Frank Zenobia III

HEY COUNTY ASSESSOR — THIS ONE’S FOR YOU. Let’s call this what it is. I’m being taxed on money I never made. Think about that. I bought my property in 2012 for $60,000. Now the county claims it’s worth $306,000. Did I sell it? No. Did I realize a profit? No. Did I receive a $306,000 check? Not even close. But my tax bill? That went up like I did. That’s the problem. This isn’t income. This isn’t cash. This is a number someone wrote down on paper — and now I’m expected to pay real money because of it. If my stock portfolio doubles, I don’t owe taxes until I sell. If my paycheck doesn’t increase, I don’t suddenly owe more income tax. So why is housing treated differently? Why am I being taxed on unrealized gains? A home isn’t just an asset on a spreadsheet — it’s where people live. And under this system, you can do everything “right,” pay off your house, and still get squeezed harder every year based on a theoretical value you never turned into cash. That’s not ownership. That’s renting from the government with extra steps. And spare me the talking points about “services” and “inflation.” This is about being billed for value you never received. People are waking up to it.

Have you seen any member of the media ask Senate Majority Leader Thune why he doesn't allow President Trump to make recess appointments? @LeaderJohnThune

For a family of 6 (or even 4, depending on area), Obamacare costs more than a mortgage, and you never see that money again.

The oldest story in the book… @amazon

Scam texts and calls are totally out of control. And they’re getting very sophisticated. You might still be able to identify the scams right away but it’s not so easy for your grandma. It’s going to get so much worse with AI. Now’s the time for an extreme crackdown. Scammers should get the death penalty. We should be doing drone strikes on the scammer compounds in Asia and Africa. Treat it like a national security issue, because it obviously is.

@ChefReactions A true English tea would crush in the US. Also loved popping into a nice hotel bar for afternoon “nibbles.” Literally the best way to spend a cool, rainy afternoon!

Poor Americans who attend church regularly are happier than rich Americans who never go. Behavioral scientist William von Hippel thought he'd made a coding error. He hadn't. "Regularly attending services has a bigger impact on your happiness than wealth," he writes. "Money buys a fair bit of happiness but connection gives you more bang for the buck." What's happening? Rich people already have most of what money buys. What they lack is what churches provide for free: weekly, repeated contact with people who know your name. Von Hippel is direct about the cost: "I suspect that wealthy, educated urbanites are paying a steeper price for their lifestyle than they realize. Many of us have paid too great a price in connection for our increased autonomy."

@Rothmus Everything Hollywood produces is conditioning for what’s to come.

Hollywood seems designed to desensitize and condition us for what’s coming.

@midwestern_ope Tavern style! (Detroit #2)

The Midwest is known for two distinct styles of pizza. Which one is better? Detroit Chicago

Today’s the 40th anniversary of Chernobyl. I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve been there. It’s 14.

Warren Buffett, in his first sit-down since stepping down as Berkshire CEO, gave the cleanest indictment of legalized gambling in a decade. He called it a tax cut for the wealthy. The math proves him exactly right. Americans wagered $165 billion at legal sportsbooks in 2025. They lost $16 billion of that. FanDuel pulled $6 billion of the losses. DraftKings pulled $5.3 billion. Every state with legal mobile sports betting collected a tax on the bettor side. New York alone took in over $1.2 billion in 2025 sports betting tax revenue. Layer the lottery on top. State lotteries generate over $90 billion a year. The bottom half of income earners account for roughly 70% of total spend. The average lottery player makes $38,000. A household earning $20,000 spends three times more on tickets than one earning $30,000. The implicit tax rate, meaning whatever the state keeps after prizes, runs 30 to 50% depending on the game. No other revenue source in America has that base and that rate. The structural design is the engine. A single straight sports bet carries a hold of 4 to 5%. A four-leg parlay carries a hold above 30%. FanDuel and DraftKings spent five years rebuilding their apps to make parlays the default product. FanDuel's blended hold rate hit 11.4% in 2025, up from roughly 7% in 2022. The product got worse for the customer and the customer wagered more anyway. Now look at the substitution. Nine US states have no state income tax. Seven of those nine run state lotteries. Seven of those nine have legalized sports betting. The states most committed to never taxing wealth are the same states running the largest extraction machines on people who cannot afford to lose. Read it as policy. Here is what Buffett is actually pointing at. The state needs revenue. It can raise income tax on the top decile, or it can run a lottery plus a sports betting tax. The second option raises the money from the people who can least afford it. The first option becomes politically optional. New York's $1.2 billion in 2025 sports betting tax is $1.2 billion the state did not have to ask of someone earning $5 million. DraftKings and FanDuel sell a privatized collection mechanism for a regressive tax that the state never has to defend at the ballot box again. Voters approve legalization once. Collection runs forever. The state takes a cut. The wealthy get a quieter top bracket. The bettor's cut shrinks every quarter as the parlay menu gets pushed harder. The function of a government, Buffett said, is not to play its people for suckers. Thirty-nine state governments now do.

Having “Oz the Mentalist” on stage with Trump and not saying anything beforehand might be the biggest fraud exposure of 2026

@SenRickScott @SenateGOP Abolish blue slips and put the Senate into full recess.

Other than the Iran war, everything people blame Trump for is the result of judges blocking prosecutions or making up new rules for their side, and obstruction from the Senate. I'd still take Trump + the Iran war (which I don't agree with) over Kamala Harris. Not a close call.

Turns out passing a simple law that says if you want to vote in the USA, you must be a citizen of the USA - is too difficult for our Senators. But on the positive side - most of them are excellent stock pickers.

Congress watching soldiers get arrested for insider trading

BEAR SIGHTING: That black blob in the tree? That's a black bear! The bear is hanging out in some trees here in Muskegon. Don't worry: the DNR says to let the bear do its thing as it wanders through West Michigan. @wzzm13

The NFL must be accessible to all Americans. Congress gave the NFL an exemption from federal antitrust laws: the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. That law lets the NFL pool its media rights and sell them as one package. A legally sanctioned cartel. They want paid streaming, for everything. Over a thousand dollars for you to watch football. That is not the deal. Thanks for having me, @seanhannity.

@Cernovich @EmmaJoNYC Sadly, you get the government you deserve.

Republicans in Virginia got mad at Trump and sat out one election. Now they are going to lose everything.