- Spain: Regime plans 100% tax for homes bought by non-EU residents
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Spain is planning to impose a tax of up to 100% on the value of properties bought by non-residents from countries outside the EU, such as the UK. Announcing the move, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the ‘unprecedented’ measure was necessary to meet the country’s housing emergency. ‘The West faces a decisive challenge: To not become a society divided into two classes, the rich landlords and poor tenants,’ he said. Non-EU residents bought 27,000 properties in Spain in 2023, he told an economic forum in Madrid, ‘not to live in’ but ‘to make money from them.’ ‘Which, in the context of shortage that we are in, [we] obviously cannot allow,’ he added.” (01/14/25)
- OR: Hospital sued after man’s face caught fire mid-surgery
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“The family of a man in Oregon is demanding $900,000 from the hospital where his face caught on fire mid-surgery while he was allegedly awake. The allegations are contained in a malpractice lawsuit filed by the wife of John Michael Murdoch against Oregon Health and Science University, as reported by the Oregonian. The lawsuit maintains Murdoch’s ordeal unfolded as he was undergoing surgery in 2022 while being treated for squamous cell carcinoma – a cancer of the tongue. Medical staff failed to let alcohol swabbed on his face dry properly, and his face ignited, according to the lawsuit. … the lawsuit stated that Murdoch was ‘awake and conscious’ when the fire started and was fueled by oxygen as well as isopropyl alcohol that had not evaporated. The tool had a history of sparking, the lawsuit contended. Murdoch lived for six months after the surgery but died in June 2023. He was 52, his obituary said.” (01/14/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/14/oregon-hospital-man-face-fire-lawsuit
- US regime bans Chinese, Russian tech in smart cars
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“The Biden administration has finalised rules effectively barring the sale of smart cars containing Chinese or Russian technology in the US market, a last push by the outgoing American president to [use fake “national security concerns” to reward domestic business friends]. As announced by the Commerce Department on Tuesday, the prohibition on sales applies to connected vehicles for model year 2027 by manufacturers with a sufficient nexus to China or Russia, even if they were manufactured in the US.” (01/14/25)
- BOHICA: Or, What to Expect When You’re Expecting a New President
Source: The Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“Popular perceptions of Trump tend toward the superlative. To his supporters, he’s a fearless, iconoclastic, possibly even divinely ordained, leader figure, disrupting the establishment to Make America Great Again. To his opponents, he’s a whiny, self-dealing criminal in terms of personality, literally Hitler reincarnate and possibly even the Antichrist in terms of politics. In my opinion, he’s just another politician, albeit one with a flair for the dramatic and a firm grasp of what H.L. Mencken called ‘the whole aim of practical politics …. to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.'” (01/14/25)
- Election Reforms Blocked by Elections
Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm“Several proposed election reforms on the 2024 ballot offered promising solutions: Reduce the power of partisan primaries, ensure more robust competition in general elections, and increase the likelihood that winning campaigns represent the median voter rather than a lesser-of-two-evils result. But it seems voters aren’t interested in all that.” (for publication 02/25)
https://reason.com/2025/01/14/election-reforms-blocked-by-elections/
- The home insurance crisis can’t be fixed with money alone
Source: Semafor
by Tim McDonnell“Climate change is already driving up the price of home insurance in the US: A National Bureau of Economic Research paper last year found that households in vulnerable places are on track to pay an average of $700 per year more on insurance than those in less exposed areas. But climate risks are also rising rapidly — 2024 broke yet another global temperature record, which almost certainly contributed to worsening the current fires. For now, home insurance in most vulnerable places in the US remains much too cheap relative to risk. Economists know this, but raising insurance rates is unpopular. And while politicians and insurance companies wrangle over reforms, the value of the US housing market is rising, meaning bigger losses in value for homeowners of all income levels when a big insurance adjustment eventually arrives. California’s wildfires illustrate the risks of too-cheap insurance.” (01/14/25)
- How Liberalism Uses Jews, and Why It Shouldn’t Do That
Source: Liberal Currents
by Noah Berlatsky“It’s certainly true that Jewish people have been persecuted in hideous ways for a very long time. But so have Roma. So, closer to home, have Native Americans. But Biden hasn’t called for the establishment of a Roma homeland, and he certainly doesn’t talk about tribal sovereignty the way he discusses Israel. Why are Jewish suffering and Jewish identity, in particular, presented as central to America’s ethical vision of itself? I think the answer is that Jewish rights and Jewish equality have long been central to European liberalism’s sense of its own virtue and identity. In much of the European liberal tradition which Biden and the US have inherited, Jews are the iconic oppressed other, whose rights guarantee the egalitarianism and justice of the liberal democratic project.” (01/14/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/how-liberalism-uses-jews-and-why-it-shouldnt-do-that/
- A Chicago judge just erased her predecessor’s historic ruling on forensic firearms analysis
Source: The Watch
by Radley Balko“In the case of Illinois v. Winfield, attorney Richard Gutierrez of the Cook County, Illinois Public Defender Office asked a Chicago judge to hold a hearing on the scientific validity of forensic firearms analysis. This is the field that claims to be able to match a bullet or shell casing to the gun that fired it. Circuit court judge William Hooks agreed to hold the hearing, and after considering evidence from the state and defense, he issued a landmark opinion in February 2023 which barred prosecutors from putting their analyst on the witness stand. It was the first such ruling on forensic firearms analysis by any criminal court in the country. … there’s just no scientific evidence to support the premise upon which the entire field rests — that every gun leaves unique marks on the bullets and shell casings it fires. It isn’t even clear that this premise could be proven or disproven.” (01/14/25)
https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/a-chicago-judge-just-erased-her-predecessors
- Meta’s Abolition of DEI May Be a Turning Point
Source: City Journal
by Christopher F Rufo“Last week, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, formerly Facebook, made a stunning announcement. He was abolishing the company’s DEI programs and discontinuing its relationship with fact-checking organizations, which he admitted had become a form of ‘censorship.’ The left-wing [sic] media immediately attacked the decision, accused him of embracing the MAGA agenda, and predicted a dangerous rise in so-called disinformation. Zuckerberg’s move was carefully calculated and impeccably timed. The November elections, he said, felt like ‘a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.’ DEI initiatives, especially those related to immigration and gender, had become ‘disconnected from mainstream conversation’ and untenable. This is no small about-face.” (01/14/25)
https://www.city-journal.org/article/mark-zuckerberg-meta-abolish-dei-fact-checking?skip=1
- Pete Hegseth’s Nomination Exhibits the Senate’s Slow Decline
Source: The Bulwark
by Joe Perticone“Secretary of defense nominee Pete Hegseth faced tough questioning from Democrats during his confirmation hearing this morning, and while it’s important that they pressed him to secure information and put his responses on record, the fate of his nomination will probably not change as a result, no matter how much content was created for cable news and the social media feeds of those who consider him unfit for the role. It may sound cynical, but in the post-Brett Kavanaugh era, excoriating a conservative on C-SPAN for their alleged transgressions — up to and including the outright abuse of women — just isn’t enough to tank their chances for a major government appointment. The new standard of a nominee’s suitability is whether Donald Trump wants him or her in office. That’s it.” (01/14/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/pete-hegseths-nomination-exhibits
- As long as the US is buying countries, why stop at two?
Source: The Hill
by Harlan Ullman“President-elect Donald Trump has made what to some are over-the-top proposals to acquire huge chunks of territory. He has already sent one of his sons to kick the tires on Greenland in expectation of purchasing it from Denmark. Are his intentions to make Canada America’s 51st state and return the Panama Canal to its rightful owners serious or bluster? If they are genuine, then why not expand his aspirations to make a really big deal in keeping with his prior real estate ventures? … Why not offer to buy Taiwan? The semiconductor business alone offers a great return on investment. But then can he flip it? One can think of a willing buyer less than 100 miles away who would find a purchase less costly than seizing Taiwan by force.” (01/14/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5083162-trump-expansion-proposals/
- How To Be Happy In A Genocidal Dystopia On A Dying World
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“I honestly don’t know if we’ll make it. I can’t say with any degree of certainty that truth and sanity will prevail, that the world will stop burning, that we’ll stop being cruel to each other and start moving toward health and harmony. Maybe our species is approaching the end of its run here. I cannot tell you for sure that it isn’t. What I can tell you for sure is that there is a magpie outside my window, and that my eyes are dripping with love for it. I can tell you I went for a walk about an hour ago, and the ground felt delicious on my feet while the wind caressed my hair. Maybe we don’t get to be here for much longer. I can’t honestly tell you otherwise.” (01/14/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/01/14/how-to-be-happy-in-a-genocidal-dystopia-on-a-dying-world/
- Gaming the Constitution
Source: Law & Liberty
by David Lewis Schaefer“In Federalist #9, Alexander Hamilton rebutted ‘the advocates of despotism,’ who maintained the impossibility of combining free government with civic order, citing advances in ‘the science of politics,’ embodied in the US Constitution. Following Hamilton’s lead, in The Collective-Action Constitution, Duke law professor Neil S. Siegel announces the achievement of newer discoveries in political science, notably through the application of game theory to the interpretation and improvement of our founding document.” (01/14/25)
- Rising, 01/14/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers radar on Jennifer Rubin’s resignation from the Washington Post.” (01/14/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5084549-rising-january-14-2025/
- Capital Record, episode 204
Source: National Review
“An Explicit Non-Guarantee.” (01/14/25)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/an-explicit-non-guarantee/
- The Bryan Hyde Show, 01/14/25
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“It’s my weekly sit-down with Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos. We discuss EVs, our shrinking autonomy, and how to restore civilization at the individual level.” (01/14/25)