329 Comments

  1. Rat on a train

    US Budget Deficit Doubles to $1.7 Trillion
    That is just the budget gimmick number. The debt was $31,226,777,244,320.88 on 20 October 2022. It was $33,626,943,979,485.12 on 19 October 2023. That is an increase of $2.4T.

    • SDF-7

      I like how the article mentions it is a bigger deficit than pre-COVID ones.

      I’m sitting here thinking… “I think that’s a bigger deficit than most (if not all) pre-COVID budgets“….. still would accept “roll back the budget to 2019” as a good first step, honestly.

      • Rat on a train

        Revenue – Expenditures
        2019 $3.5T $4,4T
        2020 $3.4T $6.6T
        2021 $4.0T $6.8T
        2022 $4.9T $6.3T
        Using an “emergency” to jack up spending had no effect.

    • Bobarian LMD

      We don’t count the accruing interest, because FYTW.

  2. Pat

    The U.S. government Friday posted a $1.695 trillion budget deficit in fiscal 2023, a 23% jump and an effective doubling from the prior year as revenues fell

    The solution is obvious…

    • SDF-7

      Give $60 billion to the IRS so those over $400k pay “their fair share” (ignoring that the IRS historically goes after those with enough money to matter, but not enough that they hire accountants / lobby for loopholes… aka the middle class)?

      • J. Frank Parnell

        Don’t forget to go after those $600/year venmo transactions.

    • R.J.

      That’s a lot of helicopters….

  3. Rat on a train

    Republicans announce nine new House speaker candidates
    When are the debates?

    • SDF-7

      At this point, they might as well resolve it with a rousing game of musical chairs.

      • Pat

        Generalissimo Kevin McCarthy is still not speaker of the house…

      • Rat on a train

        Jeffries still doesn’t have the votes.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        Battle royale.

  4. SDF-7

    The Most Expensive Judicial Race in US History Is Raising Questions

    Hmmm… a bunch of “grass roots donors” that didn’t make such donations. That sounds awfully familiar (though I can’t dig up the actual articles right now and don’t care enough to spend my day on it)… guess that’s the new normal for money laundering. Or the old normal is just getting more exposed.

    Morning, Banjos. Like the frog hat on the guinea pig.

    • rhywun

      Didn’t we know this already months ago? Why is this “raising questions” now?

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        This is old news. Why can’t people move on from this. Never mind this wasn’t reported when it first happened and there were no repercussions.

      • SDF-7

        Did we? I thought it was a different race with mysterious voters that had no idea what folks were talking about when they tracked down small donations…. Could just be my memory, granted.

      • Banjos

        I believe it was democrats general fundraising group ACT Blue. iirc, O’Keeffe’s new org tracked down alleged doners and they claim they never donated. Many were poor retirees on limited budgets.

      • rhywun

        Ah. I guess they all do it now. And nothing else happened.

      • AlexinCT

        ACT blue is a true criminal enterprise, but it is protected by the machine cause it serves their purpose.

      • SDF-7

        That sounds exactly like what I was remembering. Thanks, Banjos!

    • R.J.

      That hat is adorbs on the Guinea pig. Do you put it back on after sautéing with onions and brussel sprouts?

      • Not Adahn

        They have Brussels sprouts in South America?

      • R.J.

        Learning and Growing…

        “ Second to the Netherlands in export volume is Mexico where the climate allows nearly year-round production.[9] The Baja region is the main supplier to the US market, but produce also comes from the Mexicali, San Luis and coastal areas.”

      • juris imprudent

        Brussels sprout cartel – band name, or album?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Eh, album.

    • Rat on a train

      I remember Obama had a lot of donations under the $200 reporting limit.

  5. AlexinCT

    Test…

    • AlexinCT

      keep getting a server errors.

      • UnCivilServant

        Clearly you have failed the test.

    • SDF-7

      B+

    • R.J.

      All good here. You trying to copy.paste something?

      • AlexinCT

        No. Just typing in text.

        Wondering if this will get past the error.

  6. Pat

    Attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, the two co-defendants in Trump’s Georgia 2020 election case who requested speedy trials that were scheduled to start Monday, accepted plea deals on Thursday and Friday, respectively, halting a trial that would have allowed Trump’s defense team to see some of Willis’ evidence ahead of time.

    I’m no legal expert, but isn’t that what, oh, I dunno, discovery is supposed to be about?

    • SDF-7

      I guess not for the new Kangaroo Court model or something. You’ve got me…..

    • UnCivilServant

      Yes, you are supposed to put all evidence on to the record to be examined by both parties prior to the start of the trial. Typically it falls between pretrial motions and the empanelling of a Jury.

    • juris imprudent

      Alt-take: We did these deals because we weren’t sure a jury would buy off on it.

      • WTF

        Or, we took these deals because we’re not billionaires and the state will bankrupt us defending ourselves.

      • RBS

        The process is the punishment.

      • Homple

        “Jury”. You’re joking.
        Right?

  7. SDF-7

    James Comer: We Found a Lot of Suspicious Checks Written to Joe Biden From Brother Jim

    Loved all the comments cited over the weekend of “It can be normal to pay cash for a multi-million dollar house!” (as a government official for your whole life, no less)… “How do you KNOW he didn’t loan his brother $200k with no paperwork?” (again, as a government employee… where’d he get that kind of cheddar to just throw around?) “It isn’t a smoking gun that this happened right after big payments from the Chinese companies!”

    Remembering not that long ago when Biden was widely recognized as a plagiarizing idiot who never even came close to winning a primary, much less have a credible shot for President then suddenly The Narrative(tm) was put out and all the lackeys cling to it like they’re Jack and that table is tilting is astounding. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

    • Pat

      Trump, meanwhile, was supposed to put all of his assets in a blind trust to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Our cherished institutions and all that, doncha know.

      • Rat on a train

        Emoluments!

    • rhywun

      It’s almost like Biden was installed for reasons other than competence or popularity.

      • Common Tater

        At the time they didn’t think he had a chance of winning.

      • AlexinCT

        That’s why they fortified the 2020 election…

        And as I tell people: Biden is just the Weekend at Bernie’s corpse as Obama’s people are making all the decisions with Obama driving that train over the cliff.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Obama III: The Revenge

    • J. Frank Parnell

      “It can be normal to pay cash for a multi-million dollar house!” (as a government official for your whole life, no less)… “How do you KNOW he didn’t loan his brother $200k with no paperwork?” (again, as a government employee… where’d he get that kind of cheddar to just throw around?)

      Yeah, I’ve been reliably informed that government employees have no savings and live paycheck-to-paycheck, and delaying even a single paycheck for a week or so will cause them terrible hardship.

  8. Lackadaisical

    We’re going to be royally fucked when the funny money runs out.

    Powell thinks he’s Volcker, but in the 70-80’s the government held only 20-40% debt to gdp, now it’s 120% and our Congress can’t get a handle on spending.

    • Pat

      If Powell actually has the stones for it, forcing congress’ hand into fiscal responsibility would be a good outcome in the long run. Let’s just hope he doesn’t decide to opt for some dangerous method of travel, like an airplane or car…

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Hotel room with faulty windows. Hey if it’s good enough for Putin.

      • Not Adahn

        True story, I stayed in a Crowne Plaza in Cuyahoga Falls OH in February where the window wouldn’t close. The first night was miserably cold. However, by the second night, ice had sealed the opening and from that point on it was quite comfy.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Uhhh, were everyone’s windows like that?

        I stayed last summer in a hotel that rationed electricity. I was too exhausted to make it work, and much too so to call downstairs twice.

      • Not Adahn

        No, but they had no other rooms to move me into. They said.

      • rhywun

        I haven’t seen a hotel where windows open in a couple decades.

      • UnCivilServant

        When I was at Niagara Falls I had an 8th floor room where the window opened, and had no screen, or anything to prevent a defenistration.

      • rhywun

        no screen

        Gah! That is not acceptable when you’re a living bug attractant.

      • Not Adahn

        Yes, I’m sure the opening windows were at least partially because the falls wee in close enough proximity to hear.

      • Lackadaisical

        I don’t think they’re capable of fiscal responsibility, so increased borrowing costs will just get added on top of the already excessive expenditures. It’s going to snowball faster than they realize because rates on debt have gone from ~0 to 5% and may continue to rise.

        5% doesn’t sound like much, but we when you take in ~20% of the economy, shelling out 6% of that just for debt payments leaves you with around 2/3rds of what you needed. And we’re already spending above our means, and with a whole host of ‘obligations’ like SS AND Medicare that are due to balloon all at the same time. It’s a train wreck that’s finally about to hit after watching it develop for the last 30 years.

  9. Rebel Scum

    This is fine.

    Amid the escalating tensions in the Middle East, over 12,000 personnel from the US Navy and Marine Corps aboard ten warships have either reached or are en route to the Eastern Mediterranean, as reported by Nikkei Asia, citing data from the US Navy.

    On Saturday, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III announced a series of actions aimed at bolstering the United States’ military presence in the Middle East.

    The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group has been redirected to the Central Command area of responsibility. This move is in addition to the Navy’s largest and most advanced nuclear aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, which is currently operating in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

    I hope everyone is geared up for another mideastern conflict in which there is no benefit to the average American in the US participating. Bonus is that this one could escalate to WWIII. Fun times to be had by all.

  10. RBS

    Honestly, I didn’t know Nokia was still around.

    • UnCivilServant

      Of course they’re still around, they’re indestructable.

      • Sean

        https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-10-23/google-s-rise-and-nokia-s-smartphone-fall-from-grace

        Eh…

        Today Nokia Oyj only licenses its name to HMD, which offers generic-looking tablets, speakers and earbuds; most of its sales volume is basic phones with physical keyboards, like a zombie version of Nokia’s old 3310 self. According to data from research firm IDC, HMD-Nokia ranks No. 11 in the overall mobile phone market ahead of Google’s in-house lineup, but only because that tally includes both smart and “dumb” devices — and Nokia sells tons of the latter, at an average of cost of $23 per phone.

      • UnCivilServant

        Well that’s stupid.

        Google needs to be put down.

  11. Shpip

    On Friday, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan agreed to temporarily halt her gag order on former President Donald Trump in his 2020 election interference case, while he appeals the order in higher courts.

    We have to keep up the illusion of impartiality, you see…

  12. Not Adahn

    Re: Argentina, this morning NPR was all “the far-right candidate underperformed!” and “The ruling party won the election!”

    Steve Inskeep, who has to be one of the most unprofessional partisan hacks ever, performatively emoted incredulity and scorn when he said “anarcho-capitalist.”

    • UnCivilServant

      I still can’t read any of those anarchist sub-faction names without my mind substituting “Arachno-communist” and the meme of the wojack crawling with spiders.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        And I can’t read Anarcho-communist without thinking of

        DENNIS:
        I told you. We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.

      • UnCivilServant

        Naw, that’s too long, and was never very funny.

      • SDF-7

        HERESY!

        Now fetch……

        ….

        THE COMFY CHAIR!

      • UnCivilServant

        You sem awfully attached to Dennis’ scene.

        And I fully expected that reaction.

    • rhywun

      I don’t trust Argentina’s elections any more than our own.

    • Rebel Scum

      “The ruling party won the election!”

      Curious, that. I suppose it was sufficiently fortified.

  13. Shpip

    The federal government faces a partial shutdown in November, and there is increasing pressure to send more funds for the Ukraine and Israel wars.

    Here’s a thought: why don’t the taxpayers (I know, I know) let Ukraine and Israel fund their own fucking wars?

    • Rat on a train

      Did they help fund our forever war? They are both such close allies that we never bothered to formalize an alliance.

    • Pat

      What are you, some kind of Putler-loving anti-Semite?

      • Lackadaisical

        He just loves 7th century warlords.

  14. PieInTheSky

    Woman returns from vacation to find home demolished by mistake – rebuilding it is good for the economy

    • Pat

      Think of all that new business for the glaziers!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        But the tailor!

        I hope the neighbor came late to all that.

      • Suthenboy

        Dammit Pat, you beat me to it. I got delayed having to log in

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      +1 Bastiat

    • AlexinCT

      Now that is a funny way to spur economic growth…

      Who is paying for the reconstruction? Is she being forced to take a high interest bank loan, on top of whatever other mortgage obligation she had, or is insurance covering this?

      My bet is they move her to a pod and tell her to start eating bugs or else they will do the next demolition while she is home.

      • juris imprudent

        It was a home her family owned, so probably no mortgage. It also had sat vacant with boarded up windows for years. It doesn’t appear it was a govt job but some private company, who deservedly will get sued and lose.

      • AlexinCT

        What they can’t use the whole government should be allowed to use immanent domain to spur economic whatever here?

      • juris imprudent

        Rant all you want, but it doesn’t appear those are the facts.

      • AlexinCT

        Yet…

    • Sean

      Honest mistake. Any boarded up house is fair game to raze.

    • PieInTheSky

      Professor Jules Hilbert: Meeting an insurance agent the day your policy runs out is coincidence. Getting a letter from the emperor saying he’s visiting is plot. Having your apartment eaten by a wrecking ball… is something else entirely. Harold, you don’t control your fate.

  15. Not Adahn

    Grrr.

    IT has announced we all need to “upgrade” our passwords to 15 characters, but because of that we’ll only need to change them annually instead of quarterly.

    Not entirely sure how that works or if it makes sense.

    But since I’m thinking about password policies, here’ a blast form the past:

    https://neal.fun/password-game/

    • AlexinCT

      P@ssword1234567 will suffice?

      • R.J.

        I love that game. If you put in your suggestion it should snark the line from Space Balls:”That’s what some schmo would have on his luggage!”

      • UnCivilServant

        Nope.

        It has to at least be P@assw0rd765432!

      • AlexinCT

        The password game is dumb. The most important thing is to teach people not to leave that written down lying around and how to spot phishing or engineering so they can avoid allowing those attack vectors. But when you are dealing with morons, especially those with college credentials that think that made them S-M-R-T smart, you are going to be screwed regardless.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s simple, we don’t let them use anything that requires password access.

      • AlexinCT

        I wish.

    • Pat

      definitelynotapasswordharvestingscript.com

      My shortest password is 24 characters, and that’s only because some websites are retarded and won’t let you use one of adequate length for proper security.

      • UnCivilServant

        “postitisunderthekeyboard”

      • Not Adahn

        I have an account that uses a bog-standard English word as a password that somehow has never been hacked for the past 31 years.

      • UnCivilServant

        Who would have guessed Sassafras

      • Not Adahn

        Sassafrasses don’t grow in bogs. You’re thinking of Cypresses.

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s why no one guessed it.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Anything to do with the Marx Bros.?

      • Not Adahn

        No hints! I want to keep that accountintact!

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s never Swordfish.

      • Not Adahn

        That’s >15 characters!

      • UnCivilServant

        itsneverSwordfish is 17 characters.
        it’sneverSwordfish is 18 characters.
        “it’s never Swordfish” is 20 characters.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        podestapodestapodesta

    • SDF-7

      FuckYouITIDon’tWantToTypeThisShitEveryFuckingTime?

      • UnCivilServant

        Too many shifts to capitals, and too many spots where you’d be naturally inclined to add spaces that are not in there.

        Plus, where are your numerals?

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Farginiceholes1&

    • Sensei

      Funny. We just did the same.

      I assume the big three auditing firms just changed their security criteria.

      Good news for us (and I assume you) is that no characters or numbers are required. So it really can be a phrase. However, getting up from the desk and coming back to locked computer is a PITA with long password.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        I always used the manufacturers internal code for some vehicle I used to own: 68 SRL311, 78 TE50 lb and so on. Easy to remember, plus I have had enough cars that I car rotate through.

        It is one area where JDM works out really well.

      • Sensei

        I used to use Japanese words and phrases, but at some point they added Japanese dictionary to the forbidden word list.

        The prior policy was 8 characters including one capitalized and one “special” character. It was run against a some massive dictionary and normal “words” wouldn’t work. So “Zwak” was a no go but “Zw@k” would likely work. However that would only work once. Because you couldn’t use the same word again during the next 15 months.

        It was just nuts.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Our official policy is some ridiculous length but a widely used program has an 8 character/limited or no special characters password requirement so…

      • Ted S.

        Zw@k01, and each time you have to change it, you just go up one number.

      • UnCivilServant

        Current systems can detect that and will block it.

      • Sensei

        Yup!

      • AlexinCT

        Don’t go up by 1… Go up by 2 or 3… That check then doesn’t work.

      • kinnath

        Our system only requires one character to differ between updates. So a pair of rolling digits works just fine.

    • Mojeaux

      I have a password scheme that fulfills all these requirements. It’s not exactly random, as I use real words.

  16. Rebel Scum

    US Budget Deficit Doubles to $1.7 Trillion

    Chump change. We can fund all the wars all over the planet for all of time. According to Janet Yellen, that is.

    • juris imprudent

      By god, we may not be able to recruit enough bodies into the military, but we can spend with no such constraints!

      • Sean

        I’m seeing a big uptick in Army recruiting commercials lately.

      • AlexinCT

        They are all appealing to woke idiots though. That sort would only join for free sex changes.

      • Not Adahn

        The military’s problems are solely from that awful redneck obstructing flag officers from getting their pay raises!

      • The Other Kevin

        The military has that same Disney problem. They try to cater to the woke crowd, but the woke crowd isn’t going to enlist now and never was.

  17. Rebel Scum

    Republicans announce nine new House speaker candidates

    The not-so-grand old party can’t stop shooting itself in the dick.

    • AlexinCT

      I told people Jim Jordan would have zero chance of winning that vote. He is considered by the uniparty as a disruptor and populists. The machine’s agenda is to make sure no populists – someone that will actually do what the people want instead of just giving lip service and doing what the machine wants – ever again gets in positions of power, and the speaker is third in line to the top job.

      We will only be allowed to pick a speaker the uniparty can control. Get used to them making sure their will is the only thing that matters until it gets to the boiling point and the guillotines or woodchippers are brought out to deal with them.

      • juris imprudent

        And every one of those critters can say “but you elected me”.

      • UnCivilServant

        I did not.

        And with the number of fraudulet votes rolling about, I doubt anyone did.

      • Drake

        He might have kept a promise or 2 that the GOP made to their base.

        Kevin McCarthy was remarkable – he made a bunch of promises to get elected Speaker and immediately broke all of them.

      • Fourscore

        Repubs make a deal with Hakeem, is he doesn’t keep his promises Repubs do a recall and being in the majority put the fear of dog in the demos.

        Seems like the best outcome

  18. Rebel Scum

    This year has been full of big developments in the Biden story. Yet, overshadowed by the speaker fight and war in Israel, we are still waiting to get to the bottom of it. A new $200K direct payment to Joe Biden uncovered last week shows that the investigation has only just begun.

    Sure but where is the evidence?

    • The Other Kevin

      It’s flimsy. It will never hold up in a court of law.

    • creech

      “Joseph Biden” is a common name. How do we know it is the same Joe Biden? If it is, he probably won it playing
      the hidden pea trick on the corner of the ghetto with Corn Pop. Or putting his vicious guard dogs out to stud.
      Or suing drunk drivers. Or found in the cushions of the Amtrak trains.

    • Sean

      lol

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      I just thought of a great costume idea! Dress up as Barbie, but with boxing gloves and morgue face paint: Barbara Boxer!

    • Fourscore

      I remember those days from when I lived there 50 years ago

    • SDF-7

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 10/23:
      *19/19 words
      🎯 Perfect accuracy

      I played https://squaredle.com 10/23:
      *26/26 words (+1 bonus word)
      🎯 Perfect accuracy
      🔥 Solve streak: 61

    • rhywun

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 10/23:
      *19/19 words
      🎯 In the top 14% by accuracy

      I played https://squaredle.com 10/23:
      *26/26 words (+4 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 33% by bonus words
      🔥 Solve streak: 36

    • rhywun

      I just hit an excluded word, “mong”.

      Wut?

      • J. Frank Parnell

        Shortened version of mongoloid, a person with Down’s syndrome

    • PieInTheSky

      hey they all do this not just ours

    • Not Adahn

      I am disappointed in the content produced by someone calling themselves “DD Geoolitics.”

  19. PieInTheSky

    Exclusive: Jeremy Hunt is drawing up new package to help first time buyers in the Autumn Statement

    Hunt is expected to extend the 95% mortgage guarantee for another year

    Treasury is also looking at a new ISA product to help people save up a deposit

    https://twitter.com/HarryYorke1/status/1715998704400830503

    Don’t build and encourage loaning, that will fix the housing market.

    • AlexinCT

      Is Jeremy Hunt related to Mike Hunt?

  20. PieInTheSky

    FDJ (Free German Youth) carrying signs of the GDR Solidarity Committee (Solidaritätskomitee der DDR) against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism… including one, concerns the Palestinian people

    https://twitter.com/RevAus199/status/1716419688899518614

    • rhywun

      Same as it ever was.

      The Wessis are still cleaning up the mess the Ossis created over less than 40 years.

  21. Rebel Scum

    On Friday, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan agreed to temporarily halt her gag order on former President Donald Trump in his 2020 election interference case, while he appeals the order in higher courts.

    How kind of her.

  22. Rebel Scum

    U.S. Housing Market Half as Affordable as Three Years Ago

    And groceries are twice as expensive. And war is breaking out all over. And there is an invasion at the border. But no mean tweets.

    • Suthenboy

      You are wasting your breath. TDS is one hell of a drug.

  23. Rebel Scum

    Americans Are Burning Through Savings To Keep Biden’s Economy Afloat, Experts Say

    That’s Bidenomics in action.

    • SDF-7

      The tin-foil hat reptile part of my brain can’t help but think “So…. you’re closer to owning nothing….”

    • AlexinCT

      Is tat because the pole dancer is a male skeleton and the perp identified as a woman?

      • Rebel Scum

        Someone has a bone to pick with the homeowner.

    • Rebel Scum

      I don’t see what is wrong with it. Also, 1A, motherfucker.

      • R.J.

        I think you could claim 1A if you put political pamphlets in the hands of all the skeletons. Which would be a great defense.

    • Lackadaisical

      What knots will Roberts tie himself into to justify this one?

  24. Rebel Scum

    With 76 percent of votes counted, Massa surprised by pulling ahead with 35.9 percent of votes, while Milei secured 30.51 percent.

    The two will compete in a Nov. 19 runoff election, with the winner to take office in December.

    The far-right libertarian economist Milei had been polling as the frontrunner ahead of Massa, who has overseen inflation of almost 140 percent and poverty that has reached 40 percent.

    Elections are not real.

    • AlexinCT

      The left always feels evil shit is justified because they are sure their end goals are noble. That’s how you get reeducation or extermination camps too.

      • Rebel Scum

        Speaking of, the MAGAts will need a formal deprogramming. Or so I am told.

  25. PieInTheSky

    True Tolkien aficionados and art historians will find much to be annoyed about. But Στέλιος Καρέλλας on FB had AI render scenes from Lord the Rings as Byzantine mosaics, and I think it’s glorious.

    https://twitter.com/_Dragases_/status/1715991476121862209

    • Not Adahn

      One thing I’m really looking forward to is the day when AI + CNC = affordable custom furniture.

      • UnCivilServant

        You’ll end up with something only a mutant spawn with a multitude of limbs can use safely.

      • Not Adahn

        I’d have to approve the design prior to it getting sent to the CNC, naturally.

        It’s already happening with laser engraving (like on my EDC slide), it just needs larger-format mills to be integrated, and obviously the tird dimension is going to be more important with furniture than it is on ornamental engraving/printing.

    • R.J.

      Interesting. Second X link that Brave refuses to display. Switching to Firefox, I get it no problem.

    • The Last American Hero

      Balrogs don’t have wings.

      • UnCivilServant

        We gave them Red Bull.

  26. PieInTheSky

    The Metropolitan Police announced this weekend that chanting “jihad”, as a speaker did at Saturday’s Hizb ut-Tahrir protest against Israel, is not illegal. Okay. Good to know.

    Here, then, just so we’re all on the same page, is a list of things that British lawmakers and police officials believe are more arrestable offences than demanding holy war.

    https://thecritic.co.uk/twelve-things-more-arrestable-than-calling-for-jihad/

  27. Rebel Scum

    So did Israel bomb the church or not?

    A steady stream of rocket misfires by Hamas and Islamic Jihad have resulted in the deaths of several Palestinians since the war between Israel and Iran-backed terrorists first began earlier this month, according to one Israeli defense official.

    “They are killing their own people,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said Saturday.

    Hagari noted that one-fifth of the rockets that have been fired by Hamas and Islamic Jihad have missed intended targets and landed inside Gaza, killing civilians. That number, Hagari said, amounts to more than 550 rockets.

    • PieInTheSky

      who knows anything thats going on

    • Gustave Lytton

      So Israel admits to not protecting Palestinians like they do for Israelis? Where’s the Iron Dome for Gaza?

      • PieInTheSky

        the shape physics demands

    • Rebel Scum

      I’m just going to say it. It looks like a vagina.

  28. Rebel Scum

    I don’t think it mentions any particular religion…

    The United States Constitution is clear: Muslim civil rights are American civil rights. There is no exception.

    Hate has no place in America. Islamophobia has no place in America. We will not be silent.

    …even and especially those that are in no way compatible with it.

    • Not Adahn

      Is Lizzie on the warpath again?

    • Pat

      The United States Constitution is clear: Muslim civil rights are American civil rights. There is no exception.

      So a Muslim, say, bakery, is free to exercise its first amendment rights to, say, refuse to cater a gay wedding?

      • Rebel Scum

        Sure. Christians on the other hand…

    • rhywun

      …coming from one of the most hateful politicians in America not named Hillary Clinton.

      I suppose she is aware that constitution doesn’t say a thing about “hate” or “phobia” but hey, virtue signaling is free I guess.

      • AlexinCT

        It goes beyond virtue signaling. Saying you should not allow ephemeral things lake “hate speech”, especially when you get to decide what is and is not hate speech, gives you some unprecedented powers in both controlling the narrative and programming the serfs.

      • rhywun

        Yup, it is not by accident that she directly follows the true statement above with the false flapdoodle below.

      • Fourscore

        Pat Buchanan said we were a Judeo-Christian nation. He said nothing about Muslims.

    • Not Adahn

      Now redo that list, excluding sheep.

      • AlexinCT

        No love for chicken fuckers either?

    • Rebel Scum

      The land down under is number 1 for going down under.

      • pistoffnick

        *smiles*
        *Hands Rebel Scum a Vegemite sandwich*

    • The Other Kevin

      Single Glibs, just look for a woman named Matilda Silva who’s nickname is Alexandra.

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      I am shocked, Shocked!, that Saudi Arabia is not on that list.

    • R.J.

      Australia!
      Australia!
      Australia!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Oi! Oi! Oi!

    • Lackadaisical

      Japan ahead of the US?

      I don’t buy it. People just make this shit up for clicks.

      • Not Adahn

        Having legal prostitution must mean something.

      • prolefeed

        Does sex with RealDolls count?

        They left out the relevant modifier – “self-reported” promiscuity. Shocking, that people lie about sex when asked by strangers. Shocking!

  29. Rebel Scum

    The one thing you cuntes all agree on is funding the military-industrial complex.

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview airing Sunday that he sides with President Biden on the matter of bundling Ukraine and Israel aid together — while noting their opposing views on domestic issues.

    CBS’s Margaret Brennan asked McConnell on “Face the Nation” whether it was possible to pass additional aid to Ukraine without it being tied to Israel, as some Republicans are hesitant to approve more aid to Ukraine.

    “I just think that’s a mistake,” McConnell responded. “I mean, I know there are some Republicans in the Senate, and maybe more in the House, saying Ukraine is somehow different. I view it as all interconnected.”

    McConnell also pushed back on other Republicans who are hesitant to approve more aid for Ukraine, saying that the aid is actually being spent more in the U.S. when ramping up production for the weapons.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Sure it’s interconnected. Giving US taxpayer money to foreign powers. It’s all the same.

    • PieInTheSky

      well if the companies were not greedy we would not need Career socialist activists.

    • rhywun

      LOL go for it, commies.

      There’s a dozen car companies ready to clean your clock.

    • R.J.

      Look. Fain isn’t a moron. He knows what he is doing, and chose to listen to those advisors. It’s not like he’s a Biden puppet.

    • The Last American Hero

      The UAW voted for Fain. They can go to hell with him.

  30. PieInTheSky

    If you Google “long legs” and ask for images, almost all of them will be of human females. Even though human males tend to have longer legs on average. (Same at other search engines.)

    https://twitter.com/robinhanson/status/1716155131043942448

    I also get a bunch of insects

    • UnCivilServant

      Because they have decades of data showing what people actually click through on from such searches.

  31. The Other Kevin

    Great song. I don’t know why, just always liked it a lot, even thought I’m not a huge fan of Elton John.

  32. Sensei

    This is both why liberal economists don’t like discuss inflation including food and why CEOs get paid for their industry insight.

    Conagra Chief Executive Sean Connolly said that consumers are responding to mounting financial pressure by cooking more meals from scratch, working down pantry inventories and eating more leftovers.

    “When consumers are flush, they throw their leftovers in the garbage,” Connolly said. “When they’re stretched, they keep their leftovers and they try to avoid spending money on the next meal.”

    Food Is on Sale Again. You Might Still Have Sticker Shock.
    https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/food-is-on-sale-again-you-might-still-have-sticker-shock-fea92d17?st=qokbociyf7nryh2&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • Pat

      I spent more on food (including booze) than electricity, gas, water, sewer and trash collection combined this past month. And I don’t eat or drink opulently by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve been making good use of persistently-on-sale $1.99 3 lb bags of apples and 5 lb bags of potatoes.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve been eating more expensive foods because I had to reduce carb intake.

        But chicken thighs (skin-on, bone-in) are often $1.99/lb

      • Pat

        I bought a package of chicken thighs on sale for 99 cents/lb this week. Hell of a deal. $2.99/lb boneless skinless chicken breast is my usual dietary staple. I do oatmeal with a diced quarter of an apple and cinnamon for breakfast, chicken sandwich or chicken breast with potato and random veg for lunch, a veg, fruit and protein smoothie for dinner, and then usually cheese and crackers or peanut butter toast as a late snack. That and a handle and a half or so of bottom shelf liquor is running me right around $250/mo usually.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        4 kids are blowing out our food/household budget. The oldest is 10, can eat 28 chicken nuggets in a sitting (while somehow being underweight), and I can’t imagine what our food bill is going to be for 4 teenagers plus friends. We ended up ditching Costco for Sam’s Club and haven’t looked back. Better selection, better prices, no checkout, early hours.

        We usually go chicken breasts too (~15 lbs) and a rotating beef cut every week. Lots of dairy, vegetables, and fruit too. Trying to cut back on the processed carbs.

      • Mojeaux

        We ended up ditching Costco for Sam’s Club and haven’t looked back. Better selection, better prices, no checkout, early hours.

        Same.

      • prolefeed

        I can buy a ten pound bag of chicken thighs for about six bucks. Granted, about a pound of that is water.

      • AlexinCT

        Where? I have not found them for less than $2.59 per lbs. And breastesses, Q’s favorite, are now between $3.29-43.59 per lbs.

      • UnCivilServant

        My local Butcher, where I’ve been getting all my protein of late.

      • PieInTheSky

        43 dollars is a lot. Bresse chicken?

      • AlexinCT

        That is from street skanks.

    • R.J.

      On sale, my ass. I still have a large bag of emergency rice, and I need to get a big bag of dried beans just in case. I do not trust our food transport network, or Biden.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Consider getting some food grade buckets from Home Depot and mylar bags/oxidizers from Amazon. It didn’t cost me much. I put up ~175lbs of rice and beans during Covid. The food will keep for 30 years. I still have enough supplies to left to bucket another 175lb… just need to get around to it.

      • prolefeed

        I still have about ten pounds of dried beans I bought in 2020 as an emergency reserve, plus working thru a 15 pound bag of rice.

      • Common Tater

        I’d cook the beans. Dried beans only last a few years.

      • prolefeed

        Quick Google search turned up an article about someone who stored beans back in 1999. Not just edible, but the beans actually sprouted when planted.

        It’s a SHTF supply, not a gourmet meals supply.

  33. Rebel Scum

    Ya think?

    Federal officials are warning that members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hezbollah could be crossing through the southern border, according to an internal Oct. 20 memo exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

    The San Diego Field Office Intelligence Division of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sent the memo warning that due to the war between Israel and Hamas, there could be encounters of terror-tied individuals who are seeking to travel to or from the Middle East via transit across the southern border. Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah, all of which are U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, have been committing attacks on Israel in a war that began with a surprise attack on hundreds of civilians on Oct. 7.

    “San Diego Field Office Intelligence Unit assesses that individuals inspired by, or reacting to the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle East via circuitous transit across the Southwest border,” the memo reads.

    “Foreign fighters motivated by ideology or mercenary soldiers of fortune may attempt to obfuscate travel to or from the US to or from countries in the Middle East through Mexico,” the memo adds.

    I’m glad that serious people are in charge.

    • The Other Kevin

      That’s alarming. We should probably talk about it for another few weeks or months before we do anything.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    McConnell also pushed back on other Republicans who are hesitant to approve more aid for Ukraine, saying that the aid is actually being spent more in the U.S. when ramping up production for the weapons.

    That’s the new talking point. Team Brandon is using it, too. That money stays right here in the good ole USA. It gets used to kill a bunch of smelly foreigners, but when has that ever stopped us in the past?

    • Pat

      Oh good. I was afraid all that money might be spent wastefully to enrich some foreign oligarch who was suspending elections and shutting down religious expression, but as long as it’s lining the pockets of Lockheed and Raytheon executives, that changes everything.

    • Pat

      Just so long as he didn’t fly a flag with a swastika on it. It’s the symbols that are important, not the actual deeds.

    • rhywun

      “It cannot be that Israel is threatening to bomb corridors and shipments carrying humanitarian equipment. It cannot be. It is another war crime if it happens,” he added.

      Maybe it isn’t?

      Your handlers’ propaganda is probably not any more reliable than anything the media are putting out these days.

      I remain darkly amused that only one side is committing war crimes here, and it isn’t the one that started this shit.

  35. Rebel Scum

    I’m just going to assume he found out about Big Mike.

    New information from a FOIA request now places Barack Obama on the scene sometime after his personal chef, Tafari Campbell, went missing and was later found drowned.

    The new information was first reported by Jesse Watters Friday evening.

    “We have new information tonight in the drowning death of Obama’s chef Tafari Campbell,” Watters revealed. “The Massachusetts State Police responded to our FOIA request and released their report with some redactions.”

    “According to the report, Obama was on the scene shortly after Campbell went missing,” Watters said. “The report also states an unnamed female staffer jumped into the water when Tafari fell off his board, but it was already too late. He disappeared.”

    • Suthenboy

      All of Obumbles blowjob buddies are dead, aren’t they? I know two or three were Hillaried before his election….

    • creech

      Martha’s Vineyard and Water just don’t seem compatible with Democrat big shots. Next, we’ll hear that Barry actually swam 10 miles to try to get help for his overboard chef.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Just look at those defense ETFs

    Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said Sunday that President Biden is providing “better leadership” than former President Trump at the international level.

    When CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Cheney on “State of the Union” whether Biden or Trump was “providing better leadership on the international stage right now,” the Wyoming Republican said “certainly” Biden is. She also took aim at Trump’s criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month, who he accused of “letting us down” in 2020 just before the U.S. killed a top Iranian general.

    “They were appalling comments,” she said. “And, you know, you’re absolutely right, that there should have been a response. I think that you know, every Republican member of Congress ought to be asked about those comments. Every Republican candidate for the presidency ought to be asked about those comments.”

    The world is a much better, safer place.

    • Rebel Scum

      Define “leadership.”

      • R.J.

        Leadership = Spending our money on shit we don;t want.

      • AlexinCT

        Leadership = Spending our money on shit we don;t they want.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Formula Hype-brid went as usual. Turned it on just in time for the start, and was sound asleep by lap 5. Thrilling.

    • Not Adahn

      Speaking of, I really need to push back on Don’s claim that DFW, Houston and Austin are anything alike.

      DFW is the world’s largest shopping mall.

      Houston is a for-reals big southern city.

      Austin is a formerly tolerant place that’s gentrified to the point where the wealthy have successfully pushed out the rapid-turnover, high-risk, low-barrier to entry economy that made it such an easy place to live in. I couldn’t really give you a concise description of its current character, nor whether it’s consistent across the place.

      • R.J.

        I agree with you, all three are completely different.

      • prolefeed

        Austin is a blue dot packed full of mostly white progs, surrounded by a reddish purple band of suburbs, surrounded by a thinly populated deeply conservative countryside. With a shit-ton of Californians fleeing there, and housing prices that went from affordable to sky high in a two year period during the COVID panic.

        Basically a political bullseye.

      • R.J.

        Indeed. Houston is where all on Louisiana fled after the big Hurricane. It is far more industrial. And humid. Dallas is a giant pile of money and no class. It is the least of DFW. Fort Worth and Arlington are far more interesting.

      • prolefeed

        Especially if you grew up in the Arlington Museum of Art. 😉

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Say the magic word

    The Biden administration is designating 31 technology hubs touching 32 states and Puerto Rico to help spur innovation and create jobs in the industries that are concentrated in these areas.

    President Joe Biden is set to announce the hubs on Monday at the White House with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

    “I have to say, in my entire career in public service, I have never seen as much interest in any initiative than this one,” Raimondo told reporters during a Sunday conference call to preview the announcement. Her department received 400 applications, she said.

    “No matter where I go or who I meet with — CEOs, governors, senators, congresspeople, university presidents — everyone wants to tell me about their application and how excited they are,” said Raimondo.

    They all want a piece of the slush fund. How surprising.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    The tech hubs are the result of a process Raimondo’s department launched in May to distribute a total of $500 million in grants to cities.

    The $500 million came from a $10 billion authorization in last year’s CHIPS and Science Act to stimulate investments in new technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biotech. It’s an attempt to expand tech investment that is largely concentrated around a few U.S. cities — Austin, Texas; Boston; New York; San Francisco; and Seattle — to the rest of the country.

    $500 million; is that all?

    • AlexinCT

      This makes absolute sense in today’s world.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Freelance diplomat

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that his visit to Israel over the weekend strengthened his sympathy for Israelis reeling from Hamas’ attacks earlier this month.

    “It was at a deeper emotional level, just the trauma and the experience,” he told reporters in Hong Kong, where he arrived Sunday, in his first public remarks since his visit. “It allows me to absorb what’s happening there very differently now. It’s not an intellectual exercise.”

    The Democratic governor met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, other top Israeli officials and survivors of the Oct. 7 attacks during a 10-hour stop in Tel Aviv on Friday on his way to China for a weeklong trip on climate policy.

    He said he met with a young shooting survivor and was shown graphic videos of beheadings that have been blocked in the West.

    “The worst part about it — the actual video, I saw heads, beheaded people, their bodies, lay there, dead. To see someone’s eyes and mouth being poked to see if they were alive, to find out they were alive after being shot on the ground,” he said. “It connects to an understanding of the emotion of the Israelis about the atrocities that occurred, and about the 1,400 lives lost. It’s not intellectual any longer.”

    Promoting American interests abroad. Building bridges. Laying foundations.

    • Rat on a train

      Logan Act!

    • AlexinCT

      It smells like fish, but tastes like chicken…

    • Not Adahn

      Mixed seafood is a standard appetizer somewhere?

      • PieInTheSky

        fritto misto is usually an appetizer round here… but depends on the restaurant it can also be a main

    • Rebel Scum

      I don’t see what part is problematic.

      • Suthenboy

        ….as is the case with all things labeled ‘problematic’.

      • PieInTheSky

        “But squid is time-consuming to prepare, particularly on a large scale. That initially made many restaurants reluctant to embrace it as an offering. Then China stepped in, providing cheap labor as a solution to the problem. By the late 1990s, more and more of the world’s squid was being processed in China, which was also catching more and more of the creature”

        it is using cheap asian labor it seems

      • PieInTheSky

        also I read shrimping vesels in Asia sometimes use slave labor. So shrimp is also problematic, unless from Bubba Gump

      • Suthenboy

        Sometimes yes, when they are out fishing. When docked, not so much.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Austin is a formerly tolerant place that’s gentrified to the point where the wealthy have successfully pushed out the rapid-turnover, high-risk, low-barrier to entry economy that made it such an easy place to live in. I couldn’t really give you a concise description of its current character, nor whether it’s consistent across the place.

    Live-and-let-live-ism seems to have been stamped out almost everywhere. That is a true tragedy.

    • PieInTheSky

      Since Joe Rogan moved there it was all downhill

      • R.J.

        Sarcasmotron set to 11!

  42. AlexinCT

    Word!

  43. PieInTheSky

    Last night, I asserted that this report indicated that babies were beheaded. This was an overstatement. I should have said that the report established that babies were found headless, a fact that lends plausibility to claims of beheading, but which does not prove them.

    https://twitter.com/EricLevitz/status/1716118168526012839

    • UnCivilServant

      How many causes of headlessness exist besides decapitation? I suppose you could dissolve the head in something corrosive, or have small critters eat it off, but these are even worse

      • Nephilium

        Sometimes they just fall off. No reason or excuse for it.

      • Not Adahn

        Babies heads just fall off sometime, because their necks aren’t full developed. That’s why you can’t let them sleep on their stomach.

      • Rebel Scum

        That’s why you are not supposed to shake a baby.

    • Suthenboy

      Who the fuck is that and what the hell is he talking about?

      • PieInTheSky

        he is “Think out loud for New York Magazine’s Intelligencer.”

    • rhywun

      That is how you journalism.

    • The Other Kevin

      Passive voice isn’t just for US police I see.

    • R.J.

      What is that supposed to mean?

      • Rebel Scum

        Some sort of virtue is signaled.

      • kinnath

        I didn’t need to see that. Thanks for the warning.

      • kinnath

        The story of the scorpion and the frog. They both die because the scorpion can’t change it’s true nature.

    • Common Tater

      LGBT is now LGBTH

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Newsom said he didn’t have time to travel to Gaza but that he was working with U.S. officials and NGOs to get medical supplies to the region, “separately and above the aid we’re providing for Israel.”

    Working with NGOs, engaging in back door money shuffling. How Presidential.

  45. AlexinCT

    Chyna has been doing this for more than 4 decades. The people that pointed that out were always hushed by the elite and powerful connected to business dealings in Chyna because of their profits. What has changed now that makes them suddenly see this as an issue? And it is an issue

    • PieInTheSky

      Corporations can be awfully shortsighted sometimes and libertarianism has little solution besides not having government prop them up

      • AlexinCT

        Wall Street went out of its way to hide how the CCP bureaucracy was fleecing them sine the mid 1980s, because they bought into the lie that as the Chinese were exposed to the benefits of capitalism they would abandon their marxism and stop acting like thugs/criminals in any and all business dealings. They wanted the world’s largest market and the piles of money they taught they would make selling things there (it was not just about selling the rest of the world crap made with ultra cheap slave labor). Once they realized the CCP had them by the balls – they couldn’t repatriate any profits and earnings, and worse, now had Chinese knock of entities competing with them selling cheap knockoffs, which would mean they would have to take potentially several trillion in losses to break off that agreement that left them as the bottom in the relationship – they kept up the facade because the alternative was going to brutalize them.

        The move away now is because it finally has gotten so bad they will just have to have government use tax payer dollars to help them recoup the massive losses their idiocy and greed inflicted on us all.

    • The Other Kevin

      I thought during COVID companies realized it was a bad idea to depend so heavily on a country that turned off exports with the flip of a switch. Guess I was wrong.

  46. Rebel Scum

    Please stop with the bug nonsense.

    Tyson Foods, the world’s second-largest processor and marketer of meat, has announced a joint venture with Protix, the world’s largest insect factory, to delve into the world of insect protein and lipid production, targeting the pet food, aquaculture, and livestock industries.

    However, the question that looms large is, do insect proteins really hold the key to sustainability, or is this just a trendy leap onto the bandwagon of alternative protein sources?

    Tyson Foods and Protix envision an insect protein processing facility on American soil that seeks to transform food manufacturing byproducts into insect proteins and lipids.

    According to CNN, “that facility will use animal waste to feed black soldier flies, which will then be turned into food for pets, poultry and fish… Those flies are not going into human food, at this point.”

    It’s not good for your pets either.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      …at this point.

      If I had my own dogs I would feed them human-grade meat and the occasional green bean. Would save on sales tax.

    • AlexinCT

      You will be forced to do what your betters want, or else peasant!

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Kicking them where it hurts

    The United Auto Workers union is expanding its strike to a Stellantis plant in Michigan that produces Ram 1500 full-size pickup trucks, dealing another blow to the major automakers as negotiations drag on.

    The work stoppage includes roughly 6,800 workers at Stellantis’ Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit, the union publicly announced Monday morning after initiating the walkout.

    “Currently, Stellantis has the worst proposal on the table regarding wage progression, temporary worker pay and conversion to full-time, cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), and more,” the UAW said in a release.

    ——-

    The facility is one of the most important U.S. plants to Stellantis, however the automaker is better poised to wait out a work stoppage at the truck plant than its crosstown rivals General Motors and Ford Motor with a relatively healthy supply of Ram pickups ready to go.

    They actually make money on internal combustion trucks.

    • Gustave Lytton

      If they don’t jack up prices, their dealers will take it as market adjustment.

    • R.J.

      Yeah. What’s funny is how much Stellantis execs dislike Jeep/Ram, yet that is what keeps all their whiny socialist greenie asses from going bankrupt.

      When Stellantis formed, Manly (from Jeep/Ram) was not even given a seat at the table.

  48. R.J.

    Humidity in the house is 60%. It needs to hurry up and rain.

    • Not Adahn

      I didn’t think it could rain until the house elects a new speaker?

    • rhywun

      Gosh, I was expecting serious journalism the subject of that pic.

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Wealth hoarders

    Governments should open a new front in the international clampdown on tax evasion with a global minimum tax on billionaires, which could raise $250 billion annually, the EU Tax Observatory said on Monday.

    If levied, the sum would be equivalent to only 2% of the nearly $13 trillion in wealth owned by the 2,700 billionaires globally, the research group hosted at the Paris School of Economics said.

    Currently billionaires effectively pay far less personal tax than other taxpayers of more modest means because they can park wealth in shell companies sheltering them from income tax, the group said in its 2024 Global Tax Evasion Report.

    “In our view, this is difficult to justify because it risks to undermine the sustainability of tax systems and the social acceptability of taxation,” the observatory’s director Gabriel Zucman told journalists.

    A global socialist dictatorship would put those billionaire tax cheats in their proper place.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    What’s funny is how much Stellantis execs dislike Jeep/Ram, yet that is what keeps all their whiny socialist greenie asses from going bankrupt.

    You desperately want an EV Alfa Romeo. You just don’t realize it yet.

  51. The Late P Brooks

    A 2021 agreement between 140 countries will limit the scope of multinationals to reduce tax by booking profits in low-tax countries by setting a global 15% floor on corporate taxation from next year.

    “Something that many people thought would be impossible, now we know can actually be done,” Zucman said. “The logical next step is to apply that logic to billionaires, and not only to multinational companies.”

    In the absence of a broad international push for a minimum tax on billionaires, Zucman said a “coalition of willing countries” could unilaterally lead the way.

    Although the end of banking secrecy and the corporate minimum tax have largely put an end to decades-long competition between countries on tax rates, numerous opportunities remain to reduce tax bills, the report said.

    For example, the rich increasingly park wealth in real estate instead of offshore accounts while companies can exploit loopholes in the 15% corporate tax minimum.

    Envy is an ugly, yet powerful, motivator.

  52. Mojeaux

    Welp, something’s going on. A bunch of fighter jets just flew overhead. I live pretty close to the B-2 bomber base, but they never go over me and they were heading north.

    • Mojeaux

      Nosy Neighbor says they were A-10 “tank killers.” Take that with a shaker of salt.

      • UnCivilServant

        Canadian Armored Divisions have crossed the NoDak border?