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Sunday, August 23, 2026

An Alabama jury determined on Thursday, August 20 that former Alabama men's basketball player Kai Spears was defamed by The New York Times for an article that inaccurately linked him to the scene of a fatal shooting. As part of the ruling, which came after five hours of deliberation and two weeks of testimony in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Spears was awarded $9.25 million in damages. read more


Thursday, August 20, 2026

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) " Hundreds of Lindsay Clancy supporters, many wearing pink clothing emblazoned with phrases such as "Believe," "She Needed Help" and "Peace For Lindsay," gathered Thursday outside the courthouse where she is on trial in the killings of her three children. READ MORE: Psychologist testifies Lindsay Clancy was not criminally responsible in killing of her 3 children Several of the 300 women, and a few men, said Clancy's story resonated with them and that they wanted to raise awareness about how the mental health system treats women. Clancy's lawyer does not dispute that she killed the children, but says she should not be held criminally responsible because she was mentally ill. read more


Democratic Socialists are capturing more votes than ever before ... read more


Progressive state Rep. Angie Nixon scored a major upset over former National Security Council aide Alex Vindman in the Florida Democratic Senate primary ... read more


Tuesday, August 18, 2026

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- California energy regulators have approved new rules that will phase out some replacement tires sold in the state that do not meet energy-efficiency requirements. The standards target replacement tires that fail to meet the new efficiency requirements. State regulators say the changes will help drivers save money on fuel over time. Tire manufacturers, however, argue the rules could increase upfront costs for consumers by hundreds of dollars. read more


Comments

Herd sizes are the smallest in 75 years coupled with very high prices.

This is due to meat processing being a bottleneck. The meat processing consolidated because high startup costs, razor-thin profit margins, strict government rules, and make it difficult for small or new facilities to survive against giant corporations.

I purchase 1/4 & 1/2 cows, I pay $15.00/lb, almost half of which is ground beef. The Rancher I purchase the cow from make ~$4.00/lb. The issue is we need a USDA butcher ...

Concentration in U.S. Meatpacking Industry and How It Affects Competition and Cattle Prices

However, in recent years there is evidence of reduced competition in meatpacking, with lower prices for cattle. This evidence is reflected in sharply increased spreads between cattle prices and wholesale beef prices, the disappearance of excess capacity in packing plants, and recent entry into the industry by new packers. Entry and capacity expansion could encourage renewed competition in the industry.
www.ers.usda.gov

Same problem different industry...

I seem to recall the same issue with cotton in India. Over production of cotton due to increase yield due to GMO'd seeds, the processing plants couldn't process all that was grown, prices dropped so low, to where the farmers couldn't purchase seeds for the next season. Many were put out of business, at least until more processing plants could be built.

Is this problem any different than having to pay $200 for a 15min consultation with a DR? No ... this is that the government regulates so much that people don't invest in the industry proper. Ergo we get like popup restaurants that don't follow any regulations. Look for more and more under the table dealings as the governments burden creates consolidation in industries. The anti-capitalist aren't wrong about people wanting monopolies, but they are wrong about the cause, its not the free market creating monopolies, its more and more regulations which probably have nothing do with meat processing.

Lets talk about big box vs local shop ....

When a big box moves in it pays for the property and taxes. But it doesn't pay for the same rate as a mom and pop store who employees local talent to build a display case ($1000), they get taxed heavily. The big box, throw up some cheap economy scale manufactured displays, cost $100.

The BPP creates a barrier to entry to the local mom and pop. Making the country a BigBox Country. On top of all profits going to the bigbox HQ versus your hometown.

The same reason Billionaires and BigBoxes are being created is because you want to collect MORE taxes.
Its not the big box retailers fault, its the government you wanted.
You indirectly voted for the big-boxes over mom-pop. The system is working as you wanted.

Lets go with your personal homes ..

Make an improvement and you are taxed at a new assessed rate. What's the logic here?
Or make changes to your home to make it better, you add perhaps a pool or an ADU, and the government wants its increase in value forever!
Despite that you improved it with your income that was taxed already ...
Look I get when you sell it and get the government reassess ithe property, but you can't improve your property without paying the government forever.
Thats insane.

So no one does it, or they do it without being permitted, or only the super rich that can afford to.

If you follow the above, and see the insanity happening in America now ... why investment into liquid assets are really the only play.

Perhaps, but unlikely you can understand why Billionaires would move to a new state, or be against an asset tax, and why you should be too.

It constrains investment, facors BIG corporations over mom and pop, which then constrains local tax revenue for the government, by staying local.

-Why should anyone need to provide documentation to prove they need assistance?

I concur!

Why do multimillionaires and billionaires need tax payer subsidies?

I agree with you here ...

But I assume you're taking about Stadiums, and here's why it happens; researching why the Oakland deal fell apart., the Cities want control of the project.

So if the city wants control why should the owners of the team foot the bill? The team was throwing in all sorts of items that had nothing to do with the A's.

that is why most projects become the taxpayers burden, across the board I suspect this is what happens.

Cities never if ever, say build whatever you want and we will subsidize it.

That being said, I learned to from a friend who is a restaurant owner; His refrig went dead at the restaurant, and they replaced it, sales tax 10%, on top of that there is another tax for "property improvement" of his restuarant; WTF was improved.
This is the government at work behind the scenes, sure maybe the give them a subsidy, but the asset they build is TAXED to no end. This is the ---- happens behind the scenes.

I think they are called Tangible Personal Property (TPP) / Business Personal Property (BPP) taxes.

I get taxed more (forever) if I make my plane safer to fly ... If I add a new avionics I pay a 10% sales tax, then I pay an asset tax on an asset that never depreciates. Ergo I pay more every year to the government to be safer for you and me. Thats insane.

NOW thinking about the hospital that paralyzed those patients; there are automated systems but they cost $1M+ but also there is an enormous "improvement tax" the hospital will have to pay. So the hospital has to weigh the odds and chances, in this case they got hosed, and people are paralyzed, why? Some of the reason is that taxes on improvements make things like safety unaffordable.

America is ------ up with these sorts of taxes on" improvements"; they aren't every where but they are in a majority of States. The government is actively charging a tax for safety and making things better.

Book written in 1970s.... pretty incredible read ..


"Day by day, month by month, doubt by doubt, law and order became fascism; education, constraint; work, alienation; revolution, mere sport; leisure, a privilege of class; marijuana, a harmless weed; family, a stifling hothouse; affluence, oppression; success, a social disease; sex, an innocent pastime; youth, a permanent tribunal; maturity, the new senility; discipline, an attack on personality; Christianity... and the West... and white skin..."

The Camp of the Saints
www.amazon.com

here's a review.


Equally so, as the Raspail book so clearly portrays, is the extraordinary cultural difference between many peoples and that the only way to maintain a Culture and Civilization that you value and want is to defend it against the opposing human conflicts for domination and control of our world. This Raspail book, using fiction, hallmarks a stark confrontation and truth that no human civilization can survive unless it chooses, defends and values itself . People kill, torture, enslave and destroy each other with regularity. In the long view of human history war and competition for resources defines a part of the human experience and such battles and killing is what, in part, has brought us to what we are today, for better or worse.

You think your current life is all that exists, and it is for you. But if you're a liberal you understand that you are but a blink in the history of time, for all those that came before or will come after.

What world are you going to leave? This isn't a conservative or liberal issue, its do you want your values to survive.
That is the struggle Americans and the Europeans are up against, and right now the answer is no you don't want your values to survive.

In the 90s Americans proclaimed EndOfHistory .... Looks like they were wrong... what are you going to do?

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