Romania has now begun construction of what will eventually be the NATO alliance's largest European military base, as the transatlantic bloc seeks to bolster its capabilities in the Black Sea region with an eye on Russian activity there. The $2.7 billion project will expand the Romanian Air Force 57th Air Base Mihail Koglniceanu, which is located close to the Black Sea port city of Constana. The new facility will have a perimeter of almost 20 miles, cover around 11 square miles, and will be home to some 10,000 NATO personnel and their families. read more
A Russian state media TV host pontificated about where the first nuclear strikes should targeted and pinpointed three countries -- France, Germany and the United States. read more
The music rights company BMG has dropped Roger Waters, Variety reports, confirming a claim that Waters himself made in an interview in November. Waters, whose equivocal stance on the Russia-Ukraine war provoked similar pushback in 2022, alleges that pressure from pro-Israel groups prompted the decision, though neither he nor BMG responded to requests for comment. BMG had been due to release Waters' rerecording of Dark Side of the Moon last year, Variety reports, but incoming CEO Thomas Coesfeld killed the deal and the album eventually went to Cooking Vinyl. Last year, Bertelsmann, the German company that owns BMG, expressed "solidarity with Israel" in a statement on the Hamas attacks of October 7. read more
The United States is planning to station nuclear weapons in the UK for the first time in 15 years as the threat from Russia increases, Pentagon documents seen by The Telegraph reveal. read more
There are some "facts" that Biden likes to recite in almost every speech. In the past year, in more than 30 appearances, the president has referred to billionaires paying about 8 percent in federal income taxes. He said it in his last State of the Union address, and odds are he will say it again when he addresses Congress in March. This brings us to Biden's statistic. In 2021, two White House economists - Greg Leiserson of the Council of Economic Advisers and Danny Yagan of the Office of Management and Budget - published a blog post that estimated what the tax rate would be for the 400 wealthiest households if unrealized capital gains were considered part of income - a modified version of Haig-Simons. The report estimated that these households had an average federal individual income tax rate of 8.2 percent for the 2010-2018 period. read more
"Too bad that all the support people needed can't go along..."
They can.
If Sedona wants Baristas and Yoga instructors, they'll need to pay them well enough to entice them in over some other job. Sedona is an area popular with outdoor enthusiasts who may only be working during the night so they can climb or bike during the day. In which case sleeping in a car isn't that strange. Lots of my friends and family did that in Oregon and California while in their late teens and early 20s.