Me -
“ In a democracy, successful people pay taxes.”
If you aren’t paying taxes, 1) you aren’t successful, or 2) you are not living in a strong democracy.
JUST IN: Warren Buffett just said Berkshire Hathaway paid a total of $26.8 BILLION to the 🇺🇸 IRS in taxes in 2024
That's roughly 5% of what ALL of corporate America paid
Not taken out of context...
Q: Are you concerned about the latest inflation number?
Trump: No, I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation.
@Logically_JC Europe: Let’s live our best life, enjoy food, sports, and culture.
U.S.A.: I am going to work my ass off, or get someone to work theirs off, so I can be rich and have “ better than the neighbors” stuff.
Warnock: Right now, somebody is trying to buy groceries in Georgia and they can’t afford them.
Rollins: That’s because of the Biden administration.
Warnock: Two years later and that’s your answer? Because of the Biden administration?
Candidate Trump: "I will end inflation on Day One."
President Trump today: "I love the inflation."
You know who doesn't love inflation, Mr. President? Working families struggling to afford gas, groceries and other necessities because of your disastrous actions.
"Lifelong Iowa farmer" except:
For the time he went to school in Boulder, CO...
Ran the Daines campaign in Montana...
Worked for Americans for Prosperity in Montana...
Moved to Kansas to open a private school...
Spent the last few years in Wichita, Kansas...
Fuck of Zachary
Arizona State University filed to use eminent domain to steal a 124 year old Phoenix home from a senior homeowner
The man who owns it is a 89 year old senior citizen who’s owned the home for 50 years
ASU says they need the land for their downtown health campus
ASU made multiple purchase offers, they’ve offered up to $850,000 for the home. The homeowner keeps refusing. So now they plan to just take the home with eminent domain
If eminent domain goes through he’ll be forced to accept the appraisal price
The strangest oil trade of 2026 isn't happening at sea.
It's 700 tanker trucks a day crossing the Iraq–Syria desert.
The biggest winner is a government that barely produces oil at all.
Hormuz shut → Iraq lost 90% of export revenue.
Baghdad will take ANY outlet.
So 2 land corridors opened: al-Waleed in Anbar (31 March) and Rabia/Yarubiyah (20 April) the latter sealed since 2013.
Destination: Baniyas, Syria's Mediterranean port. Then by sea to Europe.
The numbers are medieval and massive at once:
500–700 trucks/day, 30 tonnes each.
Baniyas unloading capacity up 30%, 120k bpd flowing. Baseline 150k bpd, target 350k.
Moving just 50k bpd of crude takes 1,000 trucks running nonstop, this is a pipeline made of wheels.
💰The economics
Here's the desperation premium: SOMO is paying $20–22 per barrel to move fuel oil by land.
By sea it costs cents.
Iraq signed for 650k tonnes/month anyway because the alternative isn't a cheaper route.... It's zero.
Damascus collects on every barrel: transit fees, storage, port charges, plus cheap Iraqi fuel.
At $2–3/bbl that's $8–13M/month, rising to $21–30M at full flow.
For al-Sharaa's empty treasury, possibly his most reliable hard-currency stream.
The worse Iraq's crisis gets, the more Syria earns.
The structural irony is that Iran shut Hormuz to punish its enemies.
Result, Iraqi oil money now flows to a Damascus government Tehran calls an adversary while Iraq, Iran's closest Arab partner, sits on life support.
Chokepoints don't choose their victims, Geography does.
Libertarian #IASen candidate Thomas Laehn was not challenged and will be on the November ballot.
Objections claim #IAGov candidate Gluba misspelled his own street address & cite inconsistency in spelling of his running mate's name (Julia Cutler and Jules Cutler). 2/
Let's walk through what actually happened here, in order.
DOGE cut the USAID program specifically designed to prevent screwworm from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. DOGE cut USDA's animal disease control and prevention funding. That funding had supported more than 180 outbreak investigations in 22 countries and capacity-building in more than 160 laboratories. The screwworm monitoring and response program that watched the border for exactly this parasite - cut.
Then screwworm showed up in Texas cattle. Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a disaster for Zavala and Uvalde counties this week.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins went on CNBC this morning and blamed the Biden administration, 17 months out of office.
Her specific words: "obviously not much had been done to push back."
The program that was supposed to push back existed. DOGE eliminated it in March 2025. Rollins has been Agriculture Secretary since February 13, 2025. The cuts happened on her watch.
Beef prices are already high. Ranchers in south Texas are now dealing with a flesh-eating parasite that was eradicated in this country in the 1960s - eradicated, specifically, using the sterile fly program her department defunded.
The flies existed. The program existed. The budget existed.
Until it didn't.
@ZachLahn You weren't living here so may not realize Republicans:
-limited AG Tom Miller's powers
-gave Kim Reynolds more control over judicial nominations, changing system that worked for decades
-limited Rob Sand's powers after Iowans re-elected him as auditor.
Contempt for the people.
@FrankBr05713205 I went to Lane Tech in Chicago and we had wood shop, electrical shop, machine shop, auto shop, and foundry. More schools should have shop classes and this country needs to build more trade schools. Getting a college degree isn't as relevant as it used to be.