Oh gosh here we go. In an effort to paint the deployment of Marines as a waste of money, the media is "highlighting" that they're not on the streets yet. Just giving reports that they're still training on crowd control techniques. You people don't understand the psychology of deterrence do you? The whole point is to intimidate your opponent BEFORE you arrive. Hopefully dissuading their desire to keep up acts of violence. News of a Marine deployment and images of them training... does exactly that. Or would you rather we throw them immediately into Los Angeles when they've only trained for Baghdad? There is no pleasing these "journalists". They're continuing their march to irrelevance anyway. I'm just here to make sure they complete it. This message is for the rest of you with semi-functioning mental capacity.

“Paid influencer campaign.” This is a lie, Rand Paul. I’ll gladly take a lie detector test. Ask anyone if Cerno takes money for a message. I’m not like you, Rand, taking those Koch dollars to sell out America. https://t.co/jPLbc3Zxsd

Hello everyone, this is Social Media Manager 2. Social Media Manager 1 has fainted. #TLWIN?

Did a consulting call today with a 29-year-old ML engineer who makes $580k at a FAANG company. Remote work. Great benefits. Stock options. L6 level. But here’s the thing - he’s been reading my blog for 8 months. Knows he could be charging $500/hour as a consultant. Sees other people building $200k+ consulting practices. This is the hardest transition to make. He’s making $290/hour at his day job. Safe. Predictable. But there’s still a ceiling. Even at L7, he’s trading time for money. Meanwhile, he watches consultants charge $100k for 3-month engagements. Sees people transition from hourly to value-based pricing worth 5-10x more per project. Golden handcuffs at the highest level. The cruel irony? His FAANG experience is exactly what makes him incredibly valuable as a consultant. But making $580k also makes leaving feel absolutely insane to most people. It takes serious conviction to walk away from half a million guaranteed to bet on yourself - even when the upside could be $1M+ annually. And it’s nearly impossible to build real wealth (the kind where you’re not worried about stock vesting schedules) if you never make that jump from high-paid employee to entrepreneur. The people who do make this transition? They usually start writing technical content while employed. Build an audience. Get consulting inquiries worth $50k+. Prove they can replace their salary. Then they make the leap. But most stay comfortable at $580k. And comfortable rarely builds generational wealth. Difficult stuff.