June 25, 2026

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: California sets high income taxes for World Cup players.

“Usually jock taxes only really impact domestic American players who are all playing in the same league and are all playing against each other, and in that context, they do nothing,” Wilford told The Center Square.

Take professional football. When the Los Angeles Rams travel to Philadelphia to play the Eagles, the Rams’ players and staff will be expected to pay income tax to Pennsylvania, proportionate to the amount of their salary they earn while in the state. The very next week when the Buffalo Bills travel to Los Angeles to play, the Bills’ players and staff will be expected to do the same for the state of California.

According to Wilford, over the course of the NFL season, everything tends to even out in terms of state revenues.

“States all do this to each other. It’s a circular firing squad where they’re all taxing each other’s athletes, and then they all have to give tax credits to their own resident athletes for the taxes they had to pay to other states,” Wilford said. “States pretty much end up with the same amount of revenue that they would have had if no one did this.”

The addition of foreign, nonresident athletes coming to the United States for the World Cup adds entirely different complexities.

It isn’t that complex, really. Sacramento long ago adopted the GoodFellas approach to tax collection.

Posted at 11:43 am by Stephen Green

THE SOLUTION TO AI CHEATING: PEN AND PAPER. I would also support IBM Selectric III typewriters with that cool correction tape that sucks letters off the page. That’s peak tech right there.

Posted at 10:08 am by Robert Shibley

“HURRICANE-PROOF INTERNET”: Puerto Rico Taps Starlink For Emergency Network In All 78 Municipalities.

Starlink and the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Bureau (NET) came to an agreement to improve emergency connection throughout the island. All 78 municipalities’ Emergency Operations Centers (COE) and the Bureau of Emergency Management and Disaster Administration (NMEAD) are receiving Starlink satellite dishes as part of the program.

The announcement about this pact was made by Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer González Colón on her Instagram handle.

“Preparedness saves lives, and that is why we are announcing an agreement between the Telecommunications Bureau and Starlink to strengthen emergency communications in Puerto Rico,” González announced.

I don’t have to worry about hurricanes in Colorado, but my Starlink transceiver does a great job of pre-heating itself before any snow can accumulate even during the worst blizzards. However, the occasional wildcat hailstorm can collect ice on there in a hurry. I might — might — lose access for up to ten minutes, once or twice a year.

Posted at 9:39 am by Stephen Green

THE ENEMY WITHIN:

Posted at 9:18 am by Glenn Reynolds

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump Is Losing Patience With Useless Uniparty GOP Leadership. “Thune has been unable to deliver on the SAVE America Act, which is one of the rare pieces of legislation that is appropriately named. If it doesn’t pass, we can expect to see the election ‘anomalies’ from the Los Angeles mayor’s race become the norm in all elections nationwide. After that, the Republican squishes in Congress will never have to suffer the burden of leadership again.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Has Thune been unable? Or unwilling?

Posted at 9:08 am by Stephen Green

ALL WITHIN THE FAMILY, NOTHING OUTSIDE THE FAMILY, NOTHING AGAINST THE FAMILY: Is this teenage girl North Korea’s next dictator?

Every New Year, North Korea’s ruling elite gathers at Kumsusan Palace of the Sun to pay respects to the embalmed bodies of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the first two leaders of the secretive state. At the centre usually stands Kim Jong Un.

Such rituals, conducted with senior officials and other Kim family members, are highly choreographed and among the most important in the calendar of the world’s only hereditary communist state. This year, though, there was a slight variation: Kim’s daughter Kim Ju Ae was pictured at the very centre, between her father and mother Ri Sol Ju.

Her positioning at the heart of the family appeared to be the latest stage in a process of introducing her as a possible future heir to North Koreans and the world.

Kim Ju Ae, who is believed to be 13 or 14 years old, has appeared at intercontinental ballistic missile launches, ceremonial parades showcasing the navy and factory inspections. She has driven a tank and fired guns, and senior generals have been photographed kneeling to brief her.

I’m sure she’ll turn out fine.

Posted at 8:37 am by Stephen Green

THE STAR WARS CANTINA CALLED AND SAID YOU MIGHT TO DIAL THE FREAK SHOW BACK A NOTCH OR 20:

Related:

Posted at 8:22 am by Ed Driscoll

GREAT MOMENTS IN TOLERANCE FOR DIVERSITY:

As Mark Steyn wrote 20 years ago, “our tolerance of our own tolerance is making us intolerant of other people’s intolerance, which is intolerable. And, unlikely as it sounds, this has now become the highest, most rarefied form of multiculturalism. So you’re nice to gays and the Inuit? Big deal. Anyone can be tolerant of fellows like that, but tolerance of intolerance gives an even more intense frisson of pleasure to the multiculti masochists.”

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

GO FIGURE:

Posted at 7:39 am by Glenn Reynolds