The moment those glasses came off… pic.twitter.com/J85tS4yz0k

— non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) January 2, 2025

Incredibly well said
pic.twitter.com/wQloRXMuUP

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2024

BREAKING NEWS:

Former part-time McDonald's fry cook donates his next 4 years salary ($1.8 million) to support Homeless veterans.

He starts his new job in January. pic.twitter.com/8wNVo5TQxx

— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) December 17, 2024

HT: Karen L. Myers.

Javier Milei campaigned promising to “take a chainsaw to government regulations” in Argentina.

Kate Andrews, in the London Spectator, profiles Argentine President Javier Milei as he celebrates the completion of a triumphant first year in office,

‘I never wind down,’ says Argentina’s President Javier Milei when we meet in his Presidential Office at the Casa Rosada. ‘I work all day, practically… I get up at 6 a.m., I take a shower and at 7 a.m. I am already at my desk working. And I work all the way until 11 p.m. I enjoy my job. I enjoy cutting public spending. I love the chainsaw.’

It was a photo of Milei with a chainsaw – who was then the insurgent candidate – that propelled him to international fame last year. He waved it on the campaign trail as a symbol of what he would do to government regulations and bureaucracy if elected to the presidency. He had previously gone viral in a video showing him shouting ‘Afuera!’ (‘Out!’) while ripping names of government departments off a whiteboard.

‘That level of joy is too much for me. Removing 44 regulations within a single day is sheer bliss’

These stunts drew attention to his election promise: to wage war on socialism and bring free markets to Argentina. He started at 16 per cent in the polls, but his pledges to curb inflation, abolish price controls, shrink the state and get the country back on a strong fiscal footing won over the majority of Argentinians, who were ready for change. …

This month marks one year since Milei took office, elected with a mandate to overhaul 100 years of socialist rule – and he’s eager to trumpet the results.

‘Let me tell you a fun story. I was in a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi,’ he tells me through his official interpreter. In the meeting at the G20 in Brazil last month, Milei sang the praises of his deregulation minister Federico Sturzenegger, who was also in attendance. Milei told Modi that the minister had cut four regulations in Argentina that very day.

‘Minister Sturzenegger didn’t correct me, because if I had known the actual figure, I would probably have started to celebrate on top of the table. Because he hadn’t removed four regulations, but 44 of them.’

A proud, grateful look spreads across the President’s face. ‘I can assure you that if he had corrected me on the spot, I would have got up and given him a big hug, because that kind of level of joy is too much for me. Removing 44 regulations within a single day is sheer bliss.’

Slashing bureaucracy is his idea of a good time. ‘I derive pleasure from removing the state,’ he says. ‘I feel, that way, we become more free, that I am giving freedom back to the people.’

——————————

How’s Milei doing?

Townhall: Argentina’s Javier Milei Ends Deficit for the First Time In 123 Years

MILEI: ARGENTINA ENDS DEFICIT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 123 YEARS

"The deficit was the root of all our evils—without it, there’s no debt, no emission, no inflation.

Today, we have a sustained fiscal surplus, free of default, for the first time in 123 years.

This historic… https://t.co/uszEgPd493 pic.twitter.com/nt5jJGQM1V

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 11, 2024

——————————

Breitbart: Argentina’s Javier Milei Announces 90% Tax Reduction in 2025

President of Argentina Javier Milei announced Wednesday that his administration is preparing a structural tax reform that will eliminate 90 percent of existing taxes in 2025.

Milei announced the plan, alongside other policies he seeks to implement in his second year in office, while marking the end of his first. Among them was a plan to negotiate a trade deal with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration once he takes office in January.

Tuesday marked one year since Milei took office on December 10, 2023, and became Argentina’s first libertarian president, succeeding socialist former President Alberto Fernández. At the time he took office, Argentina faced a severe economic crisis that dramatically worsened as a result of Fernández’s disastrous socialist policies. Milei implemented a series of drastic “shock therapy” measures to avert the collapse of the country’s economy and avoid a hyperinflation spiral.

Milei’s policies successfully reduced the inflation rate in Argentina, dropping it from 25.5 percent in December 2023 to 2.7 percent in October 2024 while also allowing the nation to experience ten months of continued trade surplus as of November.

Additionally, Milei spearheaded a dramatic overhaul of the Argentine government during his first year, reducing the number of ministries from 18 to nine on his first day and outright replacing other institutions — such as Argentina’s bloated AFIP revenue service, which was dissolved and substituted with a much smaller agency in November. The Argentine president also introduced a series of sweeping reforms that Congress passed in late June.

Milei marked his first year in office by delivering a speech in the evening hours of Tuesday in the company of his ministers and members of his administration. He reviewed the results of his policies and announced a series of upcoming measures.

Donald Trump should do so well!

If I were younger, I’d be brushing up my Spanish and packing to move to Argentina.

(missing one line, I think, in original posting)

HT: Winston Wolfe.

NY Post story confirms,

Timofei Shadura

Yahoo:

A Ukrainian soldier who was filmed by Russian troops being executed by firing squad had been missing since early February, Ukrainian authorities revealed Tuesday.

Timofei Shadura was seen in a video circulated by Russian propagandists earlier this week. Upon being told he was being filmed, Shadura appeared ready to meet his fate—he stood and faced his executioners, and, taking one last drag from a cigarette, said, “Glory to Ukraine!”

His killers, who were all out of view of the camera, immediately opened fire with machine guns, before the unknown cameraman bitterly said, “Die, bitch.”

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday said Shadura had been among troops fending off a Russian takeover of Bakhmut. He was declared missing on Feb. 3 after intense fighting in the area.

“Revenge will be inescapable,” the commander of Ukraine’s 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade said.

RTWT

Southeastern University softball players Leah Gonzalez and Chapel Cunningham carried injured Grandview University’s Kaitlyn Moses around the bases, allowing her to score a Grandslam Home Run and win the game for Grandview.

Last Saturday in Florida, the kind of sportsmanship you saw a century ago was demonstrated to survive today. Fox News reports:

Grand View University and Southeastern University were playing each other in an NAIA matchup when Grand View’s Kaitlyn Moses hit a go-ahead grand slam against their No. 4-ranked opponent. As Moses was rounding the bases, she appeared to be injured after jogging around first base.

Her teammates were left stunned by what happened to Moses.

NAIA rules state that her teammates are not allowed to help her move around the bases. Southeastern players would take the initiative to carry Moses around the rest of the diamond and have her touch third base and home plate to get the runs.

Grand View went up 5-4 at that point and would win the game 7-4 to pull off the upset. The team would complete the doubleheader sweep with a 6-3 victory. Moses would be replaced in the second game of the doubleheader.

“GVU wins game 1, 7 to 4. This game was not about the win but about the amazing sportsmanship shown by SEU softball players,” Grand View softball wrote in a tweet. “After a grand slam by Moses and injury, SEU players carried her to touch each base to allow her run to count.”

Via Quora:

What is an example of courage that surprises people to this day?

It has been [almost 7] years since the death of Francisco Erasmo Rodrigues de Lima, father of 4 children, bricklayer, alcoholic, divorced and homeless, was killed on the steps of the Sé Cathedral, São Paulo, Brazil.

A lady who was praying in the church ended up being taken hostage by an escaped criminal.

Francisco did not hesitate, he knew what he had to do, lit his last cigarette and held it firmly to his lips, threw himself at the bandit, freed the woman and was shot dead by the criminal.

While Francisco gave his life in defense of that woman, a crowd watched and filmed, but only Francisco, a homeless person, excluded by society, seen as a bandit, was able to give his life for a complete stranger.

May this man always be remembered for his act of bravery and heroism.

More details and photos.

A guest at a Utah reptile center jumped into a large alligator enclosure to rescue a female handler.

Count Dracula was 412 when he moved to England in search of new blood.

Sauron was 54,000 years old when he forged The One Ring.

Cthulhu had seen galaxies flare into life and fade to darkness before he put madness in the minds of men.

It's never too late to follow your dreams!

— Angry Robot (@angryrobotbooks) April 17, 2021

HT: Glenn Reynolds.

H.D. Miller has a hell of an anecdote from the old-time Real America:

If you want a single dramatic example of how much America has changed in the last century or so, stop talking about trips to the moon and super computers and start talking about this: in 1910, two brothers, Temple and Louis Abernathy, saddled up a pair of ponies and rode alone from their home in Frederick, Oklahoma, to New York City, almost 2000 miles away, to see Teddy Roosevelt give a speech. At the time, Louis, called “Bud”, was 10 years old, Temp was 6.

Louis rode his father’s horse, Sam Bass, and Temple rode a pony named Geronimo. Temple was so small that he had to climb on a stump to mount, and often slid down the pony’s leg rather than drop to the ground. They rode without maps, watching the sun and asking directions as they went. Behind their saddles they carried bedrolls and bacon, and oats for their horses, and they paid food and hotel bills by check. They wore broad-brimmed hats, long pants and spurs, and stayed in touch with their father through telegrams and occasional phone calls.

[…]

Difficulties did occur. The boys faced a blizzard. Geronimo foundered and had to be replaced with a horse that was named Wylie Haines after an Oklahoma deputy. Temple came down with a fever, and he was once almost swept away crossing a river.

After two months on the road, alone, they arrived safely in Washington, D.C., where they were greeted by the Speaker of the House and met President Taft, whom they felt a fine man, but inferior to their hero Teddy Roosevelt. Two weeks later, they were in New York City riding behind Teddy in a ticker-tape parade in Roosevelt’s honor. He had just returned from a grand hunting trip to Africa.

RTWT

HT: Ed Driscoll.