Good afternoon, Gilberguys and gals. I’m doing the links today, but Tonio will be in tomorrow for his last regular Thursday links as I’m going off to West Texas (but not West, Texas — too bad, I could eat a couple dozen kolaches) tomorrow. I’m going to a friend’s ranch, and as I was going through my gun safe yesterday, it was like Christmas. “Oh look, two nice Remington semiautomatic shotguns my MIL gave me that I haven’t shot yet.” I was in there to get my FIL’s Sears single shot .410 – I want to see if it fires from a bench in a place where I can be sure I’m behind something solid before I teach my kids to use it, but I got distracted. Anyhow, going out west. Where there was a massive hailstorm. I’m talking about an inch of ice piled up on the deck. Hopefully, that shit has passed for the next week. Anyhow, here’s… the links!
I’m not saying that we’re reaching the middle of an Ayn Rand novel, but… millionaire taxes? Why do they hate plumbers and electricians?
Do you think Kathy Ireland would leave her husband for me if I fixed her money problems?
Hello? How much for the Killdozer model? If we’re going to do machine operated construction equipment, let’s destroy the right humans first.
I’ll bet if this guy ever took acid and thought he could fly, he’d try it from the top of skyscraper first. Like bro, borrow a buddy’s camcorder (1995) and try it out first.
A Texas song, to put me in the mood.
Aww, the end of the Tonio era is gonna make me sad.
Me too.
Come back and visit!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WChTqYlDjtI
Thanks, everyone, especially Brett. I hope at some point (months) to return to more regular duties here.
Thank you for everything, and I hope the move and more goes as smoothly as it can go.
*doffs cap*
Hoping you find a new den with minimal fuss.
Yes, thank you for everything.
Moving sucks.
Best wishes.
Home of the prairie Big Bang.
The company got a black eye from that. Everyone else got a Shiner.
*narrows gaze*
My favorite Texas song. (NSFW)
a Texas song
Talc is cheap.
Unless you know it is contaminated with asbestos.
The latest plaintiff’s bar gold rush. That type of schist that makes my blood boil.
Amazing how they can mine that for gold.
That entire lawsuit was BS.
Just like the roundup one.
“millionaire taxes”
I keep saying this, but I really believe the amount of fraud for government programs is 50%. (I don’t even use the word “waste” because it’s all outright theft). Recently I’ve seen an article or two about how a crackdown on fraud adversely affects poor people because any restrictions might keep some deserving people from getting benefits. So I guess the solution is to allow 50% theft and just increase funding. Absolutely insane.
Without fraud the fraudsters could be poor. We don’t want more poor.
I was reading some substack the other day about polling they did on the Dem party. Most Dem voters have basically middle of the road views, but a minority are “progressive” and a smaller minority are hardcore whack jobs. Those two groups are fighting like hell for more funding and more government because that’s how they get paid. They work in an NGO, an activist group, or a regulatory agency. Take away their funding and they lose their career. So naturally they’re against anything that would reduce their income.
Anyone heard from DOGE lately?
I will bring that up to anyone who thinks I’m a Trump boot licker.
Yes, I believe the totals cut so far is something like a 12% reduction in government, or in government personnel. Cannot remember. Definitely not insignificant. It’s a hell of a fight to get that stuff cut.
Venit. Vidit. Victum.
Honestly at this point I think 50 percent might be generous. Of course, I’m likely biased after living in California for so long and seeing all the money taken that obviously wasn’t being spent on anything like it was supposed to (gas taxes, “for the homeless”, “for the addicts”, “for the fire displaced”, “for the children”, etc. etc. etc.)
FYCS in a loop is all that’s in my thoughts on any tax increases at this point. Especially for taxes based solely on Envy.
You can look at the homelessness industry in California like this: The purpose is not to reduce homelessness, it’s to INCREASE the number of people working with homeless people. It’s a jobs program. But I guess that’s not fraud is it? Maybe that is waste?
Obligatory
Is it fraud if you fully intended 50% of the program’s budget to go into your campaign coffers and to your intermediaries? I’m considering running for office.
I would guess that the number of employees most government agencies have is fraudulent too.
Bloat is at every level and agency.
My army platoon was authorized at 75 people. My platoon seargent liked to brag how he did it with only 60.
A competitive comps y would have done it with at most 20 people, and the majority of them would have been part time employees.
Kathy Ireland accused her former team of fumbling her multimillion-dollar fortune, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
The “Sports Illustrated” cover girl claimed her former business managers betrayed her trust “on a staggering and unconscionable scale” and allegedly stole millions from Ireland and her family.
Sometimes they are just a pretty face.
Cover model careers are so quick — it is unfortunate she didn’t husband her money properly.
That’s what comes of Ireland being a belle, fast.
Put a cork in it.
He’ll be dublin down if he derrys.
Her chances of getting her money back are liffy
I always thought she was English, since she had that London derriere.
With the Strait of Hormuz closed, we’ll tank up around the corner at Port of Salalah, Oman.
https://x.com/i/status/2031781716713521527
RobC might get a timeline in which Bodø win the Champions League.
Holy shit.
The good news is, Man Shitty are getting the asses kicked.
The bad news is, it’s to Real Madrid.
Yeah, I was rooting for earthquake in that one.
Watching Mark Felton at someone’s recommendation. (Watching = Playing in the background and my periphery. I really don’t ‘watch’ things.)
I just learned “Unalaska” is a real place! ‘Near the peninsula,’ my ass. You just really didn’t wanna be Alaska! Southwest Aleutians. Battles with Imperial Japan. Current population, 4,254.
Pretty much wanted to say UNALASKA! before checking the links. May come in handy.
Hey there’s an Onalaska, WA too, also not in or on Alaska.
“(Unalaska) is in the Aleutians West Census Area, a regional component of the Unorganized Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska… While referred to as the “Unorganized Borough”, it is not a borough itself, as it forgoes that level of government structure. ”
They really don’t wanna be Alaska. (But they’ll take all the bennies, I’m sure.)
I wasn’t paying attention to what time it was when I put this in H&H. Via Reuters:
Reducing Europe’s nuclear energy sector was a “strategic mistake”, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday, as governments grapple with an energy crunch from the Iran war.
Europe produced around a third of electricity from nuclear power in 1990 but that has fallen to 15%, she told an event in Paris, leaving it reliant on oil and gas imports whose prices have surged in recent days.
Being “completely dependent on expensive and volatile imports” of fossil fuels puts Europe at a disadvantage to other regions, von der Leyen said in a speech.
“This reduction in the share of nuclear was a choice. I believe that it was a strategic mistake for Europe to turn its back on a reliable, affordable source of low-emissions power.”
Von der Leyen’s native Germany took a political decision under then-Chancellor Angela Merkel to phase out nuclear power plants owing to public opposition and safety concerns after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Von der Leyen was a minister in Merkel’s government when that decision was made.
Germany’s Environment Minister Carsten Schneider on Tuesday criticised von der Leyen’s “backward-looking strategy” on nuclear power.
“Cleaner, safer electricity from wind and sun is cheaper, has long been driving the energy transition, and produces no radioactive waste,” Schneider said in a statement.
Just keep telling yourself that, Carsten.
Clearest example of Greenies not wanting a solution, but for the ‘problem’ to continue. And folk get really upset when you point that out.
Which was today (or was yesterday in Japan time).
I still remember when it happened and sending emails to my friends there. And let’s not focus on the people killed by the earthquake as opposed to the radiation.
Oh wait…
There have been no deaths or cases of radiation sickness from the nuclear accident,
OK how many indirect…
Yeah; NHK World’s program today spent the first 10 minutes or so on the anniversary.
Elsewhere in Japan, the latest Grand Sumo tournament started on Sunday and the Westerner Aonishiki has the chance to become a Yokozuna. The NHK World app on Roku has a daily highlights show during the tournaments and the matches can be fun to watch.
3/11 has been compared to 9/11 because of the casualties. But on an absolute basis is much higher and population weighted even more so. Almost 20k dead.
To me they provoke two completely different reactions. 3/11 was a natural catastrophe and just makes me very sad. 9/11 was man made and makes me angry.
What?
“The average annual background dose to Americans is about 3 mSv so the excess radiation dose someone living in a city is equivalent to living about 3 years in the U.S., worse were Trump still president.”
Donald emits more radiation than other presidents? Is there no end to the evil??
I assume he opposed some standard…
Thank God we got Biden to fix that.
“millionaire taxes”
Reward failure, punish success. That’s the “liberal” Democrat business model.
It’s straight up logic vs. feelings. If you do the math, totally confiscating all the wealth of the upper few percent will barely cover a year’s spending and won’t even dent the debt. But it feels good to stick it to the rich.
It won’t even do close to that, because much if not the majority of the assessed wealth is based on opinion. But then my theory is that they WANT an economic crash which they will promptly blame on the tax-shirking uber-rich.
The members of that “Patriotic Millionaires” group can just donate their money to the treasury. I wonder why they don’t do that.
Because it doesn’t taste as good as when someone is forced to do so. Also, tax shelters and loopholes so they’re not affected but just the wrong thinking millionaires.
Thought to glibertariat: I think we all have at least some respect, if not out love, for Killdozer Man, Marvin Heemeyer. I kinda like he killed himself. ‘Just here to cause a ruckus. Not involving you further.’
Who here is most ‘akin’ to him? A few stick may stick out to me… I think the same could be said for Ted Kaczynski. I read parts of his manifesto and thought it rather prescient. He was wicked smaht. Interesting man, he. Kinda cute Chris Rock: “I don’t *approve* of it. But I understand it!”
*Kinda cue Chris Rock. Fuck you, autocorrect. And it did it again.
That *is* why it’s called auto-correct….
Shhh
My FBI agent is reading this.
I shall wave to you as you drive through East Texas, Brett.
Great song Brett.
Favorite line:
“If I could live my life all over it wouldn’t matter anyway, ’cause I never could stay sober on the Corpus Christi Bay”
Probably understood that he could not fly
Dear TPTB,
I just submitted an article for review. I was unable to find a control to turn off the sidebar. Also I don’t recall whether I turned off the rendering of the featured image in the article. If whoever reviews the article would do these things for me I’d appreciate it.
Thanks!
I will take care of it – thanks for the heads up.
Scheduled – Monday at 7pm. ALL OF YOU need to read that – a very interesting story!
You’re not my supervisor!
A Texas song not God Blessed Texas? Does not compute.
Someone else notices.
An epidemic of mental illness and/or addiction plays out in the U.S. in public, with our streets, buses, parking lots, McDonald’s, parks, and Starbucks as ad hoc institutions for the broken, addicted, and tortured.
No one will do anything about it because there’s so much money involved in keeping things the way they are.
That, and there’s the whole “empathy” thing. We shouldn’t judge the poor souls.
We should only judge them if they want meat toppings on pizza.
Only if it’s long pork Ted.
His comparisons to Korea are spot-on. First comment is interesting. I rather suspect our judiciary furthers this:
“I am a cop, and I am currently trying to figure out what to do with someone who a few years back stabbed a random stranger (who happened to be homeless) nearly to death. He was found not competent to stand trial and released into the community. Since he has been arrested for more than a half dozen violent crimes only to have judges dismiss the charges and release him because he is not competent to stand trial. But somehow when he goes to the hospital is found to be insufficiently mentally ill to be committed. It’s an extreme version of something I see all of the time.”
Meanwhile, the Undemocratic Party just changed the law to pack the Supreme Court and create a crime of “legal distortion”.
Seems like parts of Korea want a politicized legal system, too.
Well, the US used to put such people in hospitals/institutions and “we” decided that was cruel.
Are we to believe that those nice clean countries don’t have such things?
Give him the Judge Dredd treatment.
@rhy: Good question, but ya certainly don’t see it. I’ve been down plenty of dark alleys and, nuthin’. I *have* seen suit-wearing business men passed out on the sidewalk at whatever-a.m. (Maybe see that once a month? People just let them sleep it off, asfaict. Families are more cohesive, and they’re getting smaller, kinda keeping onus on preservation.
They also have the highest or second highest suicide rate in the developed world. (Or overall.) Lots of internal psychological weight and pressures, leading to many things, but they mostly keep it together. Old people are employed to sleep streets and subways, mostly to give ’em something to do. Old folk watchin’ is a strong cultural eye in the streets.
Big Hypothesis /Truth: A very young democracy and ‘modern’ nation, they take shit very seriously. All but one South Korean president executed, almost executed, or imprisoned. They remember being colonized, is my theory.
Add it all together with their homogeneous pop? Ya get a fairly special place. Not replicable.
I’m going to push back a little on the linked article.
I lived in NYC for 25 years and it is not nearly the hellscape the author claims. I suspect a lot of embellishment for dramatic effect. Sure the US is worse than a lot of other countries but there are reasons – a large one being that we don’t put people in institutions anymore, in addition to the things you listed about Korea (cultural, largely).
Lyle
My favorite Texas song (NSFW):
https://youtu.be/prE7aSSCxz4
“I think people are waking up to the harms of these inequalities,” said Collins, a founding member of the group Patriotic Millionaires, which calls for higher taxes on the country’s super affluent. “Including people who have wealth, who say, if we keep going down this road, it ain’t going to end well for anybody.”
Bless your heart.
“including people who have wealth,”
This is one of those things that piss me off. If you’re not giving enough, write a check to Treasury. Don’t Warren Buffet yourself.
If only there was no wealth. *swoon*
If you’re making a million dollars you obviously can afford a 10% haircut. The money’s just there in the swimming pool gathering dust.
If you’re not giving enough, write a check to Treasury.
Just call the folks down at the family trust office. I’m sure they’ll be eager to set something up for you.
It’s long-roof day, apparently:
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2008-saab-9-3-66
Attn: Monocle people
I pointed pointed people to some ‘temporary’ branches during the Great Site Unpleasantness of 2026. I have since re-organized things and the ‘master’ branch will be the default.
I’m going to push a final update to those temporary branches – Eyepiece_v4.9, Eyepiece_v4.9, Eyepiece_v4.6 – that should re-point everyone to ‘master’ the next time things auto-update.
There might be some transition issues with unread comments but it should be a one-time annoyance.
Thank you, slummy!
Thanks for all the work!
It makes glibbing so much more productive.
You say that like its a good thing.
There was a pretty nice 3 series BMW wagon, too.
I keep eying those – that’d be the perfect size for my rather narrow driveway.
Texas song
Facing a budget shortage, lawmakers are debating a proposal that would create a nearly 10% annual tax on personal earnings over $1 million. If adopted, the tax would incentivize millionaires to leave the state.
Fixed.
Yep.
And my hope to move gets even more expensive.
OK, which one of you is this?
Senior fighting to keep his 56-year-old landline amid barrage of spam calls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQTyvx4-ics
His tenacity is both impressive and perplexing.
We currently live in a world where Canada wins their pool in the premier international baseball tournament, and the US is on the verge of being eliminated during pool play.
Fire fucking everyone involved.