Shut Up and Take My Money!

I just came across a fascinating new book, Lessons from Cats for Surviving Fascism, available from Hachette and other book sellers.

Stewart "Brittlestar" Reynolds is a Canadian humorist.

I do really want to read this book. 

oshit

The Ukrainian drone attack on Putin's residence was never likely to change the situation in the Russo-Ukraine war, but now it appears that it could have, and could still make things far worse, because it was also arguably an attack on Russian nuclear command and control infrastructure, which is defined under Russian law as justifying a nuclear response.

Thankfully, nothing nuclear has happened ……… Yet.

A drone attack carried out against one of Putin’s residences was also an attack against a Russian nuclear command and control center located at the residence, according to the ex-adviser to the office of the President of Ukraine, Alexey Arestovich, and a military expert interviewed by Sputnik news and Tass.

This is yet another drone attack that attempted to kill the Russian President; the first occurred when Putin was traveling to Kursk in his helicopter and was attacked by a drone swarm. This second drone attack against Putin’s residence was also an attack against a component of the nuclear triad (the nuclear control center in the residence), which under Russian law and military code, justifies a nuclear response.

Do I think that this attack will lead to a nuclear response?  No, for whatever my opinion is worth.

Do I think that further attacks increase risk?  Yes.

(update) 

Scott Ritter has a similar analysis up.

Mayor Mamdani, Sounds Good

At his inauguration, he sets the right tone, promising higher taxes on multi-millionaires and stating that they are the reason that the city is too expensive for ordinary people.

As I have stated before, Mamdani's first step shjould be to go after moles who will act against him in the party establishment and city bureaucracy, who will continually try to subvert him and his agenda.

This doesn't mean firing necessarily, a public close watch will do.

Still this is a good day for New York City. 

Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, is pressing ahead with plans for higher taxes on millionaires, brushing off warnings they will trigger an exodus of the wealthy from America’s financial capital.

Dean Fuleihan, incoming deputy mayor, acknowledged “new revenues” would be required to balance New York’s budget and deliver on Mamdani’s expensive election promises. But he dismissed fears that rich people would turn their backs on the city in protest at a potentially higher tax burden.

“The people who are leaving are those who can’t afford New York, not the millionaire class,” Fuleihan told the Financial Times. Most people understood that addressing its affordability crisis was “necessary for the business and the success of New York”, he added.

Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, was sworn in as New York’s first Muslim mayor at a closed-door ceremony in a disused subway station just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, marking the climax of a stunning rise to power that has dumbfounded America’s political establishment.

………

He has pledged to raise the city’s personal income tax rate on annual earnings greater than $1mn by 2 percentage points to about 5.9 per cent and increase the top corporate tax from 7.25 per cent to 11.5 per cent — matching the rate in neighbouring New Jersey.

The extra revenues would pay for an ambitious social programme that includes free universal child care — expected to cost $6bn a year — as well as free buses, state-owned grocery stores and the construction of 200,000 affordable housing units over the next 10 years.

However, any revenue-raising proposals will encounter resistance in the New York assembly in Albany. Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who is up for re-election this year, has said she is opposed to raising personal income taxes.

Hochul is, as always, full of crap.

Her concerns about winning conservative suburban voters is bullshit.

These are tax increases on people who live in the city.  Suburban voters do not care about this shit.