- Via WaPo: See if your city is poised to bounce back from the next climate disaster.
- Via WaPo: RFK Jr. wants fluoride out of drinking water. Oregon shows what’s coming. Unfortunately, the piece doesn’t have much in the way of data. Still, it does have this line, which is one for our times, “It’s much easier to scare the public than to unscare them.”
- Via The Atlantic is a year-old piece on public health that is quite salient given the Kennedy nomination: How to Lose a Century of Progress.
- Via The Hill: Republicans fume as GOP absences help Democrats move judicial nominees.
- I already noted this piece in another post, but will re-share. By Dan Drezner in Foreign Affairs: The End of American Exceptionalism.
- Via The Des Moines Register: Pollster Ann Selzer ending election polling, moving ‘to other ventures and opportunities’. Note that this was the plan all along, and not in response to her last poll, which was way off.
- Via CNN: Fox hosts, cable news regulars and entertainment pros: Trump is casting a made-for-TV Cabinet. What could go wrong?
- Via LGM: Why do all these Project 2025 guys keep ending up in my administration?
- Via The Hill: Lara Trump launching American-made activewear line: ‘Red, white, and blue never looked so good’. The grift is never-ending.
Saturday Tab Clearing
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10 responses to “Saturday Tab Clearing”
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All the comments on casting a cabinet make me think of this clip: Because this is not Star Trek!
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The whole thing with Trump is looking good, looking strong, looking like he’s doing something. It doesn’t matter if he is or not, he just needs to look that way. That’s why he likes the celebrities. They look like they are doing something.
The Gaetz nomination is a case in point. That got a lot of attention. Someone the MAGAs love got nominated. “Take that! Libs and Deep State!”. Then Gaetz withdraws because he’s a distraction. That doesn’t make Trump look bad to them.
He wants everyone making lots of noise about fixing things. It doesn’t matter if they actually make things better, just that there’s news stories about them shaking things up.
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They’re not “low tax” but rather “low income tax.”
Property tax burden by states – 2024
Texas has the third highest property tax rate.. #2 is New Hampshire, perhaps ironically the “Live Free” state.
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@Gavin: NH’s property tax rate is high because it’s pretty much the *only* tax we have. It has to fund everything. We have no sales tax and no income tax. There’s a room & meals tax (thank you leaf peepers), but it really IS an issue because we have an aging state and that’s not great for people on fixed incomes who want to stay in their homes.
For *overall tax burden*, NH is 49th: https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494
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@Gavin: Lots of property taxes in Texas, especially for special districts. Not just schools, but community colleges, and a variety of other things. The one that I recall from when I taught Texas government about 30 years ago was a “noxious weed district.”
Ironically, these tax-funded special districts significantly improve local services. But a lot of Texans don’t think about it and instead, just point to the lack of an income tax.
Here in Alabama local government has little revenue and services suuuuuck on balance. Folks around here love to say: “We shouldn’t give them more money until they prove they can do well with what they’ve got!” And the cycle continues.
