, and not even nominally right wing. What she does understand is the systemic ideological rot that has captured the institutions and driven away half or more of the potential consumer base for the product these organizations create. Her theory of the case has always been that you have to pay some kind of attention to balance in reporting, otherwise you are only speaking to the converted tribe, and your obsolescence is assured. The problem with reforming this is that it only works if the people in the building agree with your theory. No matter how firm your control, no matter how many people you are allowed to fire and replace, if the ideological capture has become so total that your employees see balance to both sides an anathema, you can't fix it. Sure you could fire everyone in the building, but that means you just close the doors entirely. Institutions maintain themselves partially from cultural inertia, and to willingly sacrifice that means the death of your remaining relevancy. Bari thought, with power in hand and an open mind, she convince CBS journos to see things her way while making a point of eliminating dissidents. The reasonably believed that the combination of terror of losing a plum position in a contracting market and the reasonable nature of the ask on the table would naturally lead to the outcome she envisioned. Given her experience at NYT it makes sense - she saw the ideological capture there as a failure of leadership to simply lead and say no. The problem is that her theory is six year out of date - the crazies own the building now, and they will destroy themselves out of spite for you.

We’re so fortunate the democrats are all in on third worldist Palestinian shit and will never nominate him for president

You know it's a good thing if this creature is this mad.

Someone didn't watch Death by Lightning it seems.

Come on.

The urban progressives will never learn, but its useful to understand why. First, let's assume one thinks the reported numbers are reflective of reality, and even in that case moving from 13,660 reported serious criminal incidents in 2024 to 13,073 in 2025 is a decline so small, it's qualitatively meaningless. Approximately the same amount of people were killed, assaulted, strangulated, and robbed as the year before. In your best case, the city is just as dangerous as it was before in every way it matters. But of course, the numbers are not reflective of reality. Crimes by juveniles are routinely not reported as a consequence of Hamilton County not seriously pursuing prosecution or punishment for said criminals. Not only does this mean the reported crime figures are artificially low, it adds to the general feeling of disorder and lawlessness in the urban core. The urban progressive cannot see this. They cannot acknowledge it. They cannot admit to the truth in front of them as money, residents, and jobs flee the area. To do so would be to admit that their policy choices led to this slow moving ruin, and such and admittance is heresy. Instead they will retreat to lying with statistics, attribute the consequences to 'fear mongering', and refuse to do anything differently to change it. I don't like that this will be the outcome. I've lived in the city most of my adulthood. I was so happy to see the slow revival of our urban fortunes, and gladly played my part. However, I cannot help but be a realist.