Levi (@AskLevi) header
Levi (@AskLevi) profile picture

I like big mountains and small government. Financial literacy creates healthy, wealthy communities. All my opinions are exactly that.

Northern California
Joined December 2008
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"A Lot of the Attacks on Higher Ed Are Unfair. Not This One....This was a prime example of academia’s maddening tendency to embody the worst caricatures painted by its critics." Cambridge U appoints a flaming charlatan then denies what everyone can plainly see. This fiasco should accelerate universities' self-examination. An obvious failure point was a lack of viewpoint diversity, with no non-woke profs or admins to call out the delusion. The more serious one is threats of punishment of critics: anyone who point out the obvious is smeared as a racist, ableist, and abettor of suicide (in this case, also police visits & barracuda libel lawyers). We know is a powerful generator of the madness of crowds. nytimes.com/2026/08/08/opini…
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A brilliant explanation of the sources of wokeism and the foundation behind most of the West’s challenges in recent years. A very important read. I would never have found this post except for @X’s auto-translation feature. The original post in French.
Aujourd'hui je déconstruis la déconstruction. La déconstruction est le virus mental le plus efficace jamais conçu contre une civilisation. Il a été fabriqué en France entre 1966 et 1980 par trois hommes : Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze. Il a été exporté aux États-Unis, hybridé avec le puritanisme racial américain, et il est revenu trente ans plus tard sous le nom de wokisme paralyser l'Occident entier. Voici comment il fonctionne, et pourquoi il faut le détruire. La thèse est simple. Toute vérité n'est qu'un rapport de pouvoir déguisé. Tout texte sacré, toute loi, toute science, toute norme, toute hiérarchie, toute identité, toute institution cache en réalité une domination. Déconstruire, c'est montrer le rapport de force sous le vernis du vrai. C'est arracher le masque. C'est "démasquer". Formulé comme ça, ça paraît inoffensif. Voire utile. Qui n'aime pas un peu d'esprit critique ? Le piège est là. La déconstruction se présente comme une méthode. Elle est en réalité une ontologie. Elle ne dit pas seulement "interrogeons les normes", elle dit "il n'y a *que* des rapports de pouvoir". La différence est civilisationnelle. Une société qui interroge ses normes reste debout. Une société qui croit que ses normes ne sont *rien d'autre* que de la domination s'effondre. Parce qu'elle ne peut plus rien défendre. Plus une frontière, plus une loi, plus une science, plus une langue, plus une histoire, plus une biologie, plus une famille. Tout devient suspect. Tout devient négociable. Tout devient "construit donc déconstructible". C'est la première raison pour laquelle c'est un virus. Il s'auto-réplique. Une fois inoculé, il transforme tout ce qu'il touche en cible. La science est patriarcale, donc déconstruisons-la. Le langage est colonial, donc réinventons-le. La méritocratie est raciste, donc abolissons-la. Le sexe est une construction, donc choisissons-le. Il n'y a plus de roc. Tout est sable. Deuxième raison. Le virus est *non-falsifiable*. Si vous défendez une norme, c'est que vous êtes l'oppresseur. Si vous niez être oppresseur, c'est la preuve de votre privilège inconscient. Si vous citez des faits, vos faits sont contaminés par le pouvoir qui les a produits. Si vous citez la raison, la raison elle-même est blanche, masculine, occidentale. Il n'y a aucune sortie possible. Le système est conçu pour rendre toute objection irrecevable par définition. C'est exactement la structure d'une secte. Et c'est exactement ce qui s'est installé dans les universités, les RH, les médias, les administrations, les conseils d'administration depuis vingt ans. Troisième raison. Le virus s'auto-réfute mais ne s'auto-détruit pas. Si toute vérité est pouvoir, alors la phrase "toute vérité est pouvoir" est elle-même du pouvoir, donc sans valeur. Logiquement, la déconstruction se mord la queue dès la première phrase. Mais elle s'en moque. Parce qu'elle n'a jamais cherché la cohérence. Elle cherche l'efficacité politique. Et son efficacité politique est immense. Elle désarme ses ennemis et arme ses militants. Elle paralyse le défenseur et libère l'attaquant. C'est une arme asymétrique parfaite. Quatrième raison. Le virus produit des humains diminués. Une génération entière a appris à déconstruire et n'a jamais appris à construire. Elle sait soupçonner, jamais admirer. Elle voit le pouvoir partout et la beauté nulle part. Elle peut produire mille pages sur le caractère opprimant de Shakespeare et zéro ligne qui vaille la peine d'être lue dans cent ans. Elle a confondu l'intelligence critique avec la pose critique. Elle est stérile par construction. Un esprit nourri à la déconstruction est un esprit qui ne sait plus rien édifier. Cinquième raison, la plus grave. Une civilisation se tient debout sur trois piliers. La croyance qu'une vérité est accessible à la raison. La croyance qu'un bien se distingue d'un mal. La croyance qu'un héritage mérite d'être transmis. La déconstruction a méthodiquement dynamité les trois. Pas par méchanceté. Par jeu intellectuel, par fascination du soupçon, par haine de la bourgeoisie qui avait nourri ses prophètes. Mais le résultat est là. Une civilisation qui ne croit plus en sa vérité, ni en son bien, ni en son héritage ne se défend pas. Elle s'excuse en attendant la fin. Voilà ce qu'on a fait. Voilà ce qu'il faut nommer. La bonne nouvelle, c'est qu'un virus mental ne survit que tant qu'on lui cède l'autorité du discours. Il meurt dès qu'on cesse de jouer son jeu. Dès qu'on réaffirme tranquillement qu'il existe une vérité, un beau, un bien, un héritage. Dès qu'on cesse de demander la permission aux déconstructeurs pour bâtir. Dès qu'on refait. Dès qu'on transmet. Dès qu'on crée. Les bâtisseurs ont toujours le dernier mot sur les commentateurs. Toujours. Parce qu'à la fin il reste ce qui est construit, et rien de ce qui a été déconstruit. Alors aujourd'hui je déconstruis la déconstruction. Et demain je construis.
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🚨HAPPENING NOW: Justice Department announces indictment against Southern Poverty Law Center ("SPLC"). Our indictment alleges SPLC secretly funneled MORE THAN $3 MILLION in funds to members of white supremacist and extremist groups.
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Replying to @NoLimitGains
Oh... the latest ISM was already bad - prices at 78.3 with employment contracting at 48.7. That combination has only appeared during oil shocks, average S&P drawdown of -34%. If this drags on we have a real chance of history repeating
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Replying to @policytensor
The Arabian plate is converging with the Eurasian so the Hormuz strait will close by itself in a few millions years effectively rendering this entire issue irrelevant.
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This is a ballsy power play by Trump. Lloyd's of London was the gold standard for maritime insurance policies until just a day or two ago when they started cancelling policies or jacking them up 3-5X. Others insurers followed. That collapsed commercial shipping traffic through Hormuz, which choked oil shipments out of the Middle East. Trump doing this means the DFC has the chance to displace Lloyd's as the big dog in this game, when they have been the lock-in player for many years. It also frees up all the oil that was getting trapped there, heading off shortages and keeping the energy market alive. And why not? It's the American navy that sunk the Iranian ships that were harassing tankers. And the American Navy -- at least for now -- will keep those tankers safe. It's a huge reassurance to allies -- both oil producers and oil consumers -- that our campaign in Iran isn't going to sink their economies. And it allows America to be choosy about traffic in the Strait. It also potentially means billions of dollars in insurance premiums at wartime rates going to America instead of the UK. And those rates are STILL going to be cheaper than what shippers were getting.
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A day after celebrating the high-speed rail that is decades behind schedule and a hundred billion taxpayer dollars over budget with Gavin Newsom, the CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority was arrested for domestic violence. This may have flown under the radar because this was the same day a large section of the high-speed rail caught fire. Video credit: @kcranews
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The value of time is not linear
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Over the last decade, California’s spending overall has doubled, while its population has stayed FLAT. The state’s education budget has doubled, while the number of students has DECLINED. Bloated budgets on the backs of billionaires. Now they’re gone. Think those Democrats will tighten the belt on spending? Not a chance. YOU, the Californian working class are next. While the rest of the country is seeing falling prices and cost of living, you’re in for a world of hurt. Want to fix it? Pass a real balanced budget fix and spending caps. Take back control of the state! It can be done and the time is NOW.
Unfortunate update as of today: More calls from friends. The total wealth that has left California is now $1T. We had $2T of billionaire wealth just a few weeks ago. Now, 50% of that wealth has left - taking their income tax revenue, sales tax revenue, real estate tax revenue and all their staffs (and their salaries and income taxes) with them. In other words, by starting this ill conceived attempt at an asset tax, the California budget deficit will explode. And we still don’t know if the tax will even make the ballot. California billionaires were reliable tax payers - 13.3% every year. They were the sheep you could shear forever. Now California will lose this revenue source FOREVER. Unless this ballot initiative is pulled, we will not stop the billionaire exodus. With no rich people left in California, the middle class will have to foot the bill.
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Eat the Rich, the politics of greed and envy, ignores human incentive and has a 100% fail rate, but socialists keep trying.
“Over the last decade, California’s spending overall has doubled, while its population has stayed FLAT. The state’s education budget has doubled, while the number of students has DECLINED.”
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When I was a few weeks postpartum with my second child, I bundled us both up and waddled into the Fairfax County Circuit Court to testify against a man who had accosted my then-toddler daughter and I in a public bathroom while I was heavily pregnant. When I arrived I was brought into a room with his other victims and found out he had assaulted a woman in the same bathroom. I suddenly felt I had been lucky. The arresting officer who had also interviewed me weeks prior was clearly eager to do everything right to keep this guy off the street—he found additional witnesses, pulled surveillance footage, followed every step to the letter. It was physically painful and difficult for me to even be there—trying to discreetly feed and soothe my two week-old for 6 hours on hard benches when we should both be home in bed. It was also terrifying discreetly breastfeeding in the same room as this monster. When I finally took the stand, the attorney for the Commonwealth asked me if the man who was in the bathroom that day was in the room. I paused, confused—because I knew what was going to happen next. The courtroom had been packed all day but as case after case was handled, ours was the last one—now it was just the judge, court reporter, bailiff, the defendant, his lawyer, the Commonwealth attorney, and I. The arresting officer wasn't in the room. The other victim and her husband had been given a new court date and sent home. I adjusted my baby against my chest and looked at her as she repeated the question: Do you see the man you reported to police in this room today? Why was she doing this? What was she doing? I was sweating in my oversized cashmere nursing sweater and I felt prickles down my back. Everyone was staring at me. I'm not a lawyer. She asked me a question... and she was “on my side” so I should answer it, right? I adjusted my baby again to give myself a free hand—and I pointed to him. And just as I expected, his lawyer immediately pointed out there was nobody else present in the courtroom who it could be and therefore we had violated his constitutional right to due process. The judge agreed. Hell, *I* agreed—but then I asked WHY hadn't the Commonwealth given me a photo array to choose from? Why did she ASK that? Too late. It didn't matter that he was on surveillance footage entering the bathroom before us and pushing past us as we fled. He was set free. As I walked out of the court room the arresting officer spotted me from down the hall and ran over to me “Is it back in this courtroom? Is it starting?” No, I told him, it's already over. He had been sent to another courtroom “by mistake.” He didn't even get a chance to testify. He looked horrified. The Commonwealth attorney and “victims advocate” that morning assured us they were going to fight for us. They were SO SORRY this had happened to us. They were SO GRATEFUL that I had come to testify in my condition. Instead they seemingly intentionally let the monster walk free. It's been two years. Yesterday he was released on bail for yet another crime—one of at least THIRTEEN he's committed since that day in court—including sexual abuse of a child under 15. His arrest record from just the last 5 years spans four pages on the Virginia court website. Look at how many women—and CHILDREN—he's victimized since that day. Look how many times his victims have gone to court just as I did only to see him set free again and again and again. This is NOT happening by accident. This is deliberate.
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MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Kimmel getting fired: This renders the First Amendment meaningless. Chris Hayes on Tucker getting fired: He believed he could say anything no matter how disgusting and get away with it. Over time, that’s not going to work out well for you.
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What in the Ebenezer Scrooge is this nonsense. @BrooksBrothers tell me you got hacked. You really paid to advertise this?! @ctshirts should seize on this and EAT. 🤣
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Yeah. Charlie Kirk did say, "I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights." Here's the full quote: “Yeah, it's a great question. Thank you. So, I'm a big Second Amendment fan but I think most politicians are cowards when it comes to defending why we have a Second Amendment. This is why I would not be a good politician, or maybe I would, I don't know, because I actually speak my mind. The Second Amendment is not about hunting. I love hunting. The Second Amendment is not even about personal defense. That is important. The Second Amendment is there, God forbid, so that you can defend yourself against a tyrannical government. And if that talk scares you — "wow, that's radical, Charlie, I don't know about that" — well then, you have not really read any of the literature of our Founding Fathers. Number two, you've not read any 20th-century history. You're just living in Narnia. By the way, if you're actually living in Narnia, you would be wiser than wherever you're living, because C.S. Lewis was really smart. So I don't know what alternative universe you're living in. You just don't want to face reality that governments tend to get tyrannical and that if people need an ability to protect themselves and their communities and their families. Now, we must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty. Driving comes with a price. 50,000, 50,000, 50,000 people die on the road every year. That's a price. You get rid of driving, you'd have 50,000 less auto fatalities. But we have decided that the benefit of driving — speed, accessibility, mobility, having products, services — is worth the cost of 50,000 people dying on the road. So we need to be very clear that you're not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen. You could significantly reduce them through having more fathers in the home, by having more armed guards in front of schools. We should have a honest and clear reductionist view of gun violence, but we should not have a utopian one. You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It's drivel. But I am, I, I — I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe. So then, how do you reduce? Very simple. People say, oh, Charlie, how do you stop school shootings? I don't know. How did we stop shootings at baseball games? Because we have armed guards outside of baseball games. That's why. How did we stop all the shootings at airports? We have armed guards outside of airports. How do we stop all the shootings at banks? We have armed guards outside of banks. How did we stop all the shootings at gun shows? Notice there's not a lot of mass shootings at gun shows, there's all these guns. Because everyone's armed. If our money and our sporting events and our airplanes have armed guards, why don't our children?”
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Assassination culture is spreading on the left. Forty-eight percent of liberals say it would be at least somewhat justified to murder Elon Musk. Fifty-five percent said the same about Donald Trump. In California, activists are naming ballot measures after Luigi Mangione. The left is being whipped into a violent frenzy. Any setback, whether losing an election or losing a court case, justifies a maximally violent response. This is the natural outgrowth of left-wing protest culture tolerating violence and mayhem for years on end. The cowardice of local prosecutors and school officials have turned the left into a ticking time bomb. foxnews.com/us/new-bombshell…
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President Donald J. Trump via Truth Social:
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If we want to avoid a debt crisis, we need to get our deficit down to 3% of GDP. There are many ways to do that, using the levers of cost cuts, interest rates, and revenue. But we need to do it fast. The question for policymakers is how much can you deliver from each of these levers without breaking things that are problematic. My advice: Don’t let politics get in the way of achieving the goal. #principles #howcountriesgobroke #Economics
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Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, Nick, Suni, Butch, and Aleks!
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Until I had kids I never realized how inconvenient our world is for them. Try being 5 and washing your hands in a public restroom. 90% of the time kids can’t reach to turn on water or get soap.
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My kid informed me: Superman is not a Man at all, but likely a very Regular Alien.
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