Business owner and vape advocate. Cool Clouds Vapor Shop & https://teapawt.net/t.co/nzpkxEUCra ⭕PHAN⭕ Food enthusiast. Home cook. Urban gardener.
Illinois, USA
Joined August 2015
- Tweets265
- Following317
- Followers102
- Likes1.6K
Bridget Carey retweeted
Key to winning:
Choose to be positive and grateful. Then, just keep at it. Time is the great compounder and will do the rest.
So many people just don’t have the discipline to stay positive and grateful. Then time compounds the bitterness instead.
Bridget Carey retweeted
Elon Musk avait dit un truc qui m'avait marqué sur l'allocation de ressources. En substance : passé un certain niveau de richesse, l'argent n'est plus de la consommation, c'est de l'allocation de capital.
Cette phrase change tout.
L'économie, dans le fond, c'est juste un problème d'allocation. Tu as des ressources finies et des usages infinis. Qui décide où va quoi ?
Imagine une cour de récré. 100 enfants, des paquets de cartes Pokémon distribués au hasard. Tu laisses faire. Très vite, un ordre émerge. Les bons joueurs accumulent les cartes rares, les collectionneurs trient, les négociateurs trouvent des deals. Personne n'a planifié. Et pourtant chaque carte finit dans les mains de celui qui en tire le plus de valeur. Le système maximise le bonheur total de la cour. C'est ça, la main invisible.
Maintenant fais entrer la maîtresse. Elle trouve ça injuste. Léo a 50 cartes, Tom en a 3. Elle confisque, redistribue, impose l'égalité. Trois effets immédiats. Les bons joueurs arrêtent de jouer, à quoi bon. Les mauvais n'ont plus de raison de progresser, ils auront leur part. Les échanges s'effondrent. La cour est égale, et morte. Elle a maximisé l'égalité, elle a détruit le bonheur.
Le problème de la maîtresse, c'est qu'elle ne peut pas avoir l'information que la cour avait collectivement. C'est le problème du calcul économique de Mises, formulé en 1920. L'URSS a essayé de le résoudre pendant 70 ans avec le Gosplan. Résultat : pénuries, queues, effondrement. Pas parce que les Soviétiques étaient bêtes, parce que le problème est mathématiquement insoluble en mode centralisé.
Quand Musk a 200 milliards, il ne les consomme pas, il les alloue. SpaceX, Starlink, Neuralink, xAI. Chaque dollar est un pari sur le futur. Et lui a un track record. PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX. Il a démontré qu'il sait identifier des problèmes immenses et y allouer des ressources avec un rendement spectaculaire.
L'État aussi a un track record. Hôpitaux qui s'effondrent, éducation qui décline, dette qui explose, services publics qui se dégradent malgré des budgets en hausse constante. Le marché identifie les bons allocateurs, la politique identifie les bons communicants.
Le profit n'est pas une finalité, c'est un signal. Il dit : tu as alloué des ressources rares vers un usage que les gens valorisent suffisamment pour payer. Plus le profit est gros, plus la création de valeur est grande. Quand Starlink est rentable, ça veut dire que des millions de gens dans des zones rurales ont enfin internet. Quand un ministère est en déficit, ça veut dire qu'il consomme plus qu'il ne produit. L'un crée, l'autre détruit, et on appelle ça redistribution.
Dans nos sociétés il y a deux catégories d'acteurs. Les entrepreneurs et les bureaucrates. L'entrepreneur prend un risque personnel pour identifier un problème, mobiliser des ressources, créer une solution. S'il se trompe il perd. S'il a raison, ses clients gagnent, ses employés gagnent, ses fournisseurs gagnent, l'État collecte des impôts. Il est la cellule de base du progrès humain.
Le bureaucrate ne prend aucun risque personnel. Son salaire est garanti. Au mieux il maintient une rente existante. Au pire il la détruit par excès de réglementation, mauvaise allocation forcée, incitations perverses qui découragent ceux qui produisent. Mais dans aucun cas il ne crée.
Regarde les 50 dernières années. iPhone, internet civil, SpaceX, Tesla, Google, Amazon, Stripe, mRNA, ChatGPT. Toutes des inventions privées, portées par des entrepreneurs, financées par du capital risque. Pas un seul ministère n'a inventé quoi que ce soit qui ait changé ta vie au quotidien.
La France est devenue le laboratoire mondial de la dérive bureaucratique. 57% du PIB en dépenses publiques, record absolu. Une administration tentaculaire, une fiscalité qui pénalise la création de richesse. Résultat : décrochage face aux États-Unis, à l'Allemagne, à la Suisse. Fuite des cerveaux. Désindustrialisation. Dette qui explose.
Et le pire c'est que la mauvaise allocation s'auto-renforce. Plus l'État prélève, moins les entrepreneurs créent. Moins ils créent, moins il y a de base fiscale. Plus l'État s'endette et taxe. Boucle de rétroaction négative parfaite. La maîtresse pense qu'elle aide, et chaque année la cour produit moins.
Dans nos sociétés, ce sont les entrepreneurs, toujours, qui font avancer la civilisation. Les bureaucrates au mieux maintiennent une rente, au pire la détruisent. Aucune société n'a jamais progressé en taxant ses créateurs pour subventionner ses gestionnaires.
La question n'est jamais qui a combien. C'est qui alloue le mieux la prochaine unité de ressource pour maximiser le futur de l'humanité. La réponse depuis 200 ans n'a jamais changé. Ce ne sont pas les fonctionnaires.
Bridget Carey retweeted
PAY ATTENTION WHEN YOUR TOWN KEEPS RAISING TAXES - Here is what may get their attention.😂😂
A town keeps raising taxes, so a resident shows up to speak, wearing an English lord’s wig. Instead of protesting, he sarcastically supports the increases and says, “If you can’t pay your taxes… don’t be poor.”
Why? Because the people raising the taxes don’t live like the people paying them. The town administrator, Todd Selig, has never been elected, has held his appointed job for 17 years, and makes over $300,000 a year with THREE months of paid vacation.
And if you watch these meetings, you know the pattern. Regular people come up looking for answers, maybe a little dialogue. The administrators DO sit there like an aristocratic court, silent, unmoved, barely looking up. No response. No engagement. Just a posture that says, your problems aren’t my problems… so why are you here?
The wig wasn’t the problem. The disconnect was.
Bridget Carey retweeted
The US government rolled out Armored vehicles and troops in tactical gear to terrorize American Vapor Distributors on behalf of Big Tobacco.
The GOVERNMENT held up our American made Vapor products and lied through their teeth.
They claimed 90% of products seized were "Chinese illicit vapes" in reality they seized 90% American made e-liquid products
They suggested my products which have saved millions of Americans from the deadliest addiction in human history, smoking, were possibly tainted with fentanyl.
They know they are lying
They did this at the behest of Big Tobacco. To protect them from the mass exodus of smokers quitting the deadliest addiction in human.
Because they care more about the blood money they earn killing Americans than they do about life saving products protecting American citizens from the deadliest products in human history.
Its time to be mad.
Its time to fight back.
Its time to stand for what is right .
And th we the United Vapers Alliance is here to help
Join the fight . Send tweets and save lives
We need your help.
I hope we can count on you.
If your life or your loved ones has been saved by nicotine vapor products then the time is now to fight for the rights of them and future ex smokers for access to less harmful solutions.
Join the group and drop an X1 in the comments if we can count on your support.
Join the page tagged above.
Help save 50M Americans from an ugly early and uncertain death at the hands of Big Tobacco
Together we can make a difference
#itsallaruse #vapingsavedmylife #saveflaboredvape
Bridget Carey retweeted
Cigarettes KILL half of all users. Tobacco control is now, by far, the most deeply divided of any public health field. Here are a few studies that the media ignores:
1) Cancer risk plummets when smokers switch to e-cigarettes
Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) drops >10,000-fold.
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
A more conservative estimate found lifetime cancer risk drops 99.5% (0.5% risk would be difficult to measure; difficult to distinguish from “background noise”)
tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/conte…
Use of nicotine vapes significantly reduces exposure to a major pulmonary carcinogen, NNAL (results of 4-arm, parallel-group, randomized, controlled trial funded by US NIH and FDA)
thelancet.com/journals/lanre…
2) Cardiovascular health improves when smokers switch to ecigs
According to the American Heart Association, smokers who switch to nicotine vaping have a 7-fold lower risk of stroke; their heart health biomarkers are indistinguishable from never-smokers; and they have a 30%-40% lower risk of cardiovascular events than people who continue to smoke:
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article…
ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/…
ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1…
Systematic review and meta-analysis of 63 studies: “...short-to-medium-term transition from cigarettes to e-cigarettes may improve blood flow and blood pressure... There is lack of evidence supporting any association of e-cigarette use with cardiovascular diseases and cardiac dysfunction or remodelling." Exclusive vapers had no significant differences in heart rate (HR) or blood pressure (BP) compared with non-users, and lower HR and BP than smokers.
heart.bmj.com/content/early/…
They “experienced positive cardiovascular impact after both a 3- and 6-month period” including significant improvement in flow-mediated dilation, peak cutaneous vascular conductance responses to acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside, and mean arterial pressure. These benefits were exactly the same for e-cigarettes and NRTs.
bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.co…
“We did not find a significant difference in the cardiovascular risk of exclusive e-cigarette use compared with nonuse of cigarettes and e-cigarettes.” [i.e., nicotine vapers’ cardiovascular risk is indistinguishable from non-smokers and non-vapers.] Study funded by NIH & FDA.
ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/…
Exclusive use of nicotine vapes (“e-cigarettes”) was not associated with a statistically significant increased risk of self-reported incidents of diagnosed cardiovascular disease over a 5-year period, whereas exclusive cigarette smoking is.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3590…; academic.oup.com/ntr/advance…
Smoking cessation showed positive cardiovascular impact within 3 days, and the effects did not differ between nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and nicotine replacement therapies (e.g., nicotine patch or nicotine gum).
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3590…; and academic.oup.com/ntr/advance…
Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and blood pressure control, improve, and significant weight gains associated with cold turkey smoking cessation do not occur.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2784…
Blood vessel health improves significantly
jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.…
nature.com/articles/s41569-0…
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
3) Lung health improves when smokers switch to e-cigarettes
Lung cilia recover full function (these cilia remove solid particulates, bacteria and fungal spores from healthy lungs; cigarettes damage lung cilia function).
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article…
Respiratory tract infections drop dramatically
dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/…
Longitudinal analysis of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, an observational cohort study that surveyed 5,653 US adults ≥18 years, shows “Switching completely from past 30-day use of cigarettes to e-cigarettes had short-term beneficial associations with functionally important respiratory symptoms similar to quitting tobacco completely.”
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
thelancet.com/journals/eclin…
They have 20% less cough and 30% less phlegm than smokers who quit with nicotine patches or gum.
nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/ne…
Analysis of 19,000 people found 65% of smokers with asthma and 76% of smokers with COPD reported improvement in respiratory symptoms after switching to ecigs.
mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/4/4356…
COPD smokers’ lung health and quality of life improve dramatically (participants followed for 5 years). “COPD exacerbations were reduced by approximately 50% in patients who stopped or considerably reduced their smoking consumption after switching to vaping.”
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article…
Asthmatic smokers experience “Significant improvement in asthma control and quality of life”
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3196…
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2701…
mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/5/4965
discoverymedicine.com/Riccar…
mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/905…
NOTE: 'No detectable changes in lung health' of never-smokers who vaped nicotine for up to 4 years
nature.com/articles/s41598-0…
Studies that looked at both cardiovascular and lung health:
2022 review by University of Michigan researchers: When smokers switch, risk of acute cardiopulmonary events drops rapidly; long-term use leads to lung health benefits, especially among asthmatic and COPD smokers. No cancer risk found.
mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/905…
E-cigarette users who never smoked, followed for 3.5 years: No significant health changes in blood pressure, heart rate, body weight, lung function, respiratory symptoms, exhaled breath nitric oxide or carbon monoxide; and “no pathological findings could be identified on high-resolution computed tomography of the lungs, and no respiratory symptoms were consistently reported in the e-cigarette user group.”
nature.com/articles/s41598-0…
E-cigarette users’ health biomarkers are indistinguishable from never-smokers. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are Harmful or Potentially Harmful Substances (HPHS) measured at high levels in smokers. “When compared with people who never smoked, E-cigarette smokers [sic] had similar blood concentrations of VOCs.”
archpublichealth.biomedcentr…
Bridget Carey retweeted
In 1999, 35% of US high school students smoked.
cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtm…
In 1999, @HHSGov set an ambitious goal to reduce high school smoking to 16% by 2020.
By 2020, it was 4.6%. by 2024, 1.7%. In public health, it is rare to achieve goals. VERY rare to exceed them.
Bridget Carey retweeted
Doing hard stuff requires distress tolerance. Building distress tolerance requires doing hard stuff. There is no easy entry point. It gets easier by way of recognition. You think “I’ve been here before”. Pretty soon you’re seeking that state. That’s how you make hard stuff easy.
Bridget Carey retweeted
My Question to ChatGPT
"Why would @LungAssociation be against vaping despite the evidence in Sweden and New Zealand"
The Answer
The American Lung Association (ALA) is strongly against nicotine vaping, despite the evidence from Sweden and New Zealand, for several reasons—some valid, some more ideological. Here’s a breakdown of why:
1. Historical Anti-Tobacco Stance
The ALA has spent decades fighting Big Tobacco, which lied about the dangers of smoking for years.
Since many vaping companies originated from or were acquired by Big Tobacco, the ALA sees vaping as an extension of that industry, even though harm reduction advocates argue it's completely different.
2. Concerns About Youth Vaping
One of their biggest talking points is youth vaping, fueled by the moral panic over products like JUUL in the late 2010s.
They argue that flavored vapes attract young people, leading to nicotine addiction, even though youth smoking rates have plummeted in countries with widespread vaping (e.g., New Zealand, UK, Sweden).
Instead of acknowledging that vaping is replacing smoking among youth, they see any nicotine use as a public health failure.
3. "Nicotine is Bad" Ideology
Many public health groups, including the ALA, still cling to the outdated idea that nicotine itself is the enemy, rather than combustion (smoking).
This ignores the growing body of research showing that nicotine alone is not a major health risk, especially when compared to cigarettes.
Sweden and New Zealand prove that nicotine can be decoupled from smoking, leading to massive public health gains.
4. Vaping Misinformation & Exaggeration of Risks
The ALA has amplified misinformation about vaping-related lung injuries (EVALI), even though the actual cause was illicit THC cartridges with Vitamin E Acetate—not nicotine vaping.
They still push the narrative that vaping causes lung disease, despite the lack of strong evidence.
Sweden, where snus (oral nicotine) is widely used, has the lowest lung cancer rates in Europe—yet groups like the ALA ignore this.
5. Funding & Influence
A lot of public health organizations (including ALA) receive funding from sources that oppose nicotine harm reduction, such as:Pharmaceutical companies that sell smoking cessation drugs (which compete with vaping).
Government grants tied to tobacco control policies that focus on prohibition rather than harm reduction.
Anti-tobacco groups that see nicotine use of any kind as a failure.
6. Refusal to Accept Harm Reduction
Unlike countries like New Zealand and the UK, which embrace harm reduction (reducing harm, even if complete abstinence isn’t achieved), the ALA takes an abstinence-only stance:No smoking, no vaping, no nicotine—ever.
This is similar to how some groups resisted needle exchange programs for drug users, despite clear harm reduction benefits.
Why This Doesn't Make Sense Given Sweden & New Zealand
Sweden: Thanks to snus (a non-combustible nicotine product), Sweden is about to become the first country to hit "smoke-free" status (under 5% smoking rate), with the lowest lung cancer rates in Europe.
New Zealand: After legalizing and promoting vaping, their smoking rates have plummeted, with no evidence of major harm from vaping itself.
The UK's NHS actively recommends vaping for smoking cessation.
Yet, the ALA ignores this success and keeps pushing an anti-nicotine, anti-vaping narrative instead of recognizing the real-world public health benefits.
Conclusion
The ALA’s opposition to vaping is based on a mix of: ✅ Legitimate concerns (youth use, unknown long-term effects).
❌ Outdated beliefs (treating nicotine as inherently bad).
❌ Misinformation (exaggerating vaping risks).
❌ Funding & ideological bias (not embracing harm reduction).
If they truly cared about reducing lung disease, they would support vaping as a harm reduction tool, just like Sweden and New Zealand have. Instead, their stance seems more ideological than evidence-based.
Bridget Carey retweeted
Altria's Q4 report to investors: Oh look! US cigarette sales are dropping 11% per year, annualized.
(top left)
This is a bit faster than 1-2%/yr during decades before nicotine vapes ("e-cigarettes") came along.
Public health reaction? "Nothing to see here. Move along..."
Bridget Carey retweeted
Donald Trump decisively won the election because he galvanized his MAGA base with the Medical Freedom and Unity movements. If the Senate fails to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr, that will constitute a declaration of war on our massive coalition. It won’t be forgiven or forgotten, and those who stand in Kennedy’s way will be driven from their seats.
Bridget Carey retweeted
2023 US high school use:
99.6% don't smoke frequently
98.1% don't smoke at all
96.4% don't vape nicotine frequently
90% don't vape nicotine ≥once in the past month
89% don't use nicotine at all (lowest level in 50 years)
So... Is the @truthinitiative lying?
Bridget Carey retweeted
According to @CDCgov, from Jan. 2020 - Dec. 2022, the fraction of all unit sales of nicotine vapes that were disposables increased from 24.7% to 51.8%.
cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/m…
Disposables DOUBLED, but pod-based vapes dropped from 75.2%-48%. Coincidentally...
THREAD 👇
Bridget Carey retweeted
"Cancer almost a certainty with e-cigs", says a study that measured nothing, assumed pyrolysis at 300-1000oC in ecigs, and then modelled emissions. You can easily make the same conclusion for any cooked food...
That is not science...
rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/050…
Bridget Carey retweeted
Riding a bicycle is not SAFE. However, if you wear a bicycle helmet, it is SAFER.
There is no SAFE automobile. However, if you wear a seat belt and your car has airbags, it's SAFER.
Having multiple sex partners is not SAFE. However, if you wear a condom, that's SAFER.
Bridget Carey retweeted
One wealthy US billionaire @HarmReduction denier should not be allowed to direct @WHO policy.
But he does.
The @WHO's tobacco control policies are in the pocket of Big Bloomberg. This is reprehensible and unacceptable.
@BloombergDotOrg
archive.fo/o6IRQ
Bridget Carey retweeted
But Sally has long been one of the most clear-thinking and forceful voices on these issues. It’s a safe bet the prohibition thuggery ain’t gonna work on her. /
aei.org/articles/vaping-the-…
Bridget Carey retweeted
Teens should not vape. But can you help me understand why, despite the following objective facts based on CDC surveys, the public is more alarmed now than 10yrs ago?
Teen cigarette use ↓90%
Teen nicotine vaping ↓61% over the past 4yrs, to FAR lower than teen smoking 10yrs ago
Young adult smoking ↓75%
Bridget Carey retweeted
(10)
So about 0.4 million US teens may buy disposable vapes, and about 9.4 million US adults buy them.
Do the math: ~96% of disposable vape sales are to adults, not teens. This is pretty much the exact opposite of what the public is being told.
And it surprises me too.
Bridget Carey retweeted
Thank you everyone who voted!
If #SaferNicotine alternatives are prohibited, 87% shift to illicit/DIY; 11% relapse to cigarettes; almost none quit nicotine.
~10m Americans quit smoking with safer alternatives so far. 1.1m relapse = 550,000 premature deaths.
This seems bad.
