"The Strategist — The Australian Strategic Policy Institute Blog. Copyright © 2026"

Blog posts are not allowed.

Video stubs are not allowed.

God forbid I have a life doing other things. I'll look at it tonight.

I'm not always around, when they get reported, they get removed.

We require news articles, not donation sites.

Donation sites are not allowed, only news articles.

Bonus: Not US politics.

Blogs, including Substack, are not allowed.

Blogs, including substack, are not allowed.

"An attorney for PJ’s Construction said the developers didn’t want to hire surveyors."

Well there's your problem.

The answer here should be simple... the developers pay for demolition, removal of the house, and restore the property back to the condition where they found it.

I'm comfortable not owning Ubisoft games. ;)

I mean, he's not wrong...

Oh, I can help remotely... I just need you to open Windows App.

Which app?

Windows App.

I get that, I'm running Windows, but which app?

Windows App.

Look, are you being smart? I'm in Windows, say I click on the Start button, which app do I click on?

Windows App.

Allright you, let's say the app is already running...

Sure.

And I press CTRL-ALT-DEL and open Task Manager.

OK.

WHAT'S THE NAME OF THE APP I WOULD SEE IN TASK MANAGER??!???

Windows App.

I'M ASKING YOU, 'WHAT'S THE NAME OF THE APP'???!??!??

I'm telling you, 'Windows App.'

Jack Kimble is a parody account.

https://x.com/JakeSherman/status/1841151195198435344

California doesn't have a 54th district:

https://www.jackkimble.com/home

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%27s_congressional_districts

This is super personal to me because it almost killed me. I've told this story on reddit, but it bears repeating:

tl;dr lost my doctors due to an insurance change 4 weeks in to a 6 week open heart surgery recovery...

In 2018, my company was in the process of being sold. No big deal, above my paygrade, nothing for me to worry about.

Then I got sick right after Thanksgiving. Really bad heartburn that lasted 5 days. It wasn't heartburn. I had a heart attack. 12/3 I had open heart surgery, single bypass, and that started a 6 week recovery clock.

On 1/1, the sale of my company closed and we officially had new owners. I also officially lost all of my doctors because the new employers don't do Kaiser in Oregon. They do it in WA and CA, but each state has to be negotiated and they never had presence here.

1/2 I start working with Aetna to find doctors, hospitals, etc. Beyond the cardiologist I need a new pharmacist, podiatrist, diabetes care and a general "doctor" doctor.

Fortunately, my new employer is a big enough fish, they have their own concierge at Aetna and she gets me into the Legacy system.

On 1/3 I start developing complications, but I don't know it at the time. It starts with a cough. All the time. Then, when I try to lay down, like to sleep, I'm drowning, literally choking and gagging.

The concierge and I try to get an appointment, we're told 2-3 months. For a dude still recovering from open heart surgery? Best they could do is 2 weeks. 1/14.

I can't lay down to sleep so I buy a travel neck pillow and sleep sitting up.

I get to see the new doctor at the "official" end of the 6 week recovery. He doesn't know me or my history so he wants to run tests.

I'm sitting at home playing video games and waiting on test results when the call comes... Congestive heart failure. Report to the ER immediately.

My heart developed an irregular heart beat, which caused fluid build up in my chest. They admitted me and were getting ready to pull fluid off me.

"What happened to your foot?"

"I dunno, what happened to my foot? I can't feel my feet."

Remember when I said I was sitting around playing video games, waiting for test results? Yeah, my foot was touching a radiator and I didn't know it. 3rd degree burns, first four toes. Pinkie was spared.

So I'm in the hospital a week. I lose 4 liters of water per day. 50 lbs. of water. No wonder I was drowning. Regular bandage changes.

So now I'm facing two procedures. Electrocardio version to fix my heart, skin grafts to fix my toes.

This whole time the new insurance covers 80% until I reach the out of pocket maximum of $6,500. Then it will cover 100%.

The old insurance? ER visit for heart attack, hospital admission, 8 days in the hospital, open heart bypass... $250.

So we hit the out of pocket maximum almost immediately. My wife had a problem with her foot running through the Seattle airport. The doctor who did her toe amputation was decided to be out of network so that was another $1,100.

I was never unemployed through all this. I had enough vacation and sick time banked to cover it. Cobra didn't apply. Buying my old insurance wasn't an option, it was far too expensive without employer backing. Income is too high for assistance (thank god) and I took steps to max out my HSA account, which is good because we drained it twice.

Three 1 week hospital stays (2 for me, 1 for my wife), multiple ER visits, two more major medical procedures... That would be enough to break most people even with good insurance.

So if you read any of that, let me ask you something... Why does the quality of my health care and my quality of life have to depend on who I work for and what insurance companies they choose to work with?

"if Democrats win control of the House and keep the Senate and White House."

You should have done that years ago when you had the opportunity and everyone was telling you, begging you, to do it.

Now it's too late.

The irony:

This is, surprisingly, not that unusual for vehicles in high demand. It's to prevent flipping.

GM does it on certain vehicles as well:

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2023/08/gm-restrains-customers-from-flipping-cars-but-not-dealers-from-charging-ridiculous-markups/

(the C8 Corvette Z06, GMC Hummer EV, and Cadillac Escalade-V if you want to know without clicking the link.)

That's literally not the definition.

https://wagetheftisacrime.com/

Don't dilute the definition of the crime with nonsense.

Boss asks everyone to come in unpaid for a mandatory meeting? That's wage theft.

They lock you in the store when you're off the clock to "clean up the store"? That's wage theft.

Stolen tips, no overtime pay for overtime work, altering timecard punches? All wage theft.

Making too much profit and not passing it to employees may be highly unethical, but it's not legally wage theft.

Also why you don't re-use needles:

Bonus:

https://www.newsx.com/world/health-violations-at-mcdonalds-location-that-hosted-trump-what-happened/

"Notably, Trump did not wear a hairnet or gloves while serving food, claiming that “my hands are clean already.” This assertion stands in stark contrast to health standards that require food handlers to maintain strict hygiene protocols.

In fact, the McDonald’s location Trump visited has a recent history of health code violations, having failed its last health inspection from Bucks County. The report cited multiple infractions related to employee hygiene, particularly the lack of proper handwashing practices, which are essential for minimizing the risk of foodborne illness."