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More from @RodDMartin

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

May 27

🧵Democrats still cite Sweden as proof socialism works.

They’re lying.

The real Sweden survived by rejecting socialism — abolishing wealth taxes, protecting capital, expanding school choice, and becoming one of the world’s great startup nations.

Here’s the story they hope you never hear. 🧵

2/ By 1990, Sweden was a warning, not a model.

Bloated government. Banking collapse. Currency crisis. Public debt nearing 80% of GDP.

Socialism had run out of other people’s money.

Sweden hit the wall — then chose to change course instead of digging deeper.

3/ The reset was serious and bipartisan.

The 1991–94 center-right government began it. Social Democrats continued the reforms.

Together they made the central bank independent, imposed real spending ceilings, reformed pensions into a sustainable system, and created nationwide school vouchers.

Even the left admitted the old model was killing the country.

Read 7 tweets

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

May 26

🧵Justice Clarence Thomas just explained why Progressivism is collapsing — and why the only fight that now matters is what will replace it.

One of the rare speeches that's truly important.

This thread breaks it down. 🧵

2/ The core message: Progressivism is dying because it is fundamentally opposed to the American idea.

The Declaration of Independence did not create government. It stated its purpose: to protect God-given inalienable rights that all individuals equally possess.

Those ideas were powerful enough to end slavery and segregation. They cannot coexist forever with Progressivism.

3/ At the beginning of the 20th century, a foreign set of principles entered American life.

Woodrow Wilson and the Progressives imported them from Otto von Bismarck’s Germany — a centralized system Wilson openly admired and called “nearly perfected.”

To Wilson, inalienable rights were “a lot of nonsense.”

He redefined liberty as whatever the government decides the people need.

Read 7 tweets

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

May 26

🧵On paper, America has 11 aircraft carriers.

Trump has used American naval power more effectively in recent months than we’ve seen in decades.

But these successes reveal a deeper problem.

America needs 16 carriers — not 11. Here's why, and how.🧵

2/ Federal law requires “not less than 11 operational carriers.”

But the law counts carriers in a multi-year overhaul as “operational.” That can be six YEARS offline.

At any given moment, only about half our carriers are actually available for deployment.

3/ Trump inherited a Navy with just 11 carriers and roughly 280 ships total. Reagan's was 15 and 600.

He's managed to assert American control over the world’s key chokepoints, take over Venezuela, blockade Iran, and Cuba's next.

China watched and could do nothing.

But each success consumed carrier availability that is far more limited than Washington admits.

Read 7 tweets

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

May 15

🧵 Xi Jinping just invoked the Thucydides Trap with Trump.

Most assume this is a threat. But what if Xi is signaling something else — that he recognizes China is now in a weakened position against the United States and thus needs to avoid a war?

The historical record and current realities both suggest he has reason to worry.

Thread 🧵

2/ So what is "Thucydides Trap"?

Graham Allison documented 16 cases of rising powers challenging established ones.

Four ended in peace. But in the twelve that led to war, the established power defeated the rising power 7-5.

If Xi knows this history, he understands the odds are stacked against China — especially right now.

3/ China faces severe structural weaknesses.

Its economy depends heavily on exports to the U.S. market, and imported energy through straits it can't control.

Its demographic collapse is roughly a decade from becoming catastrophic.

Constant leadership purges reveal a brittle regime.

These are not the conditions of a confident rising power.

Read 7 tweets

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

May 15

🧵Europe’s Green Deal is unraveling.

Centrally planned climate targets have delivered higher energy costs, industrial decline, and political revolt instead of the promised green utopia.

While Europe stagnates under mandates, America shows what market-driven progress looks like.

Thread 🧵

2/ Electricity in Europe now costs two to three times more than in the U.S. or China.

Taxes make up nearly a quarter of the bill. Binding net-zero rules, nuclear phase-outs, and unreliable renewables have created volatility and strangled industry.

Energy can be 30% of production costs. The result: deindustrialization.

3/ The auto sector reveals the damage.

It represents 7% of EU GDP and 14 million jobs. The 2035 combustion engine ban is forcing a rushed EV shift.

86,000 jobs lost since 2020. Up to 350,000 more at risk. Mercedes CEO warned they’re driving “full speed into a wall.”

Read 7 tweets

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

May 15

🧵Cuba is America’s Taiwan.

CIA Director Ratcliffe flew to Havana yesterday and laid out Trump’s terms: $100M in immediate aid, embargo relief, and massive U.S. investment — but only if Cuba accepts real democratic reforms and boots China, Russia, and Iran off the island.

While the world watches Iran, this is happening 90 miles from Florida. 🧵

2/ Trump’s Western Hemisphere doctrine is already working.

Gulf of America. China squeezed in Panama. Maduro removed from Venezuela with zero American casualties.

Cuba is the last major hostile foothold on America’s doorstep — perfectly positioned to threaten the Gulf and Panama Canal approaches.

That changes now.

3/ The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world has come to nuclear war.

Cuba then became a Soviet proxy exporting revolution across Latin America.

Today the regime is a failed, frozen asset. The economy has collapsed, protests continue, and the old guard is dying off.

70 years of unfinished business ends here.

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