Nick Short ‎‎

16,000 American kids get cancer every year. The market still treats that as too small to bother. “Kids get so little not because no one cares, but because the numbers are small,” Cara Kingan explains: lyceumnow.com/now-congress-h…

Victor Davis Hanson just rejected JD Vance’s claim that the Iran war cost Republicans the midterms. “It’s not the war.” Now, he says President Trump needs to hit Iran “very, very hard.” “Pickaxe Mountain.” “For two or three weeks.” Hanson is convinced that Trump “did the impossible” in the beginning of the Iran war, “but they didn’t explain it.” “They didn’t say to the American people, 7 presidents said you can’t let them get a nuclear weapon.” “They’re closer than ever before.” “This is an existential threat.” “When the war broke out, he had over 50% approval.” “And they had a spectacular success for the first 38 days.” “There were mistakes, but the biggest problem was we had almost won.” “Then once they stopped in 38 [days], they were not quite done yet.” “They hadn’t prepared for the Hormuz.” Then, he says they failed by letting negotiations drag on for months on end. “We still have eight months before the midterm.” “Six months.” “Five months.” “Four months.” “Three months.” “They got into a haggling with people who don’t tell the truth and have no intention to negotiate.” And now, he says Iran’s leaders are celebrating. “These people are sky-high, high-fiving themselves that they stopped Trump with the midterms.” “And they’re not going to negotiate.” @VDHanson

Guys, I have an idea

We're in a new era of communication, and only one side seems to be living in it. The old guard consultant class is about to be relegated to the dustbin of history. If you think that high prices lost the election for the right, you don't understand marketing. Humans have no problem paying a premium for a good quality brand. Notice the word "brand", not "product". Are Nikes better than New Balance? Nope. But the brand is better. And notice what happened when they tinkered with the brand and screwed their core narrative? Nike stock fell through the basement. Did the product change? Nope. The brand did. It's not the product, it's the brand. Results don't sell the product, the storytelling does. Will these newly-elected commies lower prices? Of course not. Are they gonna get you free healthcare? No, your insurance is gonna get even worse, just like it did the last time they tried socialized medicine. They're not going to do anything they've sold you, but...like Saul Goodman said: if you're committed enough, you can make any story work. The committed storytelling of a couple insane podcasters was enough to fracture an entire political coalition from their own side in less than 2 years...they have zero power, zero credibility, they've never actually governed anything nor produced any results, but...they're good storytellers, and that's all that matters. Are they telling a good story? No, it's atrocious, but they're telling their atrocious story effectively and compellingly. It is 100% true that everything's too damn expensive, and we all know that inflated prices are always sticky. Does anyone know that it's entirely the result of shutting down the global economy over the flu and (both naive republicans and democrats) printing infinity dollars for several years? Nope...because nobody has effectively told that story, and it's an unsexy story to tell. "Free stuff!" is a VERY easy story to tell, and when everyone's gotta take out a second mortgage just to pay their insurance premiums, "free healthcare" is an unbeatable story. It doesn't matter that "free healthcare" doesn't exist and socialized medicine is a terrible product...it's not the product, it's the brand. And "FREE!" is a great brand. You can't get mad at people for having the financial literacy of a 9 year old. I mean, you can, but they outnumber you a million to one, so it's not going to be productive. You need to figure out how to make an unsexy story sexy, or else the "free stuff!" crowd is going to eat your lunch every time. If you give people a choice between earning a six pack on a treadmill or taking Ozempic, they're gonna choose Ozempic...they don't care about the side effects. If you give people a choice between fiscal discipline or free stuff...guess what they'll pick? They don't care about the side effects. With projected growth of 5%, the economy right now is stronger than it's been in generations. Is that the story you hear? Nope. Is that the vibe you feel? Absolutely not, especially when every time you fill up your gas tank, it feels like a diesel enema. It's not the product, it's the brand. A great product can fall into oblivion with bad messaging...a single bad review from one effective storyteller can tank a restaurant. The "influencer economy" is lucrative for a reason; everybody inherently understands the importance of effective storytelling...except the right. Zohran Mamdani gets it...he has an army of influencers on staff. In a perfect metaphor of this transitional phase of old guard vs new wave political messaging, Zohran nuked the Vice President into oblivion with maybe the biggest ratio in the history of the internet. By simply posting the subway assistant meme, Mamdani got 2 MILLION likes, quoting a post from the VP that had only 10K likes. If you're reading that sentence thinking "this is fucking ridiculous, you're talking about social media likes as political analysis now?"...you are the problem. Yes, this stuff matters. Rizz matters. The President did a masterful job of this kind of retail politics in his historic 2024 campaign...you can be angry that this is what politics has been reduced to, but you can either adapt or die. "No the problem is, you didn't deliver enough for the American people!" Are you a moron? Since when does anybody care about that? What have democrats delivered for Californians in the last 20 years? Unmitigated wildfires, homeless drug zombies everywhere, roads that look like Fallujah in 2004...people don't care about results. They think they care about results. That want you to believe they care about results, just as Nike wants you to believe their shoes are better than New Balance...but at the end of the day, all people really care about is the swoosh. Adapt or die.

Did you know Twitter links can reveal which device was used to share them? Check the URL ending: s=46 → iPhone s=20 → Web Browser s=19 → Android Try it yourself by copying a tweet link. Technology is interesting, isn't it?

My biggest concern is that if there is a clean sweep by Democrats of the House, Senate and Presidency in 2028, they will: 1. Make DC and Puerto Rico states to gain a strong majority in the Senate. 2. Open the borders and legalize everyone living in America illegally to cement a permanent majority. 3. Increase the size of the Supreme Court to gain an immediate majority. This would result in America becoming a permanent one-party state and the end of democracy in any meaningful sense of the word. All that is needed to ensure this doesn’t happen is 51 Republican senators in 2029. That is why you should vote for Republican senators this election. Other reasons are irrelevant compared to this one.

Yeah bro we’ve been fighting wars for Qatar for 40 years too, right?