News that I missed, courtesy of The Babylon Bee:
After taking a long, hard look at our business model, we felt it financially prudent to expand beyond satire into the Minnesota daycare business, opening a very real daycare called “Lil’ Bees”. We are incredibly proud of the fact that after just one day in operation, Lil’ Bees is taking care of four million children and serving seventy billion meals to starving kids every single day. It’s not much, but we are glad to be playing our little part to serve Minnesotans.
Mr. Walz can make out the check from the state government to cover those expenses to Seth Dillon, proud owner and operator of Lil’ Bees. The check will need to be mailed to a Florida address, which is standard operating procedure for Minnesota daycares.
Kids receive incredible care at Lil’ Bees, where every single child receives speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and any other therapy billable to the state. Every lunch is surf and turf, costing the taxpayer $50 per meal — but at Lil’ Bees, we believe every child is worth it.
It is a privilege for Lil’ Bees to join alongside Governor Walz as we work to ensure a bright future for every little Minnesotan. To help this wonderful partnership continue, please make sure the check from the state is mailed with Priority status and labeled “Attn: Seth Dillon.” That part is super important.
Go here to read the rest. Bee, you forgot to note all of your connections with the Somali community!
The MSM is completely bought and paid for, and I think the days of even the internet news being “free and unfettered” is fast disappearing. There’s something about America right now where hidden money seems to drive and own almost everything. The crude AI stuff we see all the time now is a harbinger of a future where we a false, AI driven reality will rule in most peoples lives. I’m using 2026 to really think about abandoning the internet at some point, and just use it for email. I admit, I’m very worried about what internet use is doing to my brain, the stuff I’m reading about that is terrifying.
Another piece of evidence for the file that government grants to corporate bodies should be prohibited by law bar a set of discrete exceptions:
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A. Financing of a carefully selected list of inter-governmental agencies. The IMF, for example.
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B. Emergency aid to foreign governments for reasons of state. (Ordinarily, our foreign aid program would be in the form of direct service provision, equipment, and credits to buy equipment).
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C. Revenue sharing grants (unrestricted in their use) of an amount determined by formulae. Federal to state and territorial government, state government to counties and school districts. Counties to municipalities.
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D. Payment of property taxes on government real estate (provided the tax assessment system follows best practices). Such payments would be limited to local governments and the territories. Local governments would net out their obligations to each other. Such payments would be general revenue for the local government in question to be used for any activity within the scope of their enabling legislation.
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E. Payments to various sorts of service providers (not money launderers) for disaster relief.
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Ideally, benefits to individual households would be in the form of cash, vouchers, insurance plans, and directly performed services. Sectoral subsidies would be limited to medical care, long-term care, schooling, legal services, and shipping-and-transportation. Of course, if such programs are not properly audited, there is still an excess of opportunities for fraud on the part of households and service providers alike.
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Local philanthropies, if they’re not providing medical care, l/t care, schooling or legal services should not have a pipeline to the public treasury except when a tornado blows through town. State and local government should in ordinary circumstances be receiving predictable sums determined by formulae and not utile for building patron-client relationships between state and federal legislators and local pols.
Other unsolicited suggestions:
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A. The flow of funds in a business corporation should be in the form of (1) compensation paid to employees, (2) compensation paid to suppliers, (3) interest paid to lenders, (4) dividends paid to shareholders. Donations paid to outside agencies would be deemed embezzlement. It would be permissible to place public service advertisements, but the budget to do so would have to be approved at the annual shareholders meeting. One might also consider debarring payroll deductions for philanthropic donations or union dues.
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B. Posit the law defines about 15 different types of philanthropic agencies. By default, such an agency would be a service provider. A subset would be authorized by law to make in cash and in kind contributions to individual households. Another subset would be authorized by law to make contributions to other agencies. Permissible flows would be from political parties to campaign committees, from contribution bundlers to campaign committees, and from foundations to various sorts of service provider outside of political parties, contribution bundlers, campaign committees, and advocacy groups. Foundations would be debarred from any activity other than grant distribution and would be compelled to liquidate under court supervision at some point within 60 years of their founding. Liquidation would entail returning contributions to donors and / or distributing funds to actual service providers.
Knucklehead Tampon Tim as VP of these United States? WOW. That was too close for comfort 13 months ago.
https://youtu.be/sk44LOcyPmo?si=-yzXvze0e9zJEpoU
The only predictions I feel comfortable making for 2026 are that from this story:
… In late September – October
…. It sure is a shame that DOGE (something that a good many of us voted for) was disbanded.
This looks like what we are seeing is organizations acting like the political machines and bosses of old. Modern versions of Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed.
Prior to 1930, the ratio of public expenditure to domestic product was about 0.1. L/t public sector borrowing was undertaken for public works projects and for general mobilizations. Our most recent general mobilizations were in 1950-54, 1940-46, 1917-20, and 1861-65. The machine bosses had a much smaller kitty of tax money to slosh around. (Though they could and did shake down businessmen to fill party coffers).