HalkingTeds

Europe is a vassal. They lack the political will to nuke their welfare state which is a requisite step in building a military sufficient to keep their borders secure. If the U.S. leaves it knows China is the default inheritor of the vassal. Because China is our primary adversary we will not leave Europe intact economically on our way out. We will rip away its access to energy. We will nuke its access to dollar liquidity and throw its existing over-indebted financial system into a tailspin. We will block Europes export access to any country in our sphere. That includes Japan. And most importantly we will fragment Europe on the way out. We will rip it apart from the inside. Not because we hate Europeans. We don’t. Because Europe is a vassal. A resource of empire. And just because it forgot this due to our benevolence doesn’t mean China will view it as anything other than a resource to extract from. And you don’t leave the enemy resources. You blow it the fuck up and leave a pair of star-spangled boxers in the wreckage on the way out. 🫡

Iran Uses Asymmetric Warfare to Inflict Pain From a Weakened Position-WSJ

When Willa Staats and her brother inherited their family's East Austin home and adjacent lot, they expected a windfall. Instead, they were hit with a $48,000 property tax bill, nearly 90% higher than what their father had paid and more than half of Staats' salary. As a longtime homeowner, their father had benefited from a homestead exemption capping annual tax increases at 10%. But when the property passed to his heirs, the taxable value reset to market rate, right at the peak of Austin's pandemic-era boom.