Blog: If I understand this

Oh, how awful for them: 

Some of California’s richest residents are threatening to leave the state.

Why? In protest of a proposed wealth tax. Anger at the proposal, a one-time 5% tax on the assets of residents worth more than $1 billion, has been simmering among the elite set.

I’ve said it before, that the really rich don’t want to just pay their “fair share of taxes,” they want to pay nothing.

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Odd fact:  In China, more than 92 million people go by the surname Wang, making it the most common last name in the world. The name is believed to have exploded in popularity around 250 BCE, when many royal families changed their name to Wang — meaning “king” in Mandarin.

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Are pardons effectively for sale?

The question became unavoidable after the Republican started rewarding generous donors with clemency, culminating in a Wall Street Journal report, published shortly before Christmas, that described a dynamic that has “spawned a pardon-shopping industry where lobbyists say their going rate is $1 million. Pardon-seekers have offered some lobbyists close to the president success fees of as much as $6 million if they can close the deal, according to people familiar with the offers.” – The article goes on to cite individual examples.  You knew this was going on, didn’t cha?

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From MSNOW re: my bitch about college athletics: “The combination of name, image, likeness (NIL) deals and the new ability of players to switch schools almost at will means that college football now much more closely resembles the NFL, where a salary cap and free-agency system have locked in a level of competitive parity among teams.” – See, it ain’t just me.

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FYI about feds and locals in Minn. Or elsewhere:  Under the 10th Amendment in the U.S. constitution, federal authorities do not have the power to command local law enforcement.

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For NFL fans of the Superbowl:  As of early 2026, 12 NFL teams have never won a Super Bowl: the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers, Minnesota Vikings, and Tennessee Titans. Four of these (Browns, Lions, Texans, Jaguars) have never even appeared in a Super Bowl, while the Bills and Vikings have the most appearances without a win (four each). 

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From CBS News re: Maduro’s capture:

Mr. Trump has repeatedly touted the success of the stunning operation to seize Maduro, boasting that there were no casualties.

But at least 83 people were killed in the operation, including 47 Venezuelan soldiers and 32 Cuban security personnel, according to the defense ministry in Caracas. – Oh, he meant American casualties; others don’t count.  It reminds me of a question I sometimes asked people about the Vietnam war – “How many people died in the Vietnam War?”  The answer was often about “50,000,” and the person would be proud of knowing that.  Then I would remind them that I asked how many people died, not how many Americans.  The total is unknown, but best estimates are between 2 and 3 million.

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In Case you are Keeping track:  Epstein Files Still Have Not Been Released One Month Past Deadline

It’s been one month since the Department of Justice was ordered to release all files related to the case of Jeffrey Epstein, but the department has not delivered.

Can you imagine the shouting if say, Bill Clinton did this?

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A reminder from MSNOW:  It shouldn’t have to be said, but activism — including the kind that opposes certain laws of the United States or the agenda of the U.S. president — is not a crime.

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For stargazers:  Some asteroids are nearly spherical, and some are so big they have their own moons — around 150 of them are known to be in this category.

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Recall from J6:  “If you protested peacefully on Jan. 6,” Vance said, you should be pardoned. He went on: “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”

Soon, however, Vance had to scrap this morally intuitive approach because Trump ordered “full, complete, and unconditional” pardons or commutations for any acts occurring “at or near the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.”

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Historically, any attempt like Trump’s obsession with Greenland, was unconstitutional; we did make a couple of exceptions, here:  Two exceptions are the 1893 US-backed coup in Hawaii, something for which the US government apologized in 1993, and the bloody three-year Philippine-American War in 1899, when the US put down a rebellion by Filipinos after it took control of the Philippines from Spain.  I have a book titled The Philippine War and it is most often overlooked, even in U. S. history classes.  During that war, American troops often executed young boys, if they were thought to “be old enough to carry a gun.”  In their view, we liberated the Philippines from the Spanish, only to replace them.  The whole Spanish-American war was unnecessary and partly blamed on a lie, the destruction of the battleship Maine, in Havana Harbor (hint: coal explosion, not terrorism).  So much like LBJ’s Gulf of Tonkin incident in Vietnam, and Bush’s weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  Will we ever learn?

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Dateline Tuesday:  We just seized our 7^th tanker.  Piracy I say!  Why?  Look at it from another county’s perspective.  We, Trump acting for us, declares a “sanction” on the main product of another country, Venezuela, and forbids them to ship oil unless we approve where it goes.  The other country ignores Trump, so that gives us the right to seize the ships and their oil?  Really?  All legal?

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We will be in a casino in AZ in Feb.  I am practicing up my blackjack playing, to play live.  Many years ago, I worked several ships that went to San Juan, P.R., where there are many hotels with casinos – it was a lot like Miamai beach only with legal gambling.  The minimum blackjack bet was $2 a hand.  I remember when it went to $3, and most folks were not happy.  On our last trip to our fav resort/casino here, in Rincon, the minimum table I could find was $15 a hand.  And you know how fast a dealer can go.  I didn’t play then, but am trying to ramp up my decision-making so I can try it, like old times.

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Is this an example of a “misplaced modifier?” :

“The Titanic collided with an iceberg under the command of Edward Smith who went down with the ship.”

Seems like Capt. Smith was in charge of the iceberg . . . and no commas?

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In public testimony from Jack Smith:  “Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6, that it was foreseeable to him and that he sought to exploit the violence,” Smith testified. “We followed the facts and we followed the law — where that led us was to an indictment of an unprecedented criminal scheme to block the peaceful transfer of power.” – no need to comment.

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Another step has been taken in turning college sports professional:  The NCAA unearthed another revenue stream Friday when Division I leaders approved patches for uniforms in a move that could generate millions to fund athletic departments that are looking for new ways to pay players. –  A Bronx cheer to that.

Update: Two colleges, U. of Washington and Duke, are now suing football players for bailing out on signed contracts to enter the transfer portal.  The mess continues.

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I am most upset about the killings in Minnesota, perhaps more about the feds lying, covering up, and refusal to share info with local police, who have a right to it!  More on this in the future.  Remember that Trump’s first wife (of 3) said he liked Hitler and studied his speeches.  Maybe he liked the brown shirts who became the SS too.

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All for now, take care,

Kevin