September 8, 2025

FA, MEET FO: Joliet Mom With an Infant Puts and End to a Serial Criminal’s Career. “Don’t mess with a mama bear. That’s a lesson that one of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s early parolees learned the hard way in Joliet. Serial bad guy Shelby Hurd has had a long history of burglaries and other criminal activity. After an early release thanks to ‘good credits’ he went right back to his old ways. Fortunately for America, during his latest burglary, he brought a screwdriver to a gunfight with a mom who knew how to handle her pistola.”

Posted at 12:42 pm by Stephen Green 0

WEIGHING IN:

Related:

Posted at 12:39 pm by Glenn Reynolds

#WINNING:

Posted at 12:37 pm by Glenn Reynolds 2

HARRY METCALFE AND JEREMY CLARKSON: Is Jaguar’s rebrand clever or a disaster, and when was peak car? (Video.)

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 7

AXIOS GOES INTO FULL REPUBLICANS POUNCE MODE TO TUT-TUT ZARUTSKA MURDER: Stabbing video fuels MAGA’s crime message.

MAGA influencers are drawing repeated attention to violent attacks to elevate the issue of urban crime — and accuse mainstream media of under-covering shocking cases.

  • Shocking video of the fatal Aug. 22 knife attack on 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a light-rail car in Charlotte, North Carolina, dominated weekend conversation on Trump-friendly social media.

The big picture: The rising number of surveillance cameras in public spaces, including on Charlotte’s light rail, has become a big accelerant in these cases.

  • The video is easily shared or leaked, and can instantly pollinate across social media — a visual counterpoint to statistics showing crime decreases.

Driving the news: President Trump, asked about the Charlotte video by a reporter Sunday, said he wanted to find out more about the stabbing before commenting.

  • “I’ll know all about it by tomorrow morning,” Trump said.

  • A Trump adviser told Axios: “This is exactly what he’s talking about, and it’s going to be an issue he’s going to highlight. This is not just about North Carolina. Other campaigns will deal with this.”

As Glenn wrote on his Substack last night, “Since the number one rule for the legacy media is ‘thou shalt not support anything Trump does,’ naturally the Zarutska murder can’t be covered. And it won’t be, unless they can find — or manufacture — some alternative angle that will make Trump look bad. So far, they’ve come up a dry hole. So nothing.”

And that’s why Axios started off Monday by blaming the video of Zarutska’s murder, and Republicans’ response to it. It’s adjacent to their fellow leftists originally demanding omnipresent police body cams, and then being shocked that almost invariably, they show the police responding competently to violent crimes being committed:

As Matt Walsh notes, “It’s interesting that police shootings are the one kind of story where it’s less likely to be a national story if there is a video of it. What does that tell you?”

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll 102

DISPATCHES FROM AIRSTRIP ONE:

Posted at 10:52 am by Stephen Green 75

I’VE WAITED FOR THIS MOMENT SINCE I BOUGHT MY FIRST CONDO IN THE LAST CENTURY: A property tax revolt is spreading — with help from key conservatives.

For decades, property taxes have underwritten the basic functions of local government — schools, parks, roads, police and fire departments, trash collection. But as home values have surged, tax bills have ballooned in tandem, fueling what David Schleicher, a Yale professor of local government, described as a “property tax revolt” shaking cities and states alike.

“This is a really big trend that is below the radar because it doesn’t involve President Trump,” Schleicher said. “But it doesn’t need fireworks to announce itself. It’s already changing our relationship with government and how schools work and property markets.”

The frustration is cutting across partisan lines. Last year, voters in nine states approved referendums to cap or curb rising assessments, from tying bills to inflation in Georgia to New Mexico and Colorado expanding tax exemptions for veterans who own homes there. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Texas, Indiana, New Jersey, New York and elsewhere have approved tens of billions of dollars in property tax relief over the past 18 months.

To some, though, such measures fall short. Grassroots campaigns in Michigan and Ohio are now gathering signatures for ballot initiatives that would abolish property taxes altogether. In Texas, Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison has proposed a state constitutional amendment to end them there by 2031.

“Never-ending property taxes are unethical, immoral and incompatible with private property rights,” Harrison said, “and need to be thrown to the ash heap of history.”

Whose property is it, anyway?

Posted at 10:38 am by Stephen Green 265

THE ORCS ARE COMING FOR RFK JR: That tumultuous Senate Finance Committee hearing last week in which HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. was subjected to an unprecedented series of insults, misrepresentations, outright lies, and character assassination is just the opening of Sauron’s massive assault. The goal is to do whatever is necessary to either persuade President Donald Trump to fire Kennedy, or to render Kennedy so bloodied and distracted that he resigns.

Posted at 10:35 am by Mark Tapscott 84

ATTENTION INSTAPUNDIT FANS!!!:  On Monday, November 17, 2025, the one and only Glenn Reynolds will be at the University of San Diego School of Law to deliver a public lecture.  The title of Glenn’s lecture will be “Our Ruling Class Monoculture, the Judiciary’s Class War, and the Great Realignment.”  At 5:30 p.m., just prior to the lecture, there will be a reception for Glenn.  The lecture starts at 6:15 p.m.  The lecture and reception are free, but registration is required.

Glenn’s lecture is brought to you by a gift from the late Joan E. Bowes, a lovely lady whose generosity is much appreciated.

This will be fun.

Posted at 10:02 am by Gail Heriot 19

TEMU ECONOMICS: Postal traffic to U.S. sank 80% after Trump administration ended exemption on low-value parcels.

Eighty-eight postal operators have told the UPU that they have suspended some or all postal services to the United States until a solution is implemented with regard to U.S.-bound parcels valued at $800 or less, which had been the cutoff for imported goods to escape customs charges.

“The global network saw postal traffic to the U.S. come to a near-halt after the implementation of the new rules on Aug. 29, 2025, which for the first time placed the burden of customs duty collection and remittance on transportation carriers or U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency-approved qualified parties,” the UPU said in a statement.

The UPU said information exchanged between postal operators through its electronic network showed traffic from its 192 member countries — nearly all the world countries — had fallen 81 percent on Aug. 29, compared to a week earlier.

The Bern, Switzerland-based agency said the “major operational disruptions” have occurred because airlines and other carriers indicated they weren’t willing or able to collect such duties, and foreign postal operators had not established a link to CBP-qualified companies.

Last week I bought a sub-$100 watch strap online, not realizing it would ship from the UK. About 48 hours later I got a followup email with a link to pay an import duty of just under $5.

It didn’t seem like a big deal, but maybe it is for companies like Temu and Shein that specialize in virtually zero-margin items.

Posted at 9:36 am by Stephen Green 133

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Media Blackout Regarding Charlotte Murder Is Pure Evil. “There is a lot of darkness out there. I’ve been wrestling with what to say to kick this off; something deep and insightful. Really all I want to do is punch something. The nightmarish video from Charlotte, N.C. of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska being murdered by a psychopath who was roaming freely thanks to the Democrats’ violent felon fetish is sickening and infuriating.”

Posted at 9:05 am by Stephen Green 313

THEY’RE ONLY HERE DOING THE JOBS AMERICANS WOULD LOVE TO DO: 475 Illegal Aliens Busted At Hyundai Battery Plant. “Back in the dim mists of time, under one of the Bush Administrations, I remember reading a National Review or Weekly Standard piece on immigration enforcement that threw in the line ‘Obviously we’re not going to be raiding job sites anymore,’ and I remember doing a double-take. ‘Why not? They’re illegal aliens. Deport them and fine the company illegally hiring them, and then start arresting them if they do it again.’ This was my first inkling that there were Republicans who though that illegal aliens entering the country was no big deal as long as they could get consumer goods a few cents cheaper.”

Posted at 8:30 am by Stephen Green 88

HE’LL BE MISSED: Paul Caron: My Last TaxProf Blog Post. “I have been puzzling over when would be the right time to stop. Typepad, the platform on which TaxProf Blog is hosted, made the decision for me when it announced on August 27th that it will discontinue all blogs effective September 30th. At this stage in my life, I am not interested in starting anew on a different platform. I hope to find another home for the massive content of my 55,780 TaxProf Blog posts. If I do, I will post the link on this post before September 30th and notify the subscribers to my tax and legal education email lists.”

That stinks. But I imagine after 21 years — I’ve been doing this for over 24 — it’s something of a relief, too. Anyway, thanks, Paul, for the great contribution you’ve made for all these years. You’ve done a lot for a lot of people, and not just in the tax world.

Posted at 8:17 am by Glenn Reynolds 16