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East of Eden
Joined March 2009
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We all know the answer. This is statistically impossible.
THE 15% BAND
Look at this chart.
59 races. Senate and governor.
States ordered from reddest to bluest in 2024.
The solid lines are 2024.
The dashed lines are 2026.
The shaded bands are what moved.
One formula fits all of it:
Republican 2026 = 0.85 × Trump 2024
Democrat 2026 = Harris 2024 + 0.15 × Trump 2024
For every 1,000 Trump points, 850 stayed Republican. 150 landed on the Democratic side.
The numbers:
Senate: Republicans kept ~85% of Trump’s share
Governor: ~86%
Variation explained: 88%
What makes it strange:
It didn’t matter how red the state was. Wyoming, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts: same 15% (p = 0.69). The Democratic gain was sized by Trump’s vote, not Harris’s. The Harris part is zero.
The 0.85 beat both standard election-swing models in every set of races.
Drop any single state and the multiplier stays between 0.846 and 0.853.
Why seats flipped:
At 0.85, any state where Trump got under about 58.5% falls below 50%. Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina: all under that line. All flipped.
What this means:
Midterms are messy. This one isn’t. Two sets of races, different candidates, different campaigns, and the same 15% decrease almost everywhere.
A pattern this even demands answers at the ballot level: paper ballot hand counts, poll-book check-ins against votes counted, and voter files showing who actually turned out.
The numbers raise the question.
The ballots can answer it.
Culture War Notes retweeted
Innovation creates benefits that extend far beyond the innovator.
Cheaper access to space, for instance, helps researchers and entrepreneurs who will never meet Elon Musk. Better batteries help consumers who will never own a Tesla. Satellite communications serve people whose lives may depend on reliable connections.
The resulting gains can continue accumulating for generations.
Culture War Notes retweeted
We already live in a post-scarcity society.
The root of leftism is envy.
The year could be 3217, a leftist could have their own terraformed planet, and they'd be mad that someone else has twelve.
Culture War Notes retweeted
The time price of paper has fallen by 99.78 percent over the last 200 years.
humanprogress.org/two-centur…
My God, this is superb.
Best summary of AI I have ever seen.
I've got it on repeat, I just can't stop listening to it.
Truth is addictive.
youtube.com/watch?v=Z6_ENp_f…
Culture War Notes retweeted
Suppose you could exploit the frontier of new possibilities faster than controllers can assert control over the old ones?
Civilization is, to a extent, is not the pure suppression of entropy and disorder, but its selective capture, direction, and conversion into usable structure. Order does not arise despite fluctuations; it arises through them.
Markets channel the disorder of self-interest, local knowledge, and rival plans into coordinated production. Price signals and competition look like noise and conflict but they are the mechanism that aggregates dispersed information and reallocates resources.
teapawt.net/elonmusk/status/211878…
Fun Fact:
"Thomas Jefferson's Koran" is not considered a Koran by Muslims because it is written in English.
Every translation of the Koran into a non-Arabic language is not a true copy of the Koran, but only a commentary, with no binding force, no divine inspiration. Only the original Arabic translation is holy.
So, Abdul will be sworn in on the Muslim equivalent of a bus schedule or a Walmart grocery receipt. It's absolutely stupid, and purely performative.
Furthermore, there is even an unresolved theological question about whether Islam allows oaths of office at all. Abdul will not only be sworn in on the moral equivalent of a Christmas shopping list, he may well carry mental reservations which render the oath entirely pointless.
islam.stackexchange.com/ques…
ihcproject.com/oaths-vows-an…
Unless the oath is sworn by Allah, it is a sin which requires repentance.
islamweb.net/en/fatwa/370078…
Muslim in America declares that Americans will be forced to allow Muslims to swear into office on the Quran
“You are going to be obligated to have Mohamed (Abdul) El-Sayed swear in on the Quran”
He also says that it must be Thomas Jefferson's Quran which is widely disrespectful because it’s widely known that Thomas Jefferson owned the Quran because he believed in expanding civil rights to everyone including Muslims
And now Muslims who are trying to take over America and install sharia law want their candidates to be sworn in on that Quran
Culture War Notes retweeted
Our ancestors ALSO fought for the right to READ!
Keep that SAME ENERGY for literacy that y’all have for elections!
Culture War Notes retweeted
Zero-point energy is the lowest energy a quantum system can have, and it is never zero. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle forbids a particle from having both an exact position and an exact momentum, so it can't sit perfectly still. Its ground state always keeps a small spread, and that spread carries energy (E₀ = ½ħω for a harmonic oscillator). Cooling to absolute zero can't remove it. This is why helium stays liquid at normal pressure even at absolute zero.
Culture War Notes retweeted
~100 lasers per satellite, each operating above 10 Tb/s, with over 100k satellites should be able to outcompete undersea cables.
Speed of light in space is ~40% faster than cable and the path is direct, instead of following the outline of land masses.
Elon just teased SpaceX's next-gen V4 @Starlink satellites:
"Starlink version 4 will have 10x the capability of V3 (which itself is 10x better than V2), especially with the long-distance laser links. Our next-gen laser links will be 10-terabits per second. 100x better. And we'll put 10 of them on."
Culture War Notes retweeted
The federal income tax is THEFT.
It is nothing but a punishment on people for doing their jobs and being productive members of society.
The 16th amendment absolutely needs to be repealed like yesterday.
You should be able to keep every penny you earn and then pay the amount of tax you want to through consumption. If you live beyond your means, you pay more in tax. If you live within, you pay less. That’s the only fair system.
And until Congress can pass a balanced budget, as far as I’m concerned, we should all unite and commit tax evasion. If every taxpayer did it, they cannot arrest us all. Self-employed people don’t pay it. Employers don’t withhold.
Enough is enough.
The 🇺🇸 IRS just released the new tax brackets for 2027
Single filers (2026 in parentheses):
10%: $12,800 or less ($12,400)
12%: over $12,800 ($12,400)
22%: over $52,025 ($50,400)
24%: over $109,125 ($105,700)
32%: over $208,325 ($201,775)
35%: over $264,550 ($256,225)
37%: over $661,375 ($640,600)
Married filing jointly (2026 in parentheses):
10%: $25,600 or less ($24,800)
12%: over $25,600 ($24,800)
22%: over $104,050 ($100,800)
24%: over $218,250 ($211,400)
32%: over $416,650 ($403,550)
35%: over $529,100 ($512,450)
37%: over $793,650 ($768,700)
