I’m just the cook

Hail to the HNP Task Force. Nice shot.

Debank illegals and debank those who employ them. The problem will be solved quickly and with significantly less drama.

Off Leash update 6 November 2026 SOUTH AFRICA •The center-right Democratic Alliance’s longtime leader, Helen Zille, was elected mayor of South Africa’s largest city – Johannesburg – with more than double the votes her African National Congress rival won. •Some extreme factions disagreed with voters and griped that Zille is a “racist” – essentially because she’s white. But she’s proven her mettle as an ambitious, race-blind reformer. •As a journalist during apartheid, she criticized the system while others were silent. She revived Cape Town’s municipal services during her tenure as mayor from 2006-9. While campaigning for the mayorship of Johannesburg, the 75-year-old snorkeled in a flooded pothole to shine a spotlight on local government failings. PARAGUAY •Paraguay’s President, Santiago Peña, resigned after a rapid downfall triggered by the collapse of Ueno, a digital bank Peña once backed and continued to support. •Ueno’s collapse is rippling through Paraguay’s economy. Over 60% of Paraguayan adults were customers. So were the country’s pension and health funds, as well as some of its biggest infrastricture operators. And – unfortunately – so were several companies tied to the bank’s owners that were extended risky loans larger than their creditworthiness deserved. •A state guarantee fund will make 97% of private depositors whole, but that will put a big dent in the national budget. Paraguay’s currency, the guarani, sank 7% against the U.S. dollar this week, in a reflection of the fiscal strain expected ahead. INDONESIA •Indonesia’s Pres. Prabowo Subianto mobilized thousands of troops in response to what increasingly seems to be a rivalry between Subianto and his predecessor, Joko Widodo (Jokowi). •Prabowo is accusing some of his Jokowi-appointed senior staff – including the former national police chief – of wiretapping his phones. Prabowo and Jokowi have long rivaled each other for power behind closed doors, but this open bickering is unusual. HYBRID WAR •Another round of fake bomb threats disrupted at least 21 European flights yesterday. As the BBC put it: “They all turned out to be false, which does not, of course, mean that the next ones will not be real.” •It’s still unclear who’s behind these airline bomb hoaxes. Some analysts think it may be Russia “stress-testing” the boundaries of Europe’s ability and willingness to coordinate a response if Moscow were to expand its Ukraine war to EU countries. •Regardless of the motive, the fake threats are costing airlines and governments – which is probably exactly the goal, if it indeed is hybrid warfare. •Each hoax costs as little as a phone call or an SMS, but each disrupted flight costs commercial airlines up to $250,000 – which non-state-owned carriers can scarcely afford under their business model of investing heavily in pricy planes upfront and scraping off razor-thin margins to recoup that cost over time. If this continues, I’ll worry about much higher fees for “upgrades” like avoiding a middle seat. MARKETS •Global stock markets slumped yesterday on news of Democrats’ thumping victory in U.S. midterm elections the day before. Investors fear that Democrats will use their new mandate to introduce growth-constraining guardrails on the tech sector in the interest of AI safety.