Normie liberal Democrat. Urbanist. Bostonian. Enjoyer of cosmopolitanism and globalism. Dual EU/US citizen. If the housing is safe, let them build it.
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Joined January 2024
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If the results out of Germany mean anything, it's that there is no effective way to get a society to heed "the lessons of the past." People too young to have experienced certain events just aren't receptive to what those lessons teach us. Especially after 2-3 generations.
It's a serious challenge, and I'm not sure what the solution is. Homo sapiens is a very *clever* species, but we're not reliably wise or reflective. And our nature — human nature — doesn't change. The terrible things people 80 or 100 or 300 or 3,000 years ago were capable of? We're very much still capable of doing those same things.
Wisconsin desperately need an intervention. 🤣
America’s Drunkest & Driest Counties Based On Excessive Drinking
Full list: brilliantmaps.com/americas-d…
Charles Ryder 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 retweeted
And to the maga nasties out here who are suggesting I am not an American since I also have a Czech citizenship and therefore I voted illegally here in Florida. I got news for you. Melania trump is also a dual citizen- of US and Slovenia.
So yes-
I can vote, I have voted and will be voting democratic as long the GOP remains a party of pedophile and rapist protectors. Among other things.
Charles Ryder 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 retweeted
Jon Husted voted once to hide the Epstein files, 9 times to cut your health care, and 14 times to continue the Iran War.
You only get one chance to vote him out, don't miss it.
Charles Ryder 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 retweeted
Lovett: I just want to be very clear: Jews in Michigan have a moral obligation to support Abdul. They should do it to protect themselves from antisemitism and rising hatred in America.
And needless to say one of a president's most basic and fundamental powers is staffing the judiciary, and the executive branch's departments. If Democrats actually do manage to take the Senate, that's going to become a lot harder.
Trump absolutely could have less control over the executive branch if he's facing a Democrat-controlled Congress AND the GOP of said Congress is rapidly retreating from an increasingly radioactive POTUS. Congress has been doing next to nothing to check the executive branch for the last 18 months. That doesn't mean it couldn't start doing so. And in any event, lame duck syndrome is a real thing in US political history: a president's influence over the nation politics tends to decline in direct proportion to his remaining time in office. I mean, people are more careful to avoid crossing a president who may be in power for 60 more months vs. a presdient who will only be in power for 13 more months.
The one major thing in Massachusetts's favor on housing is the lack of a Proposition 13-style law. That one really is a killer for California. Massachusetts does have a property tax-curbing law on the books, Proposition 2 1/2. But it's far more benign and well-designed.
Charles Ryder 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 retweeted
I hope Maine people will vote for Troy Jackson. It's time to pull the emergency brake on DJT. Mr. JAckson will not just voice concern, as Susan Collins does, but act on it.
Charles Ryder 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 retweeted
Labour has already largely wasted the first 2+ years of their mandate. PolySci 101 suggests in a parliamentary system you get a lot done in the first 1-2 years, and weather the inevitable storm of fierce opposition while you wait for the electorate to see the benefits kick in....
By the time the next election comes around the controversial but painful measures you enacted (the painful medicine to cure the nation's ills!) are ancient history. I assume the government didn't have effective control of its own parliamentary party? Or was Starmer (and now Burnam?) *really* that uninterested in public policy?
Facts.
“There has not been a president who has been more beneficial for China than Donald Trump.” - @cafreeland
Charles Ryder 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 retweeted
Hochul is fantastic. If there were any justice or wisdom in this world, should be on everyone’s shortlist for 2028.
Charles Ryder 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 retweeted
In a few weeks when you go to vote, remember this post.
Two states, different leaderships. One state has a Democratic trifecta, the other has a Republican trifecta.
Where would you rather live?
Education ranking
🔵Massachusetts: 1st
🔴Oklahoma: 48th
(U.S. News 2025)
Healthcare ranking
🔵Massachusetts: 1st
🔴Oklahoma: Near bottom (3rd–5th worst (U.S. News Best States 2025 & America’s Health Rankings)
Poverty ranking
🔵Massachusetts: Among the lowest (~9.7–9.8%)
🔴Oklahoma: 8th highest (~14.9% in 2024 ACS)
(U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2024)
Life expectancy
🔵Massachusetts: 80.82 years
🔴Oklahoma: 75.16 years
(CDC/NCHS life tables)
GDP per capita
🔵Massachusetts: ~$93,600–$110,500
🔴Oklahoma: ~$62,700–$64,700
(U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (state GDP data)
Murder rate
🔵Massachusetts: 1.78 per 100,000 (2024)
🔴Oklahoma: 6.25 per 100,000 (2024)
(FBI Uniform Crime Reporting)
Violent crime rate
🔵Massachusetts: 314.7 per 100,000 (2024)
🔴Oklahoma: 422.8 per 100,000 (2024)
(FBI Uniform Crime Reporting)
Federal reliance per $1 paid
🔵Massachusetts: Receives ~$0.60 per $1 in federal taxes paid (net donor state)
🔴Oklahoma: Receives ~$1.30 per $1 in federal taxes paid (net recipient)
(Rockefeller Institute of Government balance-of-payments analysis)
High school graduation rate
🔵Massachusetts: ~89.3% (recent four-year adjusted cohort)
🔴Oklahoma: ~82.2% (recent four-year adjusted cohort)
(State education department)
College degree rate
🔵Massachusetts: 47.3% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s or higher (2024 ACS)
🔴Oklahoma: 28.3% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s or higher (2024 ACS)
(U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2024)
Air quality ranking
🔵Massachusetts: Stronger (roughly 11th in US News-style rankings; lower average AQI/PM2.5)
🔴Oklahoma: Weaker (roughly 44th; higher average AQI)
(US News Best States air quality metrics)
Teen pregnancy rate
🔵Massachusetts: 5.4 births per 1,000 females ages 15–19 (2024)
🔴Oklahoma: 19.6 births per 1,000 females ages 15–19 (2024)
(CDC National Vital Statistics System)
Incarceration rate
🔵Massachusetts: ~96 per 100,000
🔴Oklahoma: ~545 per 100,000
(Bureau of Justice Statistics)
Infant mortality rate
🔵Massachusetts: 3.28 per 1,000 live births
🔴Oklahoma: 7.12 per 1,000 live births
(CDC National Vital Statistics System)
Fetal mortality rate
🔵Massachusetts: 3.88 per 1,000
🔴Oklahoma: 5.71 per 1,000
(CDC National Vital Statistics Reports)
Median household income
🔵Massachusetts: $104,828 (highest among U.S. states in 2024)
🔴Oklahoma: $66,148
(U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2024)
Uninsured rate
🔵Massachusetts: 2.8%
🔴Oklahoma: 11.5%
(U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2024)
Adult obesity rate
🔵Massachusetts: 27.0%
🔴Oklahoma: 36.8%
(CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System BRFSS)
Maternal mortality rate
🔵Massachusetts: 16.4 deaths per 100,000
🔴Oklahoma: 29.6 deaths per 100,000 live births
(CDC National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System (2018–2022)
Charles Ryder 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 retweeted
Denmark is raising its retirement age to 70. French election candidates pledge to reducing it to 60 or 62.
Denmark's debt to GDP ratio is 27%; France's is 117%.
You reap what you sow.
cnn.com/2025/05/23/business/…
Charles Ryder 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 retweeted
Gotta love the conservatives who tout Rubio as MAGA's adult in the room, or the "sane" alternative to Vance.
Whether it flows from conviction or expediency, Marco has gone down the rabbit hole of Bannon/Miller/Yarvin lunacy just as far as any of them.
Simply a disgrace.
And to be clear, the housing piece is a VERY serious problem in metro Boston, one that is overwhelmingly the fault of Democrats in that state (huge, typically overriding, legislative majorities).
It's just not on Mayor Wu, is all. It's on Beacon Hill.
Menino was an excellent mayor, but Boston has only gotten better since he departed, save for housing costs, which are a global phenomenon. Boston is safer than ever before, and has more wealth, development, interesting restaurants, great architecture, etc than any time in its history. It's thriving. Even the MBTA has improved.
Charles Ryder 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 retweeted
If Democrats win back the Senate by winning seats in states that were Trump +10 (or more) just two years ago, it will be the most impressive feat in modern American political history but won't be treated that way in the press for reasons I think we all understand.
Charles Ryder 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 retweeted
so funny! thoroughly corrupt & bigoted madman J. Edgar Hoover who'd forged a career out of red-baiting & never saw a person of color whom he didn't salivate to blacklist or hound to suicide--(his plan for Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.)---would be writhing in misery in his grave if he knew that this FBI chief successor is cadoodling with the Ruskies on the taxpayer's dime (sic). "say it ain't so"--fans of J. Edgar Hoover.
